The source of Jewish souls in the letters of Torah

The source of Jewish souls in the letters of Torah

Rabbi Yehoishophot Oliver

(This is a continuation of the posts here, here, and here.)


The Jewish souls’ origin in Torah is also related to the letters in a Sefer Torah, which also number 600,000. Thus, the name “ישראל” is an acronym[1] for “יש ששים רבוא אותיות לתורה.”


The Neshamah of every single Jew stems from his or her corresponding letter in the Sefer Torah, which originates from the source of his or her soul in Torah above.


The Alter Rebbe asks:[2] Aren’t there far fewer letters in the Sefer Torah (to be precise, there are 304,805 letters)? He answers that the number of 600,000 includes the unwritten vowel sounds, each of which indicates a letter. For example, a komatz is an alef, a chirik is a yud, a cholam is a vav, and so on. However, we do not know exactly how to calculate which vowels are counted as letters in order to reach the number of 600,000.[3]


The Rebbe Rashab explains[4] that there are two kinds of letters: Letters of thought and letters of speech. When one thinks, one also uses letters, but these letters are far more abstract and spiritual than letters that come down in the relatively coarse medium of speech.


Likewise, the letters of Torah exist on both these levels: The letters of a physical Sefer Torah are comparable to Hashem’s letters of speech. But at the level of Chochmah of Atzilus, the Torah exists in the form of letters of thought. The Hebrew vowel sounds (Nekudos) are not necessarily written, but they allude to letters that one thinks. Thus, letters of thought include the more rarefied letters that relate to the Nekudos. And so on the level that Torah exists in Hashem’s thought, as it were, there are far more letters—altogether, 600,000. And since “The Jewish people arose in Hashem’s thought”[5]; i.e., the Jewish people stem from the level of Torah as it exists in Hashem’s thought, as it were, therefore the Jewish souls also number 600,000.


Moreover, just as thoughts are united with the thinker, so is a Jew united with Hashem by connecting with His thought. To explain, letters of thought are far more united with the soul than letters of speech; thus, although both thought and speech are referred to mere garments of the soul and not its essence, thought is called a “united garment,” while speech is referred to as a “separate garment.” Likewise, “The Torah binds the Jewish people with Hashem”[6] because the Jewish soul is rooted in the level of Hashem’s thought, which is united with Hashem in a far more complete way than the rest of the creations, which stem from Hashem’s speech, as it were.


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[1] Megaleh Amukos 186.
[2] Likkutei Torah Behar 41b, 43d.
[3] See the commentary of the P’nei Yehoshua on Kiddushin 30a, for additional solutions.
[4] Sefer HaMa’amarim 5663-5664, p. 309. Ibid., p. 131. Cf. ibid., p. 368.
[5] Bereshis Rabba 1:4.
[6] Zohar 3:73b.

This post was dedicated by Shmuli Markel and family (Shmuel Leib ben Esther and Sara Rochel bas Chaye Nechomoh), and by Yisroel Meir Raphael and family. Also dedicated by Yosef ben Chaim Goldenberg, now in the US Army; may Hashem continue to watch over him with many blessings and for a safe and healthy return to his family from Afghanistan.



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More on subdivisions in Torah and Neshamos

More on subdivisions in Torah and Neshamos
Rabbi Yehoishophot Oliver


(This article is a continuation to this article and this article.)


As mentioned earlier, each of the four sections of Torah contains 600,000 interpretations on every aspect of Torah. But if so, how is it that we find many more than 600,000 explanations of many concepts in Torah? The answer[1] parallels the above explanation concerning the subdivision of the souls. As explained, the 600,000 Jewish souls are root souls, each of which subdivides into 600,000 individual souls. And so is it with Torah: When we say that there are 600,000 interpretations according to peshat, for instance, this refers to the “root interpretations,” each of which is in turn subdivided into 600,000.


So when it is stated that each Neshamah stems from one of the 600,000 interpretations of Torah, it means that each individual Neshamah (or “spark,” as Tanya calls it) stems from one of the subdivisions of one of those 600,000 interpretations, and this is the “portion in Torah” of that Neshamah.


And just as there are 600,000 interpretations of Torah for the 600,000 root Jewish souls, so are there also 600,000 “root” paths in serving Hashem,[2] which in turn subdivide further into yet more individual paths in serving Hashem appropriate for each individual Neshamah.


