The Ohr Hachaim then continues with the idea that Hashem has attached and fused the spiritual and physical worlds, with spiritual rules governing the physical manifestations of those rules, and physical actions controlling the spiritual rules.
The truth is that physical beings shun and oppose spiritual forces. This point of contention is greater than that of fire and water. Just like water extinguishes fire and fire evaporates water, so too, by many degrees further, do spirituality and physicality try and destroy each other.
In order to combine and fuse spirituality and physicality, Hashem created a bridge and a connection. This is the human soul, which is spiritual but on a comparatively low spiritual level. That allows it to connect with a person’s consciousness, which is less physical than the rest of his existence. These two, relatively weak forces in their respective realms, do not oppose each other sufficiently to cause a problem. The force above it, the ruach, would never be able to fuse with the human body. The nefesh serves as a bridge between the body and the ruach. Likewise, the Neshama would not be able to attach itself to the Nefesh, without the Ruach serving as a half-way point and bridge between them. The system was designed to work with multiple steps, each one connecting the previous level to the above level, without a direct connection between distances that are too metaphysically great.
The Zohar writes that the way a person can complete himself and rise to high spiritual levels using the Torah as a guide, is by rising from level to level. He first cleaves himself to the Nefesh level of his consciousness, ensuring that he completes all tasks related to that aspect of his soul. From there, he can rise to a higher level of Ruach, accomplishing more spiritual tasks.
The purpose of a person’s creation is to rise from level to level and to draw himself closer to the more spiritual aspects of his life’s force.
Chazal also taught us that eventually, when a person reaches the pinnacle of perfection, as personified by his Chaya, he will live in this world as though it is his. He will be able to utilize this world as his personal fiefdom. The possuk (Tehillim 128:2) says יְגִּיעַ כַפֶּיךָ כִּי תֹּאכֵל אַשְרֶּיךָ וְטוֹב לָךְ - When you eat the labor of your hands, happy shall you be, and it shall be well with you. The ‘labor of your hands’ alludes to the work the righteous person has invested to reach the heights of spiritual success. His fortune and good life are his. Chazal say that prior to a soul’s descent to this world, it eats like an adult single daughter, and after it returns from this world, it eats like a married daughter, by rights.
