All About the Soul
Q: Where is the soul and what processes occur in it between each descent to this world?
A: Kabbalah, being the revelation of the Creator to the creatures in this world, does not deal with these questions. It describes only what we must experience in this earthly life. We learn by ourselves what happens outside our lives by studying Kabbalah. But there is nothing about it in the books, since we must know what we need for correction, not to satisfy our curiosity. Study and you will see.
Q: Are the questions about changing the soul and receiving a soul relevant only after crossing the barrier?
A: The changing of the soul happens inside the soul; changing the states is called “soul incarnation.” Roughly speaking, the vessel itself stays unchanged (although not entirely accurate, it is easier to explain it this way).
Q: How does the soul separate itself from the body?
A: Nothing is separated, because a soul is never connected to a body. In man’s feelings, it is perceived as moving from one level to another. This feeling is called “a separation from (some part of) an egoistic desire,” or “the death” of a body.
Q: How does the soul transfer into the collective soul of Adam?
A: The soul never actually left the collective soul; it simply stopped feeling it, since it corrupted its spiritual feelings by acquiring an egotistical desire. But in the process of desiring correction, the soul corrects its feeling and becomes able to feel its true state in the collective soul.
Retrieving this feeling is called “the ascent up the steps of the spiritual ladder” from our world into the world of Atzilut.
Q: How is the individual soul separated from the collective soul?
A: As the soul acquires additional uncorrected egotistical desires, it loses its feeling of the spiritual world, interpreted by the soul as a separation from the collective soul. As a result, the soul starts to feel a more crude desire in itself, called a “body.” This is felt by the soul as birth in the biological body.
Q: How does the soul get into a body?
A: If you mean the biological body, then the soul has nothing to do with it. But if by a body you mean desire, then if the desire is egoistic, it is called “a body of this world,” and if the desire is altruistic, it is called “a spiritual body.” All these questions are explained in The Introduction to the Book of Zohar.
Q: How can a collective soul be “Adam” if it was “broken?” A broken jug leaks… It is impossible to retain anything in broken pieces…
A: Nothing disappears: all the states are saved and have equal rights to exist. Hence there’s a state called “Adam” before the splitting. After the splitting, fractions of Adam, which are separated souls, descendinto our world, and ascent to their root, the “primary Adam.”
Q: Does one have a soul prior to crossing the barrier, or just a fraction of a soul?
A: Before crossing the barrier, man has only a point of longing for the Creator (the point in the heart), among all other longings (heart) for the pleasures of this world, which are felt through our five senses. Upon crossing the barrier, the point starts to grow, ascending 125 steps of the spiritual ladder of the five worlds. As it reaches its root, it finds its original place, except now it is 620 bigger than before.
Q: Can knowledge directly received from the Creator be argued?
A: If it is indeed received as a result of Divine Revelation, it is true for the person concerned and can’t be argued. But this is subject to change during one’s spiritual ascent. Nothing is absolute !