*

Not the power to remember, but its very opposite, the power to forget, is a necessary condition of our existence.  If the lore of the transmigration of souls is a true one, then these, between the exchange of bodies, must pass through the sea of forgetfulness.  According to Jewish view, we make the transition under the overlordship of the Angel of Forgetfulness.  But it sometimes happens that the Angel of Forgetfulness forgets to remove from our memories the records of the former world; and then our senses are haunted by fragmentarily recollections of another life.

-- Sholem Asch, The Nazarene, 1939