my best friend who died of cancer a half a year ago wrote me this a while before she died. i don't know if you are interested.


Hi, I am trying to write the idea that I thought of that we talked about yestersday. It is based on ideas that I learned in Jewish studies over the years that I just put together. Please tell me what you think.
In Genesis, at the end of the six days of creation, it says that G-d said, "Let's make man." Who was G-d addressing? Our sages over the years have given various answers to this question: angels, all of creation- in order that each thing contribute some of itself to the new amazing creation called man... The answer that I like best is that G-d was actually talking to man. He said, I created your body and soul, abilities, disabilities and talents, thought and free will etc. and now I want you to create yourself. I have created the raw materials and I need you to make something of yourself.
To make life a challenge, as opposed to life being simple and straightforward, G-d had to hide His own existence to allow for free will.
We also learn in Jewish studies that we were all created in a way that we can have eternal existence. This includes the existence of our soul even after our life on earth is over. We learn that the quality of this eternal existence is dependant on the efforts we put in in our life here.
Another thing we learn in Judaism is that G-d is One. In physics they are trying to find the smallest particle of which everything is made, like quarks or whatever might be found in the future to be smaller than those. But we sort of look at the inverse of that, that everything small and large, physical and spiritual etc, is actually a part of G-d. G-d created everything and everything is within G-d. We learn for example, that after life on earth our soul returns to the oneness of the G-dly realm.

So my question was, how can we retain our individuality if we go to the Oneness that in general is not individuated? I read an excerpt of a woman's near death experience and she wrote how when she "died" she felt that her existence was being subsumed by the oneness and intense love that was enveloping her. She said she felt she had not accomplished what she was sent to earth to do. The only thing she could do was to ask for more time on earth and she returned to her body.
So the conclusion I came to was just a matter of connecting all these ideas:
Our soul is placed in a body and put here into a world where we don't readily see or experience G-d and we have to overcome obstacles and challenges and darkness and "choose (eternal) life". It is these tough but good choices that give us the eternity. Sometimes we falter and choose unwisely and G-d sends us "reminders", like suffering. This causes us to think and maybe reevaluate aspects of our life. And this concentration and deep thought and good actions and good choices is what creates our individuality for eternity. And sometimes we are really good and are just given challenges even if we were totally good, because the depth of being that results is also creating our greatness for eternity.
So the more we put in great effort to develop our spiritual self and also if we suffer, the more we (hopefully) think about meaning and life, spirituality and G-d, and maybe that way G-d guides us to eternity.