The soul is a desire to love and to bestow, which a person develops within himself. In this way, he begins to feel the spiritual world.

We now only have a desire to receive and to enjoy, pulling toward ourselves everything that seems to us as good, whereas the desire for bestowal indicates that I include the desires of other people and begin to fulfill them.

With this, I acquire my soul, for the soul is found outside of my body and not within it. I don’t identify myself with this world, but with my desire to bestow. I come out of myself and feel the external reality. In this manner I begin to perceive the spiritual reality, the next level.

Baal HaSulam writes in Pri Hacham (The Sages Fruit), “The Emanation of the Soul”: Every person was not created but to attain a complete and enlightened soul from the Creator, be He blessed, worthy of constant and eternal adhesion.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 2/1/15

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Why are we living in this world?—Every child asks this question beginning around the age of five, and this is because within us is found a Reshimo (reminiscence), a spiritual gene that must be developed. It pushes us from within.

This gene, this desire, requires fulfillment, an answer to the question, “What are we living for? What is the meaning of life?” Later, we forget this question, and in our pursuit of life, we no longer return to it since we don’t have time to think about it and regard it as a useless thought.

However, we see that this question constantly draws our attention in all kinds of situations throughout our lives, and considering how many people are in despair, get divorced, need drugs, and require antidepressants, we see that in spite of everything, this question still is very strong.

This gene is planted in us because at the end of our development, our evolution, we need to reach a state in which all of us ask the question, “What are we living for?” Why live?” “What is the meaning of life?”

It is possible to ask this question in another way: “Why does nature, which is so perfect and purposeful, create a person with such great potential, but leave him without an answer to the questions of how to build one’s life,  and what to achieve in life?”

We see what tremendous wisdom is latent in every cell, in every body, in the connection between us, and we see how much information we haven’t yet discovered! However, even from what we have discovered with the help of science, we see such a wonderful wisdom hidden in all of this rich mechanism, and yet, we who are at the summit of this science, at its peak, don’t see any meaning in our lives. How is such a thing possible? Without a doubt there is a purpose to our existence, but we don’t know what it is and we need to discover it.

So, someone who asks himself about the meaning of life ultimately reaches the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103 FM, 1/18/15

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I once asked my teacher Rabash the same question: “What happens to a person’s soul when he dies?” And he answered that it is just like when you take a dirty shirt off at the end of the day and throw it into the washing machine….

So also at the end of life you take off the body from the soul and discard it. The body rots, whereas the soul continues to live. After all, you remain alive after you take off your old shirt. In this way you remain alive even after taking off the physical body.

Question: So how does the soul exist without a body?

Answer: The soul even exists now without a body. It only accompanies it and doesn’t touch it. The soul exists in another dimension that you don’t feel.

Baal HaSulam writes in the article, “The Peace,” that: “Thus, in our world, there are no new souls the way bodies are renewed, but only a certain amount of souls that incarnate….Therefore, with regard to the souls, all generations since the beginning of creation to the end of correction are as one generation that has extended its life over several thousand years….”

The period of the development of the soul here in this world is 6,000 years. This development began with Adam HaRishon (the first man) who lived 5,775 years ago, and will continue to the end of 6,000 years. This means that another 225 years are left for us. During this time all of us must develop our soul, meaning our part in the collective soul, and connect everyone together into one soul.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains this entire process. 14 billion years ago the material evolution of our universe began from one spark; it was used as the beginning of the “Big Bang.” That is how the evolution of inanimate nature began. Two billion years ago the first plants appeared on Earth, then the animals, and after that the human. The human species developed until a desire to attain the source of his life, the upper world, the next level, began to develop in him.

Development proceeds and advances from the inanimate to vegetative, to animate, and after that, the human. And the human must attain a higher level, which is called the development of his soul, and rise to the next level, the upper world. And in the upper world there are also the phases of the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human. But there are spiritual levels that we need to develop and rise to an even higher world. And that is how we pass by way of the five worlds.

Question: Does it follow that Adam HaRishon lived 5,775 years ago, who developed the soul within him?

Answer: Yes, and so he is called Adam HaRishon.

Question: Does this mean that everyone must develop the souls within them during the next 225 years?

