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Gate of Reincarnations
The large size green text is the direct translation of the Gate of Reincarnations.
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“GATE OF REINCARNATIONS” from
the teachings of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria translated by
Yitzchak Bar Chaim edited by Shabtai Teicher CHAPTER ONE, Section Two:
Spiritual Growth from Level to Level He does not acquire all of them [all five levels of soul] at one time,
but rather according to his worthiness. At first, he obtains the lowest of
them, which is called “Nefesh.” Afterwards , if he so merits, he then
also attains “Ruach.” This is explained in several places in the Zohar,
such as in Parashat Veyechi, and Parashat Teruma, and
specifically at the beginning of Parashat Mishpatim (94b): “Come and
see: When a person is born, he is given a Nefesh...” Although a
person begins life with only a Nefesh, he has the potential to ascend to
higher levels of soul, according to his merit (as elucidated below). …All Nefashot are only from the World of Asiya; all Ruchot
are from the World of Yetzira; and, all Neshamot are from the
World of Beriya. However, the majority of people do not have all five
parts, which are called NR”N, etc., but only the Nefesh from Asiya.
We have seen
at the end of the previous section that the abbreviation for all five levels of
the soul is NRNCh”Y. Since the uppermost levels of Chaya and Yechida
are inaccessible now, they are often ignored, and the short-form is even more
abbreviated to NR”N. Late in history and distant from Mt. Sinai as we
are, most people only have access to the Nefesh level of their soul,
which is why it is so difficult to relate to God and spirituality. However, even this nefesh has many levels, and this is because Asiya
itself also divides into five Partzufim, called: Arich Anpin, Abba,
Imma, Zer Anpin, and Nukveh de’Zer Anpin. The word “partzuf”
(plural: “partzufim”) literally means “face”. In the Kabbala it also
refers to the entire human shape. In general, there are ten sefirot:
keter, chochma, bina, chesed, gevura, tiferet, netzach, hod, yesod, and malchut.
However, each one is a localized version of the entire system. In other words,
it is possible to discern within each one of them ten component sefirot, and
within each one of those ten others, etc. (This may be likened to a photograph
taken with a hologram, where any detail may be blown up to reveal all the basic
information that is contained in the whole photograph. All the basic
information of the whole is contained in the detail; and the detail contains
all the basic information found in the whole.) When we see a number of sefirot
joined together, working together and functioning together as a system, then
they are called a partzuf. Each partzuf has a
unique name, and these correspond to the names of the sefirot, the names
of the soul and the names of the worlds, as discussed previously (Chapter
One, Section One).
It should be noted that
the sefirot according to the names of the partzufim resemble a
family tree of three generations: grandfather, parents, child and his bride. Before a person can merit to attain his Ruach from the world of Yetzira,
he must first be complete in all of the five partzufim of the Nefesh
of Asiya. In other
words, though a person begins life with a Nefesh, it too has higher
levels that must be attained through spiritual growth and rectification. When
all the levels of Nefesh are rectified, then a person is ready to ascend
to a higher spiritual level, that of the level of Ruach. He then repeats
the process of growth on this higher spiritual plane. That is, he
must first master the Nefesh of his Nefesh, then the Ruach
of his Nefesh, the Neshama of his Nefesh, and so on. Once
he has acquired the Yechida of his Nefesh, then the entire level
of Nefesh is said to be “his,” and, he is ready to work on acquiring the
levels of Ruach. Yitzchak Bar-Chaim is the pseudonym of an American-born Jerusalem scholar who has studied and taught Kabbala for many years. He may be contacted through: kabbala@KabbalaOnline.com.
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