What Is the Degree One Should Achieve in Order Not to Have to Reincarnate?
Question: What is the degree one should achieve in order not to have to reincarnate?
In the Gate of Reincarnations (p 10b) it is written, “All of the children of Israel must reincarnate until they are completed with all the NRNHY. However, most people do not have all five parts called NRNHY, but only Nefesh, which is from Assiya.” This means that each one should correct only his part and the root of his soul, and nothing more. By that, he completes what he must correct.
The thing is that we have to know that all of the souls extend from the soul of Adam HaRishon, for after he sinned in the sin of the tree of knowledge, his soul divided into 600,000 souls. This means that the one light that Adam HaRishon had, which the Holy Zohar called Zihara Ila’a [upper brightness], which he had in the Garden of Eden at once, spreads into numerous pieces.
It is written in the book Panim Masbirot [Welcoming Face] (p 56), “Once good and bad have been mingled (meaning after the sin), a big structure was made for the Klipot [shells] as they have the strength to grip to holiness. To keep from them, the light of the seven days of creation was divided into very small pieces from which the Klipot cannot suckle due to their smallness.
“For example, a king wanted to send a large number of gold coins to his son overseas, but all of his countrymen were thieves and swindlers, and he did not have one loyal messenger. What did he do? He divided, he broke all the coins into pennies, and sent them through many messengers, so that the joy of stealing would not be worth blemishing the glory of the kingship.”
In this way, through an order of times in many souls, it is possible, through the illumination of the days, to scrutinize all the holy sparks that were robbed by the Klipot due to the sin of the tree of knowledge.
The meaning of many souls is division into inner lights, and many days means division into outer lights. And each penny accumulates into the amount of great light with which Adam HaRishon sinned, and then will be the end of correction.
It follows that each one is born with only a tiny part of the soul of Adam HaRishon. When he corrects his part, he no longer needs to reincarnate. Therefore, one can correct only that which belongs to his part. It is written about it in the book, Tree of Life, by the Ari, “There is not a day that is like another, or a moment that is like another; there is not a person who is like another, and the Helbona [resin] will correct what the Levona [incense] will not correct. Rather, each one must correct that which belongs to his part.”
However, we must know that each person who is born has the work of choice, for one is not born righteous, as our sages said (Nidah, 16b), and these are their words: “Rabbi Hanina Ben Papa said, ‘That angel appointed over pregnancy is called Laila [night]. He takes a drop, places it before the Creator, and says to Him, ‘Lord of the world, what shall become of this drop? A mighty one or a weakling, a wise or a fool, wealthy or poor?’ But wicked or righteous he did not say.’”
This meansthat one is not born righteous, as he did not say, “righteous or poor.” Rather, this is given to man’s choice. According to each one’s labor in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], so he is rewarded with cleansing his heart and correcting that which he must according to the root of his soul, and then he is completed.
The First Degree in Which a Man Is Born
It is written In the Zohar (Mishpatim, 4:11 in the Sulam): “Come and see. When a person is born, he is given a soul from the side of the beast, the side of purity, the side of those who are called holy Ofanim, meaning from the world of Assiya. If he merits more, he is given Ruach from the side of holy animals, meaning from the side of Yetzira. If he merits more, he is given Neshama from the side of the throne, meaning from the world of Beria. If he merits more, he is given Nefesh in the way of Atzilut. If he merits more, he is given Ruach de Atzilut from the side of the middle pillar, and he is called a “son of the Creator,” as it is written, “You are the sons of the Lord your God.” If he merits more, he is given Neshama, which is Bina, of which it was said, the whole Neshama (soul) will praise the Lord, and the name HaVaYaH is completed in them.
Thus, the completion of the soul is when he has NRN from BYA and NRN from Atzilut. This is the completion that Adam HaRishon had before the sin. Only after the sin he descended from his degree and his soul divided into 600,000 souls.
Because of it, a person’s spirituality is called Neshama (soul), even when he has only Nefesh de Nefesh, since there is a rule: whenever we speak of some discernment, we speak of the uppermost discernment. And because the uppermost discernment of a person is the degree of Neshama, in general, we always refer to man’s spirituality by the name, Neshama.
However, although each person is born in the smallest degree, they said (see Gate of Reincarnations, p 11b), “Every person can be as Moses, if he wishes to cleanse his works, since he can take another, higher spirit, from the height of Yetzira, and also a Neshama from the height of Beria.” By that you will also understand the famous matter in the words of our sages, that the spirits of the righteous, or their souls, come and become impregnated in a person, in what is called impregnation to assist him in the work of the Creator.
It is also presented in the Sulam (Introduction of the Book of Zohar, p 93), and these are its words: “That thing of the donkey driver is the assistance to the souls of the righteous, which is sent to them from Above in order to raise them from degree to degree. Were it not for this assistance that the Creator sends to the righteous, they would not be able to exit their degree and rise higher. Therefore, the Creator sends each and every righteous a high soul from Above—to each according to his merit and degree—which assists him on his way. And this is called, ‘the impregnation of the soul of the righteous,’ and it is called, ‘the revealing of the souls of the righteous.’”
It follows that when we say that there is no a generation in which there is none such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it does not mean that they were born this way and they have no choice. Rather, these are people who exert in walking on the path of truth, and make the effort they have to make. These people always receive help from Above through the impregnation of the soul of the righteous. That is, they receive the strength to rise up the upper degrees.
It follows that everything that is given from Above is as assistance, but not without any work and choice.
And the persistence of the world is through these righteous who extend abundance from Above, and by that there is persistence to the world.