It is likewise written (in Etz Chayim, Portal 26) that the [divine] soul itself does not need perfecting at all…; and there is no need for it to be embodied in this world, in a body and vital soul… except to draw down light to perfect them — the vital soul and the body…and this parallels exactly the mystery of “the exile of the Shechinah,” whose purpose is to refine the sparks of holiness which fell into the kelipot; so too does the divine soul enter into exile within the body and vital soul in order to perfect them, and to extract from them the sparks of holiness which they contain.

– Tanya, Chapter 37

Only a skeleton key

fashioned from one of Adam’s ribs

unlocks the ivory bars

of her cell.

She’s doing time

and counts her days

to the beat of a heart

and the pulsing of blood.

Innocent of any crime

yet placed in solitary confinement

she returns each morning to her cell

after her nightly parole.

Upon her final return home

into the arms of He who breathed life into her

she pleads on behalf of her cellmate

who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.