Q: You said in your lectures that only 600,000 souls descend to this world. How is it possible to explain that the number of the physical bodies in this world is much greater and reaches some seven billion? How do 600,000 souls divide among all the people on earth?
A: There is only one soul in the world, called “Adam HaRishon.” The soul of the Adam HaRishon consists of 600,000 separate parts. Each part is a separate soul that is corrected when it joins with other parts, other souls. In order to join with other souls, the aim “for myself” must be canceled, because a spiritual bond and full unification is the exact same thing.
By revoking this aim and joining with other parts, with other souls, each part, each soul acquires attributes from the primary soul – that of Adam HaRishon. A soul bonds with the Creator to the extent that it can bond with other souls. That fills the soul of Adam HaRishon, because the attributes of the Creator and the corrected attributes of the soul equalize.
600,000 is a symbolic number. At the first breaking, the soul of the creature, called Adam, broke into 600,000 parts. Then, over many generations, it continued to break into the following smaller parts:
In addition, the souls constantly go from one body to the next, divide and unite, because they are in fact one soul divided only by our individual feelings. The will to enjoy for itself only is imprinted in them. You might say that there is only one soul, which is filled with Light, but because of our imperfection, we feel ourselves as separate parts of it.
At the end of correction, all the souls that feel separated will unite with one desire and one thought, one delight and one Creator.