Our existence in this world is a
journey. In particular, it is a journey
of the soul. The divine soul originates
at an exalted spiritual level,
somewhere holy and very close to G-d.
Then it enters this physical world,
which is a realm of struggle. Through
this struggle it eventually achieves
something specially beautiful and pure.
Through life in this world, the soul
attains a higher level of holiness than
when it began.
This is the idea, in a nutshell. Let
us see what the parshah of the week has
to say about it.
For in the parshah there is a
special passage, called a song. This is
the Song of the Well (Numbers
21:17-18). The well is the well of
Miriam, which provided water for the
Jewish people during their long journey
of forty years through the wilderness.
Near the end of their journey, on the
point of entering the Holy Land of
Israel when the journey of normal life
would begin, the Jewish people sang
this special song of thanksgiving to
G-d about the well.
What has this got to do with the
soul? Well, Jewish teaching is often
expressed in terms of images. For
example, there is the image of water: a
spring of water among the gardens, a
well with pure water, living waters.
These images of water represent the
soul.
The soul is our spiritual dimension.
It links us with realms beyond the here
and now, beyond physical flesh and
bones, beyond earthly life. At the same
time, through looking more closely at
the soul we can discover just how
precious physical, earthly life really
is.
The soul before it enters our world
is seen in terms of the image of the
spring of water among the gardens. The
gardens are the garden of Eden, and
there is a flow of water which
expresses the quality of the soul.
Then the water of the soul trickles
underground. Down, down, down from the
garden of Eden. It is flowing down in
order to enter this world. It enters
the body of a person. There are many
stages. The person has to be born, and
to grow up, little by little. The
sacred soul is there within, surrounded
by different and unsettling forces. One
is called the Animal Soul: this is
filled with all kinds of passion and
desire. Then there is the body itself,
with its own appetites. Then there are
all the events of life, ups and downs.
Nonetheless, here in this world, the
person tries to keep the precepts of
the Torah and express his or her Jewish
quality. This brings out the inner
nature of the soul.
Eventually, after a long period
flowing deep underground, purified by
the layers of different kinds of rock
and shale, the water of the soul starts
to emerge: it is described as the water
of a well. It has endured many things,
but now it is incredibly and
beautifully pure. Its progress through
life in this world has brought out an
inner potential, an inner holiness,
that was not apparent before. It has
the quality of living waters which
purify and elevate the world, making it
too holy.
This is the journey of the soul, our
journey. All Judaism is in a
sense a journey--ever since G-d
commanded Abraham to leave his
birthplace and to travel to the Land of
Israel. Eventually his descendants
entered it. And there in the Land of
Israel, there is the journey of life,
step by step, for each of us. At every
step forward in our earthly, physical
lives, through Torah study and
observance of the precepts, the waters
of the soul become ever more pure, ever
more holy, with a greater effect on the
world, transforming it into a sacred
dwelling for the
Divine.1
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