There is a whole world inside one human life:

According to Kabbalah, a Soul is a spark of the Infinite. And if the Infinite is without limit, then there is more inside a person than can ever be seen from the outside.

There is a whole world inside you.

Worlds of thought.

Worlds of feeling.

Worlds of memory.

Worlds of desire.

Worlds of possibility.

There are prayers you have never spoken.

Gifts you have not yet given.

Parts of yourself you have not yet discovered.

Lives you have not yet lived.

Chassidus teaches that the soul is a chelek Eloka mimaal mamash, a literal part of Hashem, of Source. There is something Divine within a human being that cannot be reduced to what they have done, what they have achieved, how they look, what they believe, or what happened to them.

This is why a person can never be fully measured from the outside.

You can meet someone for five minutes

and have no idea what universe you have just encountered.

You can know someone for fifty years

and still not know the full depth of their soul.

And perhaps this is one of the great responsibilities of being human:

to learn how to see.

To look at another person

and remember:

There is more here.

More than the moment.

More than the mistake.

More than the label or identity.

More than the behavior.

More than what I can understand.

There is a whole world inside this person.

And there is a whole world inside me.

Kabbalah teaches that the human being is an olam katan, a small world. The macrocosm and the microcosm meet inside us. Which means that when we honor one human life, we are not honoring something small. We are honoring an entire world.

And when one human life is lost, an entire world is lost with it.

A world of relationships.

A world of memories.

A world of future possibilities.

A world that only that particular soul could bring into being.

That is why reverence for life matters. Why every soul matters so much more than we can ever imagine with our minds.

That is why our aliveness, actions, contributions, and energy matter so much.

Why it is imperative for us to turn our lights on, to show up as ourselves, to live all the way alive, to lead, to give and receive, to enjoy, and to THRIVE.

And this is how I am remembering October 7th.

As thousands upon thousands of worlds.

Each person who was taken from us

was an entire universe.

Each person taken hostage

was an entire universe.

Each family shattered

was an entire universe.

And every name we remember

is a reminder:

This was not a number.

This was a world.

May we never become so accustomed to tragedy that we forget how sacred one human life is.

May we remember their names.

May we remember their faces.

May we remember their worlds.

And may today remind us:

There is a whole world inside one human life.

And every world matters.

There is a whole world inside one human life.

Let us LIVE, like we matter.

Because we do, more than we will ever know with our minds.

Am Yisrael Chai

I truly believe that reverence for each of our souls will change the very fabric of the world we live in.

The souls that were taken from us and the souls that are still alive.

The soul in everything and in everyone that was, is, and will be.

I bless each and every person reading this (because we all are so impactful and have the power to bless one another for the good) to deeply know and feel the impact of your aliveness, energy, contribution, and actions on this world, on this planet.

I bless us to know who we are for one another.

When souls know they matter, the world becomes a better place.

May Hashem send comfort to all of us who need it.

May every Neshama (soul) have the highest Aliyah.

And may we all THRIVE.