Which Degree Should One Achieve?

Question: What is the degree one should achieve, so he will not have to reincarnate?

It is written in the book Sha’ar Hagilgulim (Gate to Reincarnations) that “All the children of Israel must reincarnate until they are complete with all the NRNHY. However, most people do not have all five parts called NRNHY, only Nefesh, which is from Assiya.”

This means that each person must correct only one’s own part and the root of one’s own soul, and nothing more, and this completes what that person should correct.

The thing is that we must know that all the souls come from the soul of Adam Ha Rishon. After the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, Adam’s soul broke into 600,000 souls. This means that the single Light that Adam Ha Rishon had in the Garden of Eden, which the Holy Zohar calls, “Zihara Ilaa” (Upper Light), has dispersed into many pieces.

In the book, Panim Masbirot (p 56), Baal HaSulam writes, “After the good mixed with the bad (after the sin), a great structure of Klipot was established, with the power to cling to Kedusha (Holiness).” In order to beware of them, the Light of the seven days of Creation was divided into very small pieces, which are too small for the Klipot to suck from.

This can be compared to a king who wished to deliver a great sum of money to his son who lived across the sea. Alas, all the people in the king’s country were conniving thieves, and he could not find one loyal emissary. What did he do? He divided the money into pennies and sent them with a great number of emissaries. Thus, they found that the pleasure of theft was not worth dishonoring the kingship.

In this manner, over time and in many souls, through illumination of the days, it was possible to sort out all the holy sparks that were robbed by the Klipot, by the sin of the Tree of Knowledge.

“Many souls” refers to the division into Inner Lights, and many days is a division into many outer Lights. And the bits accumulate into the great amount of Light that Adam ha Rishon sinned in and then will bring the end of correction.

This leads to the conclusion that everyone is born with but a small piece of the soul ofAdam Ha Rishon. When one corrects that piece, he no longer needs to reincarnate. This is why one can only correct that which belongs to one’s own share.

It is written about it in the Ari’s The Tree of Life, “There is not a day like another day, a moment like another moment, or a person like another person. And the Helbona (part of the sacred incense) will correct what the Levona (another part of the sacred incense) will not. Each must correct one’s own part.”

However, we must know that every person has a choice, for one is not born righteous. Our sages said (Nida 16b), “Rabbi Hanina Bar Pappa said, ‘The angel appointed on conception is named Laila (Night). It takes a drop and places it before the Creator, and says, ‘Dear Lord, this drop, what shall become of it—a hero or a weakling, a sage or a fool, rich or poor?’ But it does not ask, ‘righteous or wicked.’’”

This means that one is not born righteous, for “it does not ask, ‘righteous or wicked.’” This is left to our choice, each according to his labor in Torah and Mitzvot. Accordingly, one is rewarded with cleansing one’s heart, with correcting what he must, according to the root of his soul, and then he is complete.