Faith
What Is a High Soul?
Question
Rabbi, shalom.
1. How is it possible that after death, the soul, which is literally a part of Hashem above, continues to behave as before, with character traits it did not refine, when Hashem is perfect and the soul is a part of Him, and it is in the higher world?
2. Is it possible that there are high souls that did not merit to refine themselves, and what happens to them?
3. How does one identify a high soul? Is such a soul obligated to be one who merits the many, out of its innate talent, such as those who bring people back to repentance, rabbis, and lecturers?
4. A soul that feels it can do more but does not even know in what way: does it fail to fulfill Hashem’s will completely because it has not fully realized its potential?
5. What does a high soul mean at all? After all, all souls are a part of Hashem above, so is this a larger part, or perhaps from a holier source? We all come from Adam HaRishon. Thank you very much.
Answer
Shalom and blessings. The soul is not damaged by that which is lower than the soul in its value, and it does indeed absorb most of the punishments. Every soul that did not refine itself must complete its rectification. There are special souls that merit to become impregnated within the soul of a living person at the time he performs a mitzvah that the soul of the tzaddik did not merit to fulfill, and in this way they complete themselves. It is explained in the Ari z"l that this level is for complete tzaddikim. A high soul is sometimes occupied with repairing the world and sometimes with self-repair. Indeed, every person must try to do the maximum possible, and Hashem will complete it for him so that he succeeds in doing all that is incumbent upon him. If a person opens only as much as the eye of a needle, Hashem opens for him great gateways, and one merits to complete all that the soul is meant to rectify. The souls emanate from Hashem and were created in the form of a spiritual man with hands and feet, and every soul is hewn from a different place. Those hewn from the hand are at one level, those hewn from the heart are at a higher level, and so on, but all of the Jewish people are one body, and we are brothers. With blessings - Benjamin Shmueli
