עברית
Faith
What are elevated souls?
Question
I heard that there is a concept of an elevated soul and the opposite, that from elevated souls, Hashem demands more, and on the other hand, they are in a higher and more exalted place in the World to Come. It feels that if, for example, I have a low soul, no matter how much I strive and make an effort, I lack the suitable tools and strengths and will never reach such levels, and consequently to the VIP places reserved above. Related to this topic: there are souls that tend more towards desires and forbidden things, so you might say that the reward for overcoming this is greater, but what about all the times when there was no overcoming? Isn’t there an injustice where someone with negative tendencies “accumulates” more punishments than someone who does not have these tendencies?
Answer
Hello and blessings
A. On what basis do you assume that you are from the lower souls? Maybe you are from the elevated souls? There is almost no way to know this.
B. All of Israel is like one body, as if the elevated souls are the head, brain, heart, etc., and the lower souls are the legs and so on. When we merit complete rectification, all the souls will gather back to form one body, and all together will benefit from the work of each other, just as today the leg benefits from everything like the other parts of the body.
C. A person can elevate himself beyond his level and reach high and exalted stations even if his soul is considered low, such as belonging to the leg, but through his actions, he elevates his soul up to the head, as explained in the words of the Kabbalists.
D. Each soul has a special trial according to its unique function in the world to rectify the kingdom of Shaddai. There are souls that are drawn to sins, and their rectification is to overcome this to the best of their ability. Only through this work do they reach rectification. Some achieve this through Torah study, others through acts of kindness. Each one according to his special service according to his soul. No one in this world has an easy spiritual life, and everyone goes through difficult trials for rectification.
E. It should be noted that failure in sin can be rectified easily through complete repentance, and it does not remain forever. On the other hand, every mitzvah is preserved for eternity. It is also important to know that the sin of a person who is strongly drawn to sin due to his character traits is not comparable to the sin of someone who does not have such a difficult nature. The punishment will be much lower for someone whose nature draws him to sin, and on the other hand, his reward will be enormous if he succeeds in overcoming and not sinning.
F. It should be noted that no sin cancels out a mitzvah, meaning that if someone’s inclination tempted him to commit a sin at some point, and every day and every hour the inclination tried to persuade the person to sin, and the person succeeded in overcoming the inclination for a week, but after a week the person was no longer able to overcome and fell, we do not say that the entire week of overcoming is erased. Every overcoming is recorded in the golden pen and remembered for him eternally, and thus during the week of overcoming he earned many mitzvot and only one sin at the time of the fall, which is rectified through repentance.
Success,
Benjamin Shmueli
