This return to things as they could have been — to how reality would have wound up had Adam and Eve only followed the course set at their feet before they erred — will come about in the ultimate future: The World to Come, Olam Haba [1].
But the process will occupy great stretches of time — ten millennia — and be a result of great and mysterious, mystical machinations involving our bodies and souls growing closer and closer in proximity and type. (Understand of course that the term “millennium” isn’t to be taken literally, as time will no longer figure in once the world approaches the tenth “millennium” and passes it.)
In the end, the soul will “return to its source” after having “soared upward as a result of her accomplishments”, as it was designed to do from the first. Body and soul will be as one then, but the soul will be decidedly dominant as the body will hardly have a presence.
That’s to say that while the body will certainly be there in the mix, it will “be almost non-existent, and will be utterly and wholly subservient to the soul” then. In fact, Ramchal states, “it couldn’t even be referred to by a name” since it would have so faint a presence, and it could “only be said to exist” and to “have no (other) effect” than that.
This all serves as an explanation of the relationship between Adam Kadmon and its “hairs”, and it depicts their interactions [2].
Notes:
[1] This whole lay-out is derived from Da’at Tevunot 88.
[2] The various Adam Kadmon analogies to be drawn are all derived from Klallim Rishonim 9.
(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org
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