In the Preface to Tanya, the Alter Rebbe explains that it may be difficult to find one’s own personalized guidance suitable for one’s own individual path in service of Hashem, and therefore one needs the guidance of a Rebbe in Yechidus. I will explain this concept further in a future post, G–d-willing.


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[1] Toras Menachem 5719, Vol. 2, p. 112.
[2] Hisva’aduyos 5742, Vol. 4, p. 2018.


This post was dedicated by Shmuli Markel and family (Shmuel Leib ben Esther and Sarochel bas Chaye Nechomoh), and by Yisroel Meir Raphael and family.



Like what you read? The articles I write take a lot of time and effort. Please contact me to sponsor an article for $36 in honor of the birthday, wedding anniversary, or yarhtzeit of a loved one, or for a refuah shleimah or the like. Also, see here concerning the tremendous merit of supporting the dissemination of Chassidus, and the blessings that one receives for doing so.

The Vital Connection Between Jewish Souls and Torah

The Vital Connection Between Jewish Souls and Torah

Rabbi Y. Oliver

(This article is a continuation of this earlier article.)

Now, the Jewish soul stems from Torah.[1] And so just as there are 600,000 root Jewish souls, so are there 600,000 explanations for every verse in the Written Torah. Likewise, so is it for each of the four sections of Torah, called “pardes” (lit. “orchard”)—peshat (the plain meaning, which was just mentioned); remez (the allegorical meaning); derush (the homiletical meaning); and sod (the mystical meaning). Each topic in each of these four sections contains 600,000 explanations. Each Jew has Torah teachings on each of these four levels that altogether create his individual soul.


This also parallels the soul’s root in the four higher spiritual worlds: Atzilus, Beriyah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. The soul descends from above Atzilus into Atzilus, then down into Beriyah, and so on, until it comes vested in the body of a Jew.


The soul’s descent in each of these successively lower spiritual realms on its journey to reach the physical body involve each of the four sections of Torah, each connected with a particular world, respectively:[2] peshat—Asiyah; remez—Yetzirah; derush—Beriyah;[3] sod—Atzilus.


It is because the Jew’s soul stems from Torah that he is obligated to study Torah. The Jew’s root in Torah also dictates the degree to which he will understand Torah when he strives to, and the topics at which he will have greater success at studying.[4]


This is the concept of each Jew’s “portion in Torah,” which we pray to Hashem to give us.[5] We ask Hashem to bring us to find and study the explanations in Torah that are in fact the root of each of our individual Neshamos. And even if we don’t merit this now, we are promised that when Moshiach comes, and in Gan Eden, every single Jew will come to study the explanations that create his Neshamah.


Likewise, we find that every Jew has the ability to innovate specific novelties in Torah that other Jews may not be able to innovate. The reason for this is that the particular novelties that each person innovates correspond to that person’s individual “portion in Torah.”


Likewise, every night, while the person is asleep, the Neshamah rises[6] to the Heavenly House of Study, and if one so merits, it is taught the explanation that lies at the root of his Neshamah. However, the extent to which this will be revealed to him will depend on his actions that day; certain worthy actions will merit a revelation of one dimension of the Torah-root of his Neshamah, while other worthy actions will merit a revelation of a different and perhaps higher dimension, and so on—“measure for measure.”[7] This experience refines the Neshamah and raises it to ever-higher levels, at which higher and higher levels of understanding are revealed to it. The Neshamah may undergo this experience despite one having no recollection of it upon awakening.


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[1] Much of the material below is drawn from the Arizal’s Sha’ar HaGilgulim  17; Sha’ar Ma’amarei Razal, p. 86; Sha’ar Ru’ach HaKodesh, gate 7, p. 108.
[2] Shaar HaHakdamos 1b.
[3] This is one opinion among the Kabbalists; another opinion maintains that remez is connected with Beriyah, and derush with Yetzirah.
[4] Cf. Tanya ch. 4, beginning.
[5] Avos 5:20. Nusach HaTefillah.
[6] Cf. Tanya ch. 29.
[7] Sanhedrin 90a.


