TRUE EXISTENCE IS ETERNAL

Anything manifest with G-d’s will has kiyum atzmi … This concept is synonymous with the notion that “sanctity does not depart from its place,” and “holy artifacts maintain their sanctity, etc.” The place of Torah and avoda of a tzaddik maintains its holiness even after he ascends from his physical life to true life in Gan Eden. * From Chapter 8 of Rabbi Shloma Majeski’s Likkutei Mekoros. (Underlined text is the compiler’s emphasis.)

Translated by Boruch Merkur

Anything that is manifest with G-d’s will has kiyum atzmi (literally, essential or inherent existence). This concept is elucidated with regard to keilim, the “vessels” that contain G-dly light – that in virtue of their d’veikus, their cleaving to G-d, and their unity with the Divine light, they too are at the level of kiyum atzmi.

The same is true with regard to all Mitzvos that involve physical objects, such as [the] parchment [of a Torah scroll or t’fillin], the wool of tzitzis, and the like. All that is in accordance with G-d’s will, vessels fit for the Supernal Light to shine upon them, are sustained at the level of kiyum atzmi.

(This concept is synonymous with the notion that “sanctity does not depart from its place,” and “holy artifacts maintain their sanctity, etc.” The place of Torah and avoda of a tzaddik maintains its holiness even after he ascends from his physical life to true life [in Gan Eden]. Also, a ray of the light of his service remains in its place, the place where he studied and delved into Torah. The same is true of all the items that he used for the sake of his avoda – sanctity resides upon them in virtue of having been used for birurim, used by the tzaddik for spiritual purposes.

([To illustrate how sanctity remains in its place, the Rebbe relates the following.] Once (circa 5645-5646) I saw my revered father [the Rebbe Rashab], the Rebbe, hareini kaparas mishkavo (let me stand in atonement of his soul), enter the room of his father, my revered grandfather of blessed memory [the Rebbe Maharash], and the room was arranged as it had been when he was alive. My father entered wearing a gartel and stood by the table facing the chair where his father would sit [when he was alive]. His lips moved as if he were speaking, and he wept copiously.)

Sitra Achara, by contrast, is devoid of the Divine will, for which reason it separates itself from G-d’s unity, and it does not possess any sustaining existential forces except that the Makif (the transcendent aspect of G-dliness) sustains it. The Makif is its life-force, and when its “shadow” [this life-force] departs, it is then cut off and utterly obliterated, totally eradicated and eviscerated.

(Seifer HaMaamarim 5690, pg. 10)