Souls

The Soul of Adam HaRishon

VaEra [And I Appeared]

32) “And I appeared unto Abraham.” “Happy is the man for whom the Lord does not count iniquity.” How dense are people for not knowing and not observing why they are in the world. After all, when the Creator created the world, He made man in His image and established him with His corrections, to engage in Torah and to walk in His ways.

33) When Adam ha Rishon was created, he was established out of the dust of the Temple below, Malchut, which is called “dust,” but Malchut that is mitigated in Bina, called “the dust of the Temple below.” And the four directions of the world, HGTM, connected in that place, called “The Temple,” in Malchut that was mitigated in Bina. And those four directions of the world conjoined in four sides, the foundations of the world—fire, wind, water, and dust—the internality of HGTM. The four directions of the world conjoined in the four foundations of the world and the Creator established out of them a single body in the upper correction, which is Bina, in which the Malchut was mitigated in Bina. It turns out that that body was made of two worlds from this bottom world, Malchut, and from the upper world, Bina. This is the meaning of the two points that were joined together.

Past, Present and Future—At Once

Aharei Mot [After the Death]

94) “That which is has been already, and that which will be...” “That which is has been already...” Before the Creator created this world, He created worlds and destroyed them. This is the breaking of the vessels. Finally, the Creator desired to create this world, and consulted with the Torah, the middle line. Then He was corrected in His corrections, decorated in His decorations, and created this world. And then, everything that exists in this world was before Him at the time of creation, and was established before Him.

95) All the leaders of the world in every generation stand before the Creator in their forms, before they come into the world. Even all the souls of people, before they come to the world, are engraved before Him in the heaven, in the very same form they have in this world. And all that they learn in this world, they know before they come into the world. And we learned that all this is in those who are true righteous.

96) And all those who are not righteous in this world are removed from the Creator even there, above, before they come to the world. They enter the hole of the great abyss and rush to descend to the world. And their soul is as obstinate in this world as it was before it came into the world.

Also, they throw that holy part that the Creator gave them from the side of holiness and wander and roam. They are defiled in that hole of the great abyss and take their share from there, and rush to descend to the world. If one is later rewarded and repents before his Master, he takes his very own piece, the part of holiness he had thrown above, as it is written, “That which is has been already, and that which will be has already been.”

This is so because when the souls are created, while they are still above, before they come into this world under time, they are in eternity, above time, where past, present, and future apply at once, as is the nature of eternity. It follows that all the deeds that the souls will do one at a time when they come into this world already exist there all at once, as their actions in this world.

This is so because the whole of the Torah that they will learn in this world during the years of their lives already exists there. And all their bad deeds are already depicted in their souls. And as they will throw the holy part in this world, they will there, too. And if they are destined to first sin and then repent in this world, it is depicted above as all at once, as is the nature of eternity, for this, too, is already pictured there.

And there is a difference between a soul that is destined to be in a righteous and one that is destined to be in a wicked. The one that is destined for the righteous is already there in all its sanctity, and therefore has no desire to come into this world, to the filthy material body, unless by the decree of the Creator. But a soul that is destined to be in a wicked rushes to come and clothe the filthy body, for she craves filth.

The Soul Comprises the Creator and Divinity

Teruma [Donation]

590) From the day one inherits the soul, which comprises the Creator and His Divinity, from that time he is called “a son.” This is the meaning of what David said in Psalms, “I will tell of the law of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’” This applies to every person when one obtains the soul.

My Dove, My Undefiled, Is but One

Chayei Sarah [The Life of Sarah]

141) “My dove, my undefiled, is but one; she is the only one,” the Neshama [soul]. Why is it that here, in Song of Songs, we call the soul in feminine form, “My dove, my undefiled,” and there, in the Torah, we call it in masculine form, Abraham?

142) In the Torah, the soul is called by masculine form, relating to the body. This is so because with respect to the body, the soul is as a woman toward a man. Also, toward a higher degree than itself, the soul is as a female before a male. And each inherits his merit according to the matter at hand. This is why in Song of Songs, when the king that peace is his speaks of the soul, which is a higher degree than her, it is considered a female and he refers to it as a female, “My dove, my undefiled.” But the Torah speaks of the soul in and of itself; hence, it refers to it as masculine form, Abraham.

Soul and Love

VaYechi [Jacob Lived]

744) Thus, the souls are higher from two sides, from ZA and from Nukva, and they come from their internality. Therefore, why do they descend to this world and why do they depart it? It is like a king who had a son, whom he sent to some village to raise him until he is grown and to teach him the ways of the king’s palace. When the king heard that his son had grown, he sent his mother out of his love for his son and she brought him to his palace, and he rejoiced with his son.

