Climbing Higher

Until now, we have discussed the soul’s role in influencing and elevating the world and nefesh habahamis. Creating the Dirah BeTachtonim is a personal mandate that shapes an individual’s life direction and focus. This realization creates the resolve not to make do with living in our own fortress of goodness. There is a world waiting to be transformed and G‑d is counting on us to each do our part.

This, however, raises a question: What is in it for my soul?

Did the soul simply descend to live a physical life, solely to do G‑d and the world a favor without personal benefit?

For some background: The Arizal taught that the soul did not arrive in this world to achieve personal rectification. The soul is pure and need not undergo tikkun; it is the world, the body, and the animalistic soul that need rectification.79

Chassidus adds that while the soul does not need to be fixed, it does gain tremendous heights from the experience. This is explained according to the principle of “yeridah letzorech aliyah,” “descent is for the sake of ascent.”80 This means that the soul stands to gain from fulfilling its mission, and this too is a primary reason for its arrival into this world.81

The question now becomes: What is the advantage which the soul is slated to gain by making the world into a Dirah BeTachtonim?

Here, Chassidus provides two explanations:

1) The soul’s ascent is supplementary: By toiling in this world, the soul gains an advantage that is valuable from its frame of reference. The soul is spiritual and it is granted a greater spiritual stature than it had originally. This ascent is experienced after the soul leaves this world, when it ascends to a higher spiritual plane than where it was positioned before its descent.82

2) The soul’s ascent is primary: The fulfillment of G‑d’s desire for the Dirah BeTachtonim is the ascent of the soul. Rather than retaining a sense of an independent existence which enjoys a close relationship to G‑d, the soul’s ultimate advantage is to achieve ultimate bittul.

The soul before its descent appreciates being battel, gaining fulfillment from recognizing its insignificance before G‑d.83 In contrast, by carrying out G‑d’s bidding in this world with dedication, the soul gains simple subservience characterized by “ein od,” or “there is none other.”84