Question: In our group, there are friends who love working in the kitchen, others enjoy writing, and still others find themselves in organizational work. Is this an indication of some quality of the Creator revealed in a person, an indication of necessity? After all, this is where a person finds fuel for the work.
Answer: Does a person’s external work, in which he expresses himself in relation to the group or to his spiritual path, whether through kitchen work, uniting the friends, or writing, indicate something?
Of course. It points to the type of his soul. But it does not indicate how elevated that soul is. Is a person who likes to write closer to spirituality than one who prefers working in the kitchen?
For example, Baal Shem Tov was the greatest Kabbalist in Europe after the time of Isaac Luria. Between the ARI and Baal HaSulam, there was no greater Kabbalist than the Baal Shem Tov. Yet he did not write a single word. He went out among the people, explained, gathered Kabbalistic groups, and taught.
He had absolutely no inclination toward writing. Everything we have from him was heard and written down by his students. After the Baal Shem Tov, an entire body of Kabbalistic literature remained and was used by great Admorim (leaders of communities and yeshivot), who themselves were major Kabbalists. All of this literature was recorded from his words, although he himself wrote nothing. We have had many examples like this.
Question: But why does a person feel the need to bestow to the group in such a specific way, through writing, kitchen work, organizing, and so on?
Answer: I cannot say. It depends on the inner structure of the soul. For example, astrologers divide people according to zodiac signs into roughly sixteen character types. This is also mentioned in The Book of Zohar, but it does not give us a clear and precise table according to which soul types can be classified.
Of course, one can say that there are a certain number of soul types, because there are 248 “organs” and 365 “tendons,” divisions of the Partzuf into Rosh, Toch, Sof, divisions into three lines. There are countless variations, but there is no simple chart. And when there is no simple scheme, it means there is no final and serious understanding. Therefore I would not want to explain things according to how they seem to me. It may appear one way now, and later turn out differently or with major changes. Who knows?
But it is absolutely certain that each person receives their own individual life path and obstacles. All this is the result of the revelation of his Reshimot. The upper light influences everyone equally, but the fact that each reacts differently and feels differently happens according to the Reshimot revealed in order to be realized. Ultimately, these Reshimot reflect the development of each person’s soul.
However, the development of the soul itself does not precisely indicate its character. For example, Albert Einstein did not display remarkable abilities until the age of twenty, and he performed poorly in school. Then suddenly he became a genius, and everyone was astonished. It is the same in spirituality. The development of the soul in its “infancy” does not testify to its overall structure or level. For this reason, I refrain from making conclusions or constructing theories.
What the Kabbalists wrote in The Zohar about soul types is too complex and intricate. I hope that one day we will be able to create a kind of table: 600,000 souls divided into several billion parts and thousands of reincarnations. This table would summarize all the data in such a way that we would receive one Kli (one common soul).
Why does each person have a unique path? I do not even know how to place all this into a single field of vision. But it is possible because in the state of final correction (Gmar Tikkun) each person attains this internally, and then sees, feels, and reaches the end of his path.
When we reach the state of Gmar Tikkun, then we will see whether it is possible to “bring down” all these things into our corporeal world (to explain them in the language of branches), and publish them in a book called Kabbalah for Beginners.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/26, Rabash, “The Difference between Charity and Gift”
