The First Type

The Rav will explain in this section that there are three different types of soul.

We have already explained that there are some souls that were not part of Adam's soul when it was first created. These are truly completely "new souls", whereas the souls that were already included in Adam are called "old souls" by comparison, of which there are two types. New souls…were never included in the soul of Adam…

This is a continuation of the last chapter. The new souls are those that are being born anew from the Unification of Face to Face. Since they are new, they were never included in the soul of Adam. The old souls that were included in the soul body of Adam were born from the Unification of Back to Back, but of these the Rav is now adding that there are two types.

Thus, there are three types, the first being those which were not included in Adam and which are considered to be completely new souls.

The second type of soul is a result of Adam's sin, after which his limbs "fell off" and he was reduced until he was no higher than one hundred cubits. This is the secret of the verse "…And You laid Your hand upon me". (Psalms 139:5) Just as it happened to his body, so too did it happen to his soul.

This is in the Talmud, Chagiga 12a. As a result of Adam's sin, G‑d laid His hand upon him and diminished his stature. Before the sin, he spanned five spiritual worlds, whereas after the sin he only spanned one…

Prior to Adam's sin, he was said to have been five hundred cubits high. If taken literally, then he would have been between 750 to 1000 feet high. In Kabbala, it means that before the sin, he spanned five spiritual worlds, whereas after the sin he only spanned one.

We have already seen that the sparks that constituted the spiritual body of Adam fell into the kelipot. This is what it means that "his limbs fell off" and corresponds to the diminution of his physical stature as a result of the sin. However, some of the sparks remained part of him, i.e. included within him.

The sparks of his soul that remained within him after the sin were necessary for Adam himself. After the sin, he fathered Cain and Abel, and, as the sages (Pirkei d'Rebbe Eliezer, Chapter 21) and the Zohar say, it was from these sparks that they came. These constitute the second type of soul.

In other words, some sparks did not fall, but remained within Adam for the sake of his own existence, and most of these were transmitted to his children, Cain and Abel. These constitute the second level of souls that will be discussed in this chapter.

The third level is those sparks of his soul that left him at the time of the sin and which returned to the depths of the kelipot.

Note that the Rav writes explicitly that they "returned" to the depths of the kelipot.

The sages alluded to them by calling them "limbs that fell off". It was from this third level that the soul of Seth, the (third) son of Adam was taken.

[Commentary by Shabtai Teicher.]