imparting of his knowledge to the ignorant, he shall be punished by transmigration into a woman.... Know thou that Sarah, Hannah, the Shunammite (2 Kings iv. 8), and the widow of Zarepta were each in turn possessed by the soul of Eve.... The soul of Rahab transmigrated into Heber the Kenite, and afterward into Hannah; and this is the mystery of her words, " I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit }) (1 Sam. i. 15), for there still lingered in her soul a sorrowful sense of inherited defilement....
Eli possessed the soul of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite.... Sometimes the souls of pious Jews pass by metempsychosis into Gentiles, in order that they may plead on behalf of Israel and treat them kindly. For this reason have our Rabbis of blessed memory said, " The pious of the nations of the world have a portion in the world to come.*