BS’D
When the soul departs from the world above and descends into a person’s body it immediately senses great distance from the warmth and love of Hashem. However this emptiness drives a person to yearn to reunite; the greater the longing the stronger a person’s determination to rejoin.
The soul constantly yearns; her yearning is felt by us as emptiness. Her consolation comes through our involvement in mitzvot; this is how we nourish the soul and ease her pain. Yet so many mitzvot are material by nature. Then how does the soul benefit?
All creation consists of matter and energy; material and spiritual (which is all energy but that is a subject for discussion another time). The Ba’al Shem Tov HaKadosh teaches that Hashem is found in everything and everything has Hashem in it. Material existence is made up of G-dly sparks (nitzotzot kedusha) that enable the object to exist.
The soul is nourished via the G-dly core implanted in all physical creation. A ray of Hashem’s light is found in all material and the soul derives comfort and pleasure when ‘fed’ this illumination.
When the opportunity arises for us to do a mitzvah let’s visualize a shining beam of G-dly light permeating our soul. Eternal joy and inner completion is felt by her. Something to think about next time you study Torah and do mitzvot.
