Ohr makif

A recent post touched on the concept of Ohr Makif, which prompted a question in the comments as to what this means. In a nutshell, our soul has numerous levels which reach from the loftiest closest connection to G-d right down to our mundane existence on earth. By way of what is perhaps a poor analogy, we each have tremendous brainpower at our disposal - the concentration and intensity we use to solve a calculus problem is not the same intensity of thought we use when we are washing the dishes. Our soul has tremendous power - some of that power is needed just to animate our body, some of that power is needed for higher thought, some is needed to do Torah and mitzvos and cleave to G-d, and some of that power is so strong that it cannot be contained or detected by the physical body we are in. Those higher rungs of the soul that are part of the definition of who we are but are connected to G-d on higher levels than can be absorbed or detected by the body, are the ohr makif, the "surrounding light". My wife had suggested that the spinning of the dreidel round a single point represents the levels of the neshoma of ohr makif that spin around the point of our physical body. More to come...