Now we shall explain the matter of the origin of the soul. It has been said that it is a part of God above. We asked, “How and in what does the form of the soul differ from His simple light until it separates it from the Whole?” (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 3, Item 15).

The soul is that part of the upper light that is in the desire of a person. The greater the desire, the more upper light can fill it, and vice versa.

The very quality of matter is called the desire. A reduction or expansion in desire is a reduction or expansion of the soul of a person.

The soul is a part of the Creator from above. That is, what fills the desire or fills the soul comes from the Creator and descends from Him to a person. But no more than that.

Question: Is soul and desire not the same thing?

Answer: The soul consists of desire and the light that fills it.

Question: Does it mean that the soul is a substance that a person does not have? Do we need to develop it?

Answer: No, the embryo of the soul is always there, otherwise a person would not be a person. Everyone who exists has some part of the soul. An inanimate, vegetative, animate, or human object has a soul.

That is, the Creator created the desire to receive and placed His part inside this desire, which is called the soul.

Question: Does it turn out that the Creator created something that does not exist in Him, and it is the desire to receive?

Answer: Yes, there is no desire to receive in the Creator. But there is the upper light emanating from the Creator in this desire.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 11/20/22

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