According to Jewish tradition, everything has a soul, and every human being has two souls: an animal soul (the body) and a G-dly soul (spirit). Everything has a purpose, and every person has a mission. That mission involves finding and freeing sparks of holiness that are trapped within the physical world. The sparks that each of us will find and release are connected to on our own personal mission, and we are each given exactly what we need to succeed. So, for example, someone who’s mission is to build roads for people to travel on safely will have the physical and intellectual resources to accomplish that mission, and in doing so will release the sparks from the materials and equipment used to make those roads.
Another way to think of releasing these sparks is to think of elevating an object to a place in the spiritual plane that is higher than that object could get on its own. Take food, for example. Animals and plants exist in a neutral way in the physical world; they are neither good nor bad. If we eat a carrot and then do something good in the world, we elevate the soul of that carrot higher than it could go on its own—we free a spark. Similarly, if we do something harmful after eating that carrot, we lower its soul, and the sparks remain trapped. That hardly seems fair to the carrot!
You may never have thought of carrots as having souls, but you may have pondered the question of whether we are physical beings seeking a spiritual existence, or spiritual beings living a physical existence. Jewish tradition supports the latter, but I think the former may be easier to believe because our physical-connection is so obvious while our soul-connection seems hidden away. Our animal soul makes constant demands on our attention; our G-dly soul makes no demands. Our body complains loudly when it needs something; our spirit seems to remain silent—how can we know what our spirit needs?
Between our animal and G-dly souls lies our mind—our intellect. It is our intellect that makes decisions about how we treat our body and how we treat our spirit. As I’ve said, it’s easy to hear our animal soul because we can feel it; it’s hard to hear our spirit because it seems silent. To hear our G-dly soul, we need one more thing—faith. We need faith that our G-dly soul exists and that it is who we truly are---pure and kind--a spark of the divine. With faith, we can see our body as a home for our spirit, and use our intellect to take care of our animal soul so that we have time to listen to and take care of our G-dly soul.
So…when we listen to our G-dly soul, what will we hear? I believe we will hear what we need to do in the physical world to support and fulfill our individual mission. Perhaps we need to learn something new, volunteer to help others, care for our environment. Whatever we need will be for the good. What will we feel? We will feel gratitude for what we have and compassion for others in need. What’s more, when we take the time to care for and listen to our G-dly soul, our animal soul ceases to make demands for our attention and even if it’s just for a few moments, it experiences a sense of peace and is elevated higher than it could get on its own.
Fiona Prince, MA is a coach and teacher who provides fundamental communication and writing skills through her own company and through Royal Roads Professional & Continuing Studies. Fiona acknowledges that her home and office are located on the traditional territories of the W瘫SÁNE膯 and Lkwungen-speaking peoples, on whose traditional territories, she is thankful to live, learn, play, and do her work. She worships at the Chabad Family Shul in Victoria and teaches children and adults how to read Hebrew. Contact her at if you would like to study with her.
You can read more articles on our blog, Spiritually Speaking, HERE: /blogs/spiritually-speaking
* This article was published in the print edition of the sa国际传媒 on Saturday, June 11th 2022