745) Thus the Creator begot a son with its mother, which is the uppermost, holy soul, the generations of ZON. He sent him to atone, that is, to this world, to grow in it and to be taught the conducts of the King’s palace. Since the King knew that his son would grow in that village, and the time had arrived to bring him to his palace, out of his love, he sent his mother and she brought him to his palace. The soul does not depart this world until his mother comes for her and brings her to the King’s palace, where she sits forever.

746) Yet, it is the nature of the world that the people of the village cry over the departure of the King’s son from them. There was a sage there, who told them, “Why are you crying? Is he not a prince, who should not be living among you any longer, but in his father’s palace?” So was Moses, who was a sage. He saw that the people of the village were crying and hence said, “You are the children of the Lord your God: you shall not cut yourselves.”

747) If all the righteous knew that, they would be happy when their day came to depart from this world. Is it not the highest honor that the mistress comes for them to lead them to the King’s palace so the King will rejoice in them all day? After all, the Creator entertains only with the souls of the righteous.

748) The love ofthe assembly of Israel, the Nukva, to the Creator, ZA, awakens when the souls of the righteous below awaken it, since they come from the side of the King, ZA, from the male’s side. Thus, this awakening comes to the Nukva from the male, and the love awakens.

It turns out that the male awakens the fondness and love to the Nukva and then the Nukva becomes connected with love to the male. This settles the question that it is not good for the Nukva to chase after the male. Now it is clear that the souls of the righteous, which are males, awaken this love for ZA.

749) Similarly, the craving of the Nukva to shoot lower waters opposite upper waters is only in the souls of the righteous. Happy are the righteous in this world and in the next world, for the upper and lower stand over them. Hence, “A righteous is the foundation of the world” can be related to the upper righteous, Yesod de ZA, and can be related to the souls of the righteous; both are true.

750) The meaning of all that is that the righteous is the Yesod above, Yesod de ZA, and Yesod below, in the Nukva, and the souls of the righteous. And the assembly of Israel, the Nukva, is included in the righteous above and below. A righteous from the side of Yesod de ZA, and a righteous from the side of the soul of the righteous below, inherit her, meaning the Nukva. This is the meaning of, “The righteous shall inherit the land,” the Nukva. The righteous, Yesod de ZA, inherits the land, Nukva, imparts blessings upon her every day, and gives her pleasures and dainties extended from above, from Bina, which he draws to her.

People and Angels

Aharei Mot [After the Death]

220) Since the day the world was created, the souls of the great righteous stand before the Creator and pause before Him. And the Creator gazes upon them until it is time to bring them down to earth to clothe a body. And they govern above and below, as it is written, “As the Lord… lives, before whom I stood.” “…I stood,” meaning before he came into this world. Afterwards, he returned to his place in heaven and went up to his chamber.

But other souls do not rise to their places until they die because they did not stand before the Creator at the same degree, such as Enoch [Hanoch] and Elijah [Eliyahu], who were rewarded with rising to their places while they were still alive. This is why Elijah became an emissary and a messenger above, as did Enoch. Also, they adhered to the King more than an angel.

221) All the Holy Spirits above, meaning angels, work as the Creator’s emissaries, and they all come from one place. But the souls of the righteous come from two degrees that are included in one; hence, they rise higher than angels, and their degrees are more than those of angels. And all those who were hidden there descended and rose in their lives, like Enoch, in whom there was no death.

Two points are included in Malchut—a lock and a key. All the lights extend only through the key, and the point of the lock is concealed in it. And she is called, “The tree of knowledge of good and evil,” since the people, who extend from Malchut, are good if they are rewarded and do not sin, when the point of the lock does not appear and he is awarded all the lights. And if one is not rewarded, he is evil, and the point of the lock appears on him. At that time, all the lights depart at once and thus, death comes upon man, for Satan, who is the angel of death, awakens the point of the lock upon man, which causes the departure of the light of life.

There is a virtue in angels that does not exist in people: angels do not die. People, however, are made of the point of the lock, as well, and therefore die. But there is a virtue in people that does not exist in angels, since the angels have no burden of correction, as the key needs no correction, since it comes from Bina and it comes only to correct the lock. Thus, they always stand at the same degree as when they were created, and there are no ascents and descents in them.

But people, who contain a lock, carry the entire burden of correction; hence, when they are rewarded, they rise and attain degrees that do not exist in the angels. And there are great souls in whom the lock is so deeply hidden that it will never be fit of revealing. But they do not die, since the lock in them is hidden and concealed in their root.