According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we live in order to develop our soul. We understand that we have an animal body that lives and dies here on this planet. However, our purpose is not to die in the animal body, but to develop the soul while we live here.
What is the soul?
In the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is written that the soul is “a part of the Creator from above.” What this means is that we have a part of a certain “absolute” within us, and that absolute—called “the Creator,” and which is given other names as well in Kabbalah, such as “nature,” “upper force” and “upper light,” among others—is essentially a quality of love and bestowal.
This part of the Creator from above within us emerges as a small point, called a “point in the heart” or a “desire for spirituality,” among our corporeal desires for food, sex, family, money, honor, control and knowledge. Developing this point into a soul means wishing for it to become formed such that the quality of love and bestowal becomes born in us.
When it writes in the wisdom of Kabbalah that a person is a part of the Creator, it is speaking on the Creator’s behalf. However, the person requires a great effort in order to develop and attain such a reality.
Therefore, we live not in order to die, but to discover true life, i.e. to attain a life of eternity and perfection through the development of the soul—the quality of love and bestowal—while alive in our animal bodies.
Based on KabTV’s “Close- Up, Beyond the Last Line” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on May 3, 2010. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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