QUESTION:
How do we attain “recognize” and become familiar with the abilities of our neshamah, just as we are able to recognize and become familiar with the capabilities and limitations of our guf (body) and nefesh behaimis (animal soul)?
ANSWER:
A: This is difficult to describe in the language of the body, but we will try to explain it in simple language. Before a person was born, he was a neshamah, and after he leaves the world, he will become a neshamah again, where he will be sitting in Gan Eden as a neshamah (or, Rachmana Litzlan, he will be found somewhere else.) So a person had a certain perspective – the neshamah’s ability to recognize certain matters – and he had this before he entered into the materialistic perspective of the body.
Q: Is that equally true for everyone on the same level, is it always the same recognition for each person? Or does each person have a different ability of recognizing the neshamah?
A: There is a concept of the ilan, the “soul tree”, and each soul has its place in that tree, so there are different soul roots. There are different ways of thinking for each soul, based on his soul root, and Raboseinu discuss this a lot. So each soul has a different power of recognition that is unlike another’s. The recognition of the “soul” really means the ability to recognize from our higher intellect. If there are different ways of intellectual recognition of a matter, certainly each person’s soul has a different power to recognize, based on his soul root.
Q: Can a person go straight to the soul’s ability of recognition and skip the recognition of the body and animal soul?
A: It is possible, but it won’t help a person if he ignores recognizing his body’s and animal soul’s capabilities and limitations, because he hasn’t yet purified himself and he won’t be able to handle the revelations of the soul properly. He will only get “sparks” of the soul’s radiance, as the Nefesh HaChaim discusses, that sparks of the soul are in the intellect. With his mind, he can get “sparks” of the soul’s light and attain soul recognition on some level. But it’s not yet the full recognition of the soul.
Q: Is that because it’s a very hard thing to reach?
A: Most of Raboisenu don’t discuss recognizing the neshamah. The matter is dispersed every here and there throughout their words. For example, the Shaarei Teshuvah says that the ability to regret one’s sins comes from the purity of the soul. Raboseinu spoke every here and there of different points in which the soul is revealed in. Also, usually they are describing inspiration and not soul recognition. The only place, it seems, which discusses soul recognition in an organized manner, is in the sefarim of Chabad.
Q: Is there anything a person can do practically to purify the neshamah? We heard in the name of the Rav that if someone wants to learn pnimiyus haTorah, he should recite a lot of Zohar. Is there anything practical a person can do to purify himself, in order to reach “recognition”? Or is it that “recognition” itself is what purifies a person?
A: Recognition (hakarah) is another stage of purifying oneself, but this is a very general question, certainly anything holy will purify a person, but every person individual speaking needs to do different things to get purified, and it depends on the person and on the situation, so there is no one answer to this.
Q: If someone has more seichel (intellect) does that mean he has a bigger neshamah?
A: This is a fundamental question, and the answer is very clear. Not always is there a compatibility between one’s inner layer and outer layer. There are people who have a lot of intellect, but it’s all external, because they don’t have a rich inner world inside them. The intellect itself is certainly a spark of the neshamah, and if a person has better thinking abilities, it’s certainly the spark of the neshamah that is contributing to this. In the words of Raboseinu, there are those who have a “soul root” above that is small, but down on the world they appear to have greater souls, whereas there are those who have a greater soul root above but down on the world their souls appear as small. If someone has a great mind, this does not always mean that his neshamah will be greater. But sometimes we can see that a person’s mind is able to hold much more than the norm, and this is beyond the intellect. There are people who have great thinking abilities. There are high-level souls who have a low amount of intellect, but it’s still recognizable on them that their soul is on a higher level. There are even goyim who are very smart and wise, but this does not mean that they have a high-level soul. Not always does a great, wise mind mean that their soul is very high. When it comes to middos as well, there are high-level souls who have fallen to a low level of middos, while there are souls of lesser stature which were born with more purified middos. So having a high-level soul or low-level soul does not automatically mean that one’s intellect or character will be on a higher level.
Q: Is that equally true for everyone on the same level, is it always the same recognition for each person? Or does each person have a different ability of recognizing the neshamah?
A: There is a concept of the ilan, the “soul tree”, and each soul has its place in that tree, so there are different soul roots. There are different ways of thinking for each soul, based on his soul root, and Raboseinu discuss this a lot. So each soul has a different power of recognition that is unlike another’s. The recognition of the “soul” really means the ability to recognize from our higher intellect. If there are different ways of intellectual recognition of a matter, certainly each person’s soul has a different power to recognize, based on his soul root.
Q: Can a person go straight to the soul’s ability of recognition and skip the recognition of the body and animal soul?
A: It is possible, but it won’t help a person if he ignores recognizing his body’s and animal soul’s capabilities and limitations, because he hasn’t yet purified himself and he won’t be able to handle the revelations of the soul properly. He will only get “sparks” of the soul’s radiance, as the Nefesh HaChaim discusses, that sparks of the soul are in the intellect. With his mind, he can get “sparks” of the soul’s light and attain soul recognition on some level. But it’s not yet the full recognition of the soul.
Q: Is that because it’s a very hard thing to reach?
A: Most of Raboisenu don’t discuss recognizing the neshamah. The matter is dispersed every here and there throughout their words. For example, the Shaarei Teshuvah says that the ability to regret one’s sins comes from the purity of the soul. Raboseinu spoke every here and there of different points in which the soul is revealed in. Also, usually they are describing inspiration and not soul recognition. The only place, it seems, which discusses soul recognition in an organized manner, is in the sefarim of Chabad.
Q: Is there anything a person can do practically to purify the neshamah? We heard in the name of the Rav that if someone wants to learn pnimiyus haTorah, he should recite a lot of Zohar. Is there anything practical a person can do to purify himself, in order to reach “recognition”? Or is it that “recognition” itself is what purifies a person?
A: Recognition (hakarah) is another stage of purifying oneself, but this is a very general question, certainly anything holy will purify a person, but every person individual speaking needs to do different things to get purified, and it depends on the person and on the situation, so there is no one answer to this.
Q: If someone has more seichel (intellect) does that mean he has a bigger neshamah?
A: This is a fundamental question, and the answer is very clear. Not always is there a compatibility between one’s inner layer and outer layer. There are people who have a lot of intellect, but it’s all external, because they don’t have a rich inner world inside them. The intellect itself is certainly a spark of the neshamah, and if a person has better thinking abilities, it’s certainly the spark of the neshamah that is contributing to this. In the words of Raboseinu, there are those who have a “soul root” above that is small, but down on the world they appear to have greater souls, whereas there are those who have a greater soul root above but down on the world their souls appear as small. If someone has a great mind, this does not always mean that his neshamah will be greater. But sometimes we can see that a person’s mind is able to hold much more than the norm, and this is beyond the intellect. There are people who have great thinking abilities. There are high-level souls who have a low amount of intellect, but it’s still recognizable on them that their soul is on a higher level. There are even goyim who are very smart and wise, but this does not mean that they have a high-level soul. Not always does a great, wise mind mean that their soul is very high. When it comes to middos as well, there are high-level souls who have fallen to a low level of middos, while there are souls of lesser stature which were born with more purified middos. So having a high-level soul or low-level soul does not automatically mean that one’s intellect or character will be on a higher level.
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