[esenesesinas]

So did the Buddha teach and believe in rebirth then?

From the suttas I have read and practice from seems to me that Gotama Buddha did not taught rebirth but used rebirth ideas to stimulate moral restraint.

When we say that somebody teaches something, it is thorugh practice that the teaching is mastered.

When we practice thinking about rebirth, what we are really practicing is moral conduct, not rebirth.

What he taught is Dukkha, its origin and the way to quench it. Just that.

Gotama Buddha show the 'how' of the endless renewal of the idea of self -birth & birth again- through craving and clinging; 'being and getting' as the origin of mental torment. Then, after showing this, he taught how to overcome and end with that.

But this is not a statement, just a personal approach.