This article on the portion of the week was previously published in 2021.
The portion Noach, I feel, is filled with many exciting and important teachings; teachings which, if we really understand them, have the power to shift our spiritual work in a very positive way.
So, I want to share something from Rav Ashlag, who asks what the secret of the soul is. He says that before it comes into this world, it is a little aspect with great potential. It is a tiny spark of Light, connected to its Source, the Light of the Creator. And then he asks why the world was created. What does that mean?
I think most of us believe the soul is a perfect, complete being that comes into the body and we then struggle with it to allow it to reconnect to the Light of the Creator. But Rav Ashlag is saying something completely different. He's saying that before it came into our body, each one of our souls was a tiny little spark that had great, but unrevealed, potential. So if that spark remains in the Upper World in a perfect state, it never expands or becomes what it's meant to become. It never becomes the totality of the Light of the Creator that needs to be revealed. And the purpose of coming into this world is to allow the soul to expand and become all that it can be.
Therefore, the reason our soul comes into our body is for our soul, a tiny spark with huge potential, to reveal that potential. Our soul is the Light of the Creator, but not the Light of the Creator as if our soul is 100% when it's in the Upper Worlds. And when it comes into this world, our job is not to bring it back to a connection, but rather, our soul comes into this world as a tiny spark, and our struggle, the spiritual work, is to allow the soul to expand. As such, every time we share, connect to the Zohar, and so forth, what we’re actually doing is allowing our soul to expand a little more. And the struggle between body and soul is what allows the soul to become bigger and bigger.
This is an amazing realization about who we are; we are the Creator desiring to become more greatly manifested… and that's the purpose of the spiritual word. So when the soul - which is really the Light of the Creator desiring to become more expanded - comes into the body, it struggles with the body. But only through that struggle can it reveal its potential and expand as greatly as it needs to be. Then it uses the tools and wisdom, which are actually the Light of the Creator expanded.
For example, let’s say that our soul, when it was born to where it is today, is only 20% revealed and it wants to expand out, the Zohar is one of the greatest tools that we have to allow the expansion of the Creator, which is our soul. Therefore, when we study the Zohar and take in the Light of the Zohar, we expand out with that Light, and that Light is now part of us. So the wisdom is us, and is the Light of the Creator. Our soul comes into this world with great potential, and the only way this potential can be revealed is through the struggle of the body and soul together to allow it to expand. The tools for the expansion of the soul, and also the Light that is the expanded soul, are the wisdom and the tools.
So, to go back to the example of the Zohar, let’s say our soul is at 20% expansion, 20% revelation, and we read the Zohar and then expand our soul 5% more through that reading. Then our 5% more is actually the Light of the Zohar that becomes us. We are that aspect of the Light of the Creator that is then being expanded.
And therefore, Rav Ashlag says this is the secret: the Light of the Creator, the spiritual worker, the wisdom, and I, myself, are all one, because all of this is the expansion of the Light of the Creator. Our soul is potential Light of the Creator, not yet expanded. And the use of the tools and the study of the wisdom are both the Light that allows expansion and is the Light of the expansion.
What gives spiritual life? It is the level of consciousness that one has. The soul, before it came into this world, was the tiny aspect of the Creator, with great potential unrevealed, even though it's connected to, and unified with, the Light of the Creator. But it's a little tiny potential spark of the Creator, and that is all it has in the Upper Worlds. If it did not come into the body and struggle to expand, it would remain tiny and unrevealed.
In the Writings of the Ari, it says that the Creator wanted to reveal his holy name. And this is also the secret of what it means when the Ari tells us that the reason the world was created was for the Creator to reveal His potential. It means to reveal us, who are the potential of the Light of the Creator. We expand with the tools that are the Light that become our expansion.
People are unhappy, bored, or dark because we need to be more than we are, which means our soul needs to expand more. Once we allow our soul to expand, once we view our spiritual work in this way, then excitement, understanding, and happiness come from it. Like a balloon, we begin as a tiny thing, constricted within a little ball, then start expanding it out. And when our soul is that unexpanded Light of the Creator, we're not going to be happy; or maybe we’ll be a little bit happy, but not happy forever.
Therefore, every spiritual action that we do has to be with this consciousness: I am creating the pathway for the expansion of my soul. And the Light I reveal through this action becomes part of me, and now my soul is that much bigger, and every action that I do is the expansion of my soul, which is actually the expansion of the Light of the Creator, and the purpose of the creation of this world.
For me, the core of this is the understanding that our soul, before it came into this world, and even as it exists today, is a fraction of what it needs to become. The spiritual organ is not simply fighting to be spiritual or fighting to keep our soul pure. It is about fighting to expand our soul through paths of the tools and the wisdom of Kabbalah. And if we are not expanding our soul, we’re not going to be happy, fulfilled, inspired, or understand more. This is the purpose of life, the purpose of the creation of the world: to reveal the Creator. And we are the spark of the Creator that is not yet revealed, the spark of the Creator that is not yet expanded.
Our soul needs to expand; that's why we're in this world. If we can understand this secret from Rav Ashlag, it can really change and fill our spiritual work with an entirely new and exciting purpose.