Answer: Yes, all of them without exception, in 225 years or before then. So we see how this development is accelerating; time is becoming very thick and is seemingly shrinking and compressing. If we don’t develop the soul within us, if we don’t push ourselves towards development, we will be thrown into terrible pressure from the forces of nature that will pressure us through all kinds of disasters and problems; they will push us towards development of the soul.

Development of the soul can only happen in this world, and secondly, it can be renewed only through connection between people. Through the connection between us we give shape to the single soul that is general and common to us all.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 2/1/15

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Question: Is there a heavenly court that determines where the person will go after his death, heaven or hell?

Answer: We are within a rigid system that is bound with iron fetters. This is a program that encompasses and includes all of creation.

Through our behavior, which depends upon our characteristics, we influence the system and feel its reaction. This is called judgment and mercy. According to how the person influences the system, it reacts, influences, and acts on him. This is called the “heavenly court.” So, we need to learn how to behave to influence the system only positively.

Question: Does it follow that we feel heaven or hell here and now and not somewhere after death?

Answer: Absolutely! There is no other heaven or hell other than what is found here in this world. I myself determine where I am found, in heaven or in hell. If I determine that my egoistic desire is hell because it buries me underneath it and doesn’t let me reach and attain eternal life, I feel myself in hell.

It is excellent that you have understood this. It means that now you will try to break out of your ego and attain heaven, and you truly will begin to feel yourself in an eternal and perfect world. You will feel that you are living in heaven and will not be concerned about your body at all.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 2/1/15

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Question: Is there eternal life?

Answer: There is eternal life but not in our corporeal body. Our biological body is a machine that cannot exist more than many decades.

Science can extend the life of the body up to several decades more than we lived in the past, but it is hard to understand why people should want to live so long if it isn’t in order to develop the soul inside us. We see that people today live twice as long, and even three times longer than then they did 200 or 300 years a ago.

Eternal life is life in the altruistic desire, not in the egoistic desire. It is because the ego kills itself, while we can live forever in the desire to bestow because it doesn’t disappear and is continuously renewed. The desire to bestow connects to other people and lives in them.

When a person develops the soul inside him, which means the love for others, he exits his narrow world that is filled with pain and problems and enters a wide eternal world.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103 FM, 2/1/15

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Question: Where is our soul located? There are even experiments where they try to determine the weight of the soul in grams.

Answer: That is completely pointless. The soul has no weight in the corporeal world. Imagine that a moment ago you didn’t want to drink and now you suddenly want water. That is, a new desire appeared to you. It is possible to weight it? Where is this desire located in you? You can’t say. The soul is also a desire; a desire to attain the upper force, that same external sphere that manages our world, the system that surrounds us.

The soul is called the desire to attain the meaning in our life, the goal of our life. If such a desire appears in a person, then he begins to feel that his soul needs to develop; it obliges him to learn how to attain it.

Question: If I succeed in developing the soul while I am alive in this world, is that a sign that my life was successful? And if I don’t succeed, then will I be returned to this world once again?

Answer: Yes, you will return and pass through new lives until the soul is developed within you. But in our time, we have the opportunity to accelerate our development, and then we will not need further incarnations. We already lived enough in this world, each of us.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103 FM, 2/1/15

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The spiritual world is right here, but as long as you don’t have a soul you don’t see it. If you hadn’t developed from a drop of semen, you wouldn’t feel this world either.

But because your body develops from this semen, you feel this world through it. The same thing happens with the soul; it also has a father and mother.

Question: What kind of connection exists between my soul and my relatives: father, mother, and siblings?

Answer: In the entire general system of one single soul there are parts that are closer to me and further from me. Closeness or distance in the spiritual world is derived from this. It is not by chance that specifically these people become my parents, and not others. It is not by chance that I marry specifically this woman and have specifically these children.

All of this is derived from the general system that has already been created and stabilized. It is known from the start what will be with me; I only discover this for myself. But all of these events already exist in potential, as potential forces.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103 FM, 2/1/15

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Question: Can I be incarnated as a cat in the next cycle of life or will I also be a person?

