Now the Alter Rebbe will explain another aspect of the advantage of being in this world, not just from overcoming darkness, but from the spiritual source of the darkness itself:
This advantage is also because in the ultimate spiritual source of the animal soul, there the source of the animal soul is higher than the Divine soul.
As it is written (Bereishis 36:31): “And these are the kings that ruled [in the land of Edom] before there was king for the Children of Israel”, referring to the Divine soul.
Edom is another name for Eisav, Yaakov’s brother, who represents the World of Tohu as opposed to Yaakov who represents the World of Tikkun.
The World of Tohu is a level of Hashem’s revelation where the Light is unlimited and infinitely intense, but the “Keilim-Vessels”- the capacity to define that Light and channel it- was not able to handle the intensity of the Light, and the Keilim “broke down” and became the source for unholiness.
The World of Tikkun is a level of Hashem’s revelation where the Light is limited to the capacity of the “Keilim-Vessels”, i.e. to be channeled properly, but the Light is inherently limited to the capacity of those “Keilim”, as opposed to the Light of Tohu that has no such limitation.
Because Eisav/Edom is connected to the World of Tohu, that is why he had so much energy, but couldn’t contain it properly and broke down into channeling all of his energy into unholiness.
Yaakov who is connected to the World of Tikkun was able to properly channel all his energy into holiness.
This is the idea of saying that the animal soul comes from the “kings of Edom before the Children of Yisroel”: The animal soul derives its life in its original source from the World of Tohu. This is why it has so much passion and energy but has a very hard time channeling it into holiness. This World of Tohu is called “the kings of Edom”, meaning the strength and power of the source of Eisav/Edom in the World of Tohu. This is called “before there was a ruling king for the Children of Yisroel”, since the Light of Tohu is on a higher level, “before”, the level of Tikkun, which is called “a ruling king for the Children of Yisroel”, since Yisroel/Yaakov and his children are sourced in the World of Tikkun.
It is only that through the “breaking of the Keilim” of Tohu where the animal soul originates that they fell down very low, like it says (ibid. 32:33): “and these kings reigned, and they died”, showing how the Keilim of Tohu “broke” or “died” and fell down, included in them was the source of animal soul who also “fell down”.
However, in their source they (the animal soul and other things from the broken Keilim of Tohu) are much higher than the Divine soul.
Therefore, even as they exist in their “fallen” state here below they have strength and power over the Divine soul, because of their source in the level of “Kings/Royalty” of Tohu, which is the idea of rulership.
Also, the person receives his life from animals and other food, without which he would not be able to live. Whereas the food does not need the person for its existence.
This is because in their ultimate source Above they are higher than souls of people.
