We love the Creator as the source from which we derive pleasure. Clearly, this is egoistic and conditional love. If the Creator sent us affliction instead, we would certainly reply to Him with hatred.

But when a person, called “a worker of the Creator,” doing spiritual work suffers, he associates the affliction with his egoism and tries to relate to the Creator with love. It means that he divides himself into two parts, the part that receives and the one that bestows. In the receiving part, he feels suffering, but he desires to transcend above it. And then, he relates to his sufferings as a “check” that his love does indeed cover all of transgressions and that he can rise above all the states that give him pain.

Then, he understands, sees, and knows for sure that his attitude to the Creator is independent of his ego. Otherwise, he has no means or criteria for testing.

Therefore, the relationship with the Creator is based on the fact that he annuls himself for the sake of bestowal, that he perceives his original egoism as worse than death. But only under this condition can he be sure that his love for the Creator is unconditional and perfect.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/12  

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Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”: It is said that there are 600,000 souls, and each soul divides into several sparks. We must understand how it is possible for the spiritual to divide, since initially, only one soul was created, the soul of Adam ha Rishon. In my opinion, there is indeed only one soul in the world, as it is written (Genesis, 2:7), “and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” The same soul exists in all the children of Israel, complete in each and every one, as in Adam ha Rishon, since the spiritual is indivisible and cannot be cut—which is rather a trait of corporeal things. Yet, saying that there are 600,000 souls and sparks of souls appears as though it is divided by the force of the egoism of each person.

At the beginning we feel that we exist outside of the common soul because our ego fences us off it. Ultimately, everybody attains completely this one common soul, the spiritual vessel, the corrected desire of the creature who is in adhesion with the Creator in the world of Infinity.

The Creator created only this one soul of Adam ha Rishon. But because of the force of shattering, which has entered us, each of us senses only himself. However, by virtue of actions called “the Torah and commandments,” a person has an opportunity to attract upon himself the Light from the common soul, if he wants to draw closer to it.

The soul is a collection of all souls merged into a single whole. The more a person aspires towards it by the means of the group, the friends, and the study, the greater is the illumination that he invokes from there. This illumination helps him to remove the partition that fences him off this soul and to reveal it.

That is, everyone discovers that they are inside this soul. But all parts, into which, as it seems to us, we are now divided by imagining different people, they differ from one another and stem from different roots. Some relate to 600,000 souls, and others to the sparks. But this determines only the differences on the path: who comes first, who at the end, and who in the middle in the process of correction; who belongs to the degrees of HBT–HGT–NHY, “fathers,” “sons,” or the entire world. And ultimately, everybody discovers the common soul in its entire fullness, without any difference between us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/2012, “600,000 Souls”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Kabbalah for the Student “600,000 Souls,” Lesson 4

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt “Safra de Tzniyuta,” Lesson 7

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Article “Exile and Redemption” 

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