Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, wrestles with this very idea – the relationship between us, our souls, and the Divine. And in his "Introduction to the Zohar," Baal HaSulam, one of the greatest Kabbalists of the 20th century, offers a mind-bending perspective.
He argues that from the point of view of the divine light – the ohr elyon – which is received by the vessel – the kli, our desire to receive – there’s essentially no difference between our soul and God's essence. Think about it: that divine light flows directly from God's essence to our souls. It’s a direct connection, a pure stream.
So, what is the difference then?
According to Baal HaSulam, it all comes down to a matter of scale, of quantity. The soul is merely a part of God’s essence. That limited amount of divine light received by our vessel, our kli, that's what creates a sense of separation. It's this change in form that transforms the light from being in the category of "All" to being in the category of "part."
It's like a stone quarried from a mountain. The stone is still made of the same material as the mountain, but it's now a distinct piece. The mountain is everything, encompassing it all, and the stone is merely a piece of that everything.
The distinction, then, is that one is "all" – kol – and the other is "part" – chelek.
This can be a tough idea to wrap your head around. We’re talking about incredibly lofty concepts here, things that dance on the edge of what language can even express. And Baal HaSulam himself acknowledges this, saying that he can't expound much more on the subject.
But the core takeaway is powerful: we are, in essence, connected to the Divine. The difference isn’t in the what, but in the how much. We are a piece of the Divine, a spark of the infinite, striving to return to the source from which we came.
So, the next time you feel a sense of longing, a yearning for something more, remember the words of Baal HaSulam. Remember that you are a part of something infinitely greater. And that perhaps, the journey of life is simply the journey of remembering that connection, of bridging the gap between "part" and "all."