Answer: A person always remains a person, a man – a man, a woman – a woman, and a cat – a cat. Matter remains the same matter.

All of the theories and fantasies about the reincarnation of souls in various animals and even in plants are erroneous.

And in general, the soul doesn’t belong to the body. The body exists only to create conditions for developing the soul. But to the degree that the soul is developed, the body begins to receive new physical characteristics, which help us to develop the soul further. Everything happens for this purpose only.

Question: I don’t understand; what happens with a person after he dies?

Answer: Don’t we see what happens to a person after his body dies? The body rots and turns into dust. If a person doesn’t develop the soul within him, then only a conscious element of the soul is left, which must create a body again.

Question: What happens if I have developed a soul?

Answer: If you have developed your soul to the necessary level, meaning you have corrected it absolutely, then you no longer need to be incarnated any more into this world, and the soul will live forever.

Question: Will that soul itself be my “self”?

Answer: Specifically the soul is the “self.” A person is his soul, whereas the body is only material that accompanies him and helps in developing the soul.

Question: So why do the Kabbalists sometimes write that a person is reincarnated into animals, for example, into a pig?

Answer: This is written metaphorically. “Reincarnated as a pig” means that desires like those of a pig come to a person, which he had apparently abandoned a long time ago.

Just as sometimes in a person’s life he behaves like this and we call him a “pig.” In the same sense Kabbalists speak about incarnation as a pig, meaning such characteristics like a pig appear in a person, but it is clear that he remains a person.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103 FM, 2/1/15

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The next level of our development is called the upper world.

Question: But doesn’t natural evolution happen outside of our desire without being contingent upon freedom of choice?

Answer: Freedom of choice is given only in the choice of the way in which we go towards the goal. But the soul must be developed in every person.

This is like in a school in which there are children who learn well and enjoy life. And there are those who don’t want to learn who are punished and suffer. But ultimately they also finish school: either due to their good desire or through punishments and suffering. So we can also go and develop our soul in all kinds of ways, but the result is already determined from the start.

Question: Does this mean that I must develop my soul during this life in this world? Isn’t this some kind of abstract concept existing somewhere in the next world?

Answer: We develop the soul in this world because the soul is the power of bestowal and love, connection with others. So it is possible to develop it only at a time when I am an egoist, and it is up to me to overcome my ego and approach other people. Only through this activity, through this yearning, do I develop within me a new power of unification and connection with others, a power that is called the “soul.”

Question: Does this mean that the development of the soul is simply the development of new characteristics?

Answer: The soul symbolizes the development of new altruistic characteristics. The soul is the power of bestowal in a person that doesn’t exist in him now when he is an egoist. At the present time there is only a tiny nucleus in us, a potential force that can develop into a soul. I can develop this potential so it will develop into an active force. To the degree that this potential is actively realized, I begin to discover a new world before me.

With this new characteristic I will see a new world. Even today I see this world through my characteristics, within my ego, while the higher spiritual world can be seen with the characteristic of bestowal. Just as today we see only this world as real and live in it with our bodies, we begin to live in the spiritual world with our souls.
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From the Radio Program Israeli 103FM, 2/1/15

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If a person develops a desire that is directed towards upper, spiritual attainment, then inside this corrected desire one starts feeling a new reality. One starts living in this reality as though in the physical world, though this reality is even more real since the spiritual impressions do not disappear, get dull, or weaken.

A person aspires to advance. With this in mind, one starts to understand what is going on with him in this world throughout every moment and why certain events take place. One learns how to properly utilize it all in order to develop his soul even further.

Eventually one becomes a real dweller of the future world. This means, a person perceives an additional reality to the world he exists in today. There is a reality we perceive through regular means through our five senses we received at birth. However, there is yet another reality that governs our world and influences it.

If we could attain this higher governance and knew how to correctly react towards it, then we could manage our life in the best way possible. If we have no idea about it, then we have to suffer.

Question: Does it turn out that until a person develops a soul within him he has no soul?

Answer: Of Course! No one possesses a soul. A person is born with one informative spiritual gene (Reshimo). It is like a drop of semen that in the future will develop a soul. If a person does not develop it then he has no soul.
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From the Radio Program Israeli 103FM 2/1/15

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