This post was dedicated by Reb Pinchas Cylich and family in honor of the yahrtzeit of  R' Yeshaya Yaakov Ben Boruch Yosef  on 28 Marcheshvan, and (lehavdil bein chayim lachayim) the birthday of Binyomin Hirsch ben Feyge Matl, also on 28 Marcheshvan. May he have a shnas hatzlocho begashmiyus u'veruchniyus!


Like what you read? The articles I write take a lot of time and effort. Please contact me to sponsor an article for $36 in honor of the birthday, wedding anniversary, or yarhtzeit of a loved one, or for a refuah shleimah or the like. Also, see here concerning the tremendous merit of supporting the dissemination of Chassidus, and the blessings that one receives for doing so.

On the Subdivision of Souls

On the Subdivision of Souls

Rabbi Yehoishophot Oliver

On the highest level, all Jewish souls exist as one undifferentiated singularity. They are first divided into seven,[1] corresponding to the seven branches of the Menorah in the Beis HaMikdash. Each of the branches corresponds to one of the seven emotional Sephiros (divine attributes—sing. Sephirah) in Atzilus, each of which acts as a “root-soul” for all the Jews in whose souls that particular emotional attribute is primary.

Then there was the division into the twelve tribes, who acted as root-souls in their own way. The number twelve corresponds to the six emotional Sephiros (excluding the last, Malchus), as they go from below to above, and from above to below.[2] After that, each of the seven emotional attributes itself consists of ten sub-attributes, and this is the next division, into seventy, which was embodied in the seventy souls that descended to Egypt.[3]

The souls then subdivided further into 600,000. The Torah relates[4] that at Mount Sinai, there were 600,000 men present between the ages of twenty and sixty. Kabbalah[5] and Chassidus[6] explain that these men possessed the souls of the entire Jewish people, for there are altogether 600,000 Jewish souls. However, these souls are not ordinary souls; they are “root souls,” and so just as a root produces many branches, so do each of these souls subdivide into “sparks,” which also number 600,000.[7] Each of these sparks is a single Neshamah.

The number 600,000 also stems from the six Sephiros in Atzilus. Every Sephirah contains all ten Sephiros (both the three intellectual, and the seven emotional), and so the six contain 60, and then 600, and so on, until they reach 600,000.[8]

This is the meaning of “A generation passes, and a generation comes,”[9] but there can be no generation with less than 600,000 Jews.[10] These are the same souls, come down into different bodies, and so in this sense the passing generation is the succeeding generation.[11]

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[1] Torah Ohr 32b.
[2] Sha’ar Ru’ach HaKodesh, gate 7, p. 108.
[3] Bereshis 46:27.
[4] Shemos 12:37, 38:26, Bamidbar 1:46, 11:21.
[5] Zohar 3:273a.
[6] Tanya ch. 37, 48a.
[7] To do the simple math, that’s 360,000,000,000 Neshamos. However, the soul—even the root soul—consists of three distinct levels: Nefesh, Ru’ach, and Neshamah. So when the root souls split up into 600,000 sparks, that’s really all three levels of the soul splitting up. So even in the world of Atzilus, there are altogether 1,080,000,000,000 soul-levels. This number of souls then descends further into each of the three lower worlds, which comes to a total of 4,320,000,000,000 (quoted in Tanya Betziruf Marei Mekomos, Likkutei Pirushim, Shinuyei Nuscha’os, chs. 29-53, p. 756, in the name of Likkutei Hagahos LeTanya, p. 37. But see Torah Ohr 27d.
[8] Sefer HaMa’amarim 5654, p. 106. Sefer HaMa’amarim 5663-5664, p. 311.
[9] Koheles 1:4.
[10] Koheles Rabbah on Koheles 1:4, Yalkut 2:966. Zohar 3:273a. ibid. 4:216b.
[11] Sefer HaBahir 51.


This post was dedicated by Reb Pinchas Cylich in honor of the birthday of Menachem Mendel ben Faiga Matel on 16 Cheshvan. May he have a shnas hatzlocho begashmiyus u'veruchniyus!

Like what you read? The articles I write take a lot of time and effort. Please contact me to sponsor an article for $36 in honor of the birthday, wedding anniversary, or yarhtzeit of a loved one, or for a refuah shleimah or the like. Also, see here concerning the tremendous merit of supporting the dissemination of Chassidus, and the blessings that one receives for doing so.