Question of the Week:
If we believe in reincarnation, why do we say that souls go to heaven for their final rest after they pass away? What's the point in praying for a soul if they might be right next to us down here on earth?
Answer:
I remember at school a friend failed his end of year exams and had to repeat a grade. He stayed back for a year and was no longer in our class, but rather the class below. We all moved on but he was held back.
Some think reincarnation is like repeating a year at school. While some souls graduate to the next world after their life in this world, others are sent right back down to get things right in another life.
That is not quite how it works.
A better metaphor would be a mobile data rollover plan. The phone company gives you 5GB of data per month. Any part of that data you don't use in one month rolls over to the next month. So if you only used 4GB in November, that 4GB is gone, but the remaining 1GB comes back for you to use in December.
Your soul has multiple gigabytes of spiritual energy and divine potential. This is the power G-d has invested in you to fulfill your mission in life. You use that potential by doing good deeds, performing mitzvos. Every mitzvah activates another gig of your soul energy. You have been given an allotted number of days in this word to utilize your gigs for good.
At the end of the billing cycle, when your time comes to leave this life, the activated parts of your soul go up to a higher place, because that part of you has completed its mission on earth. But if you have unused soul potential, if you didn't activate all of the energy invested in you to do good, then that unused part of your soul comes back again in another body to finish the job.
So when someone passes away, we pray that their soul should find rest in heaven, because that's where the already used part of the soul is found. As for the unused part of the soul, it will come down for another gig.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Moss
Source:
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Arizal, Shaar Hagilgulim Chapter 14