Our Gemara on Amud Beis mentions the concept of the Gilgul Shavuah, the additional Shavuah.  The Talmud learns from the description of the Sotah ritual whereby the repetition of amens in the ritual (Bamidbar 5:22, “ And she shall say , amen, amen.”) indicates that once she is swearing about her suspected activity post nisuin, other suspicions of adultery from eirusin can also be brought up that she also must swear about. This rule is applied to other judicial matters. Ordinarily, Biblical oaths are made for chattel (movable material and goods) but not imposed on claims having to do with real estate. Yet, if an oath is already being made about a claim on chattel, an additional oath can be imposed about a claim on real estate. (Kiddushin 26a).

There is also a mystical connotation in the idea of Gilgul Shavuah, especially in that it is derived from the Sotah ritual. The Shalah (Torah Shebikstav, Bamidbar, Nasso, Beha'alosecha, Torah Ohr, Nasso) explains:

The original sin of man occurred via jealousy and a form of sexual indiscretion. “The Serpent had relations with her and implanted his filth in her” (Yevamos 103b). This Midrash seems to say that Chavah committed adultery with the Serpent. (Commentaries understand this as a metaphor for a disruptive imposition of physical and sensual concerns on humans who were originally rooted in deeper spiritual sensibilities. See Rashbah Op. Cit. Yevamos, and Guide for the Perplexed I:2.) 

The Shalah focuses on the literal word, “Gilgul”, which means to roll, and then darshens it to refer to reincarnation and repetition of the placement of the soul.  In Hebrew, a root is repeated to imply a continuous process.  “Gal” is a mound, sea wave, or circle, so a “Gilgul” is something that rolls on and on.  (Similarly, the Hebrew Levazez, is to waste, as “baz” means to devalue, thus mevazvez is to continuously devalue.  Identically, we have the word “zol” cheap, and “lezalzel” to continuously degrade.) 

In the technical halacha, the additional oath is rolled on.  Prior to the sin of eating from the Tree of knowledge, there was no death in the world.  Since death did not exist, there was no need for reproduction or additional souls to be born.  Thus, the original adultery, that is the Sotah, caused a Gilgul process of additional souls being dragged into this world.  Also, according to our tradition, when a soul is cast down to the earth, it must make an oath to uphold the commandments (NIddah 30b).  Therefore, figuratively and literally, the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, which was adulterous, led to forcing more oaths and gilgulim.  

This is also alluded to in the verse (Bamidbar 20:15) regarding the Mincha sacrifice of the Sotah:

מִנְחַ֥ת זִכָּר֖וֹן מַזְכֶּ֥רֶת עָוֺֽן

a meal offering of remembrance which recalls wrongdoing.

The remembrance of wrongdoing refers to the original wrongdoing of the sin of the Tree of Knowledge.

So the Sotah ritual teaches the idea of additional oath that can be imposed on a legal level. However, behind the scenes, the root ability within the law to impose an additional oath comes from a deeper guilt and a need to correct imperfections from the past.

Patterns within the Torah and spirituality are often found mirrored within archetypes of human behavior. For example, the Mitzvah of sending the mother bird away, is also a theurgical act of arousing the Shekhina’s maternal mercy via the mother bird’s cries (see for example Masseh Rokeach, Mishna Chulin 23, Tikkune Zohar 12b, and Zohar II:8a). Thus the idea that an original misdeed becomes reawakened after another is also reflected in human emotional behavior. In a troubled relationship with many past traumas and injuries, a relatively small mistake can trigger a reaction that is not based on the present. The “perpetrator” might feel unjustly attacked and consider the other person to be “overly sensitive” or “dysregulated”, which is used by some as polite psychological jargon for calling a person “nuts and irrational”. However, it is wiser to respect this pattern in human behavior, which reflecting a deeper mystical truth, is given credence by the Torah.

 

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation cool

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