Q:
The Rav said recently in a response that “Many souls have already been burnt because of the Internet, Rachmana Litzlan.” Does this mean that these souls have become truly lost and that they cannot be repaired? Why should it be different than when Nadav and Avihu’s souls became “burnt” after they sinned, who certainly didn’t lost their share in the World To Come and who certainly didn’t cease to exist? Is there really such a concept that a person’s soul can become lost or “burnt up”? How does a soul become burnt up and destroyed?! And what about the “Yechidah” level of the soul which is indestructible? And doesn’t Rebbi Nachman of Bresslov teach that “There is no such as despair in the world”, which means that a person can always get a tikkun for his soul? I’ll also ask this question on a simple level: Are those who fell into the tumah and pitfalls already “burnt up” and it’s too late for them? Isn’t a person always able to do teshuvah....?
A:
[There are two ways for a soul to become “burnt up” – in the side of devastation, and in the side of repair.]
About the side of devastation, we find that the Gemara (Talmud Bavli Rosh HaShanah 17a) says that in the future, the wicked [those who remained wicked and didn’t do teshuvah] will be become “ash” under the foot of the tzaddikim. They become spread apart like individual pieces of ash. This is a fallen, ruined state of “individuality”.
In contrast to this the “repaired” level of being “burnt”, is what the Gemara describes as “death by the kiss of Hashem”, also known as hiskalelus, becoming integrated with Hashem, which Nadav and Avihu merited in their deaths.
As long as a person is alive, he can do teshuvah, and transform his ruined state of being “ash” [die to his sins], into a repaired state of “ash”, as implied by the verse, “And I am dust and ash.”
