Wednesday, August 23, 2017

parshanut torah comment - Inner being: Soul or Spirit?



Bereshit (Genesis) 2:7 reads: 'vayipach beapav nishmat chayim vayehi ha'adam lenefesh chayah'


Is my inner being a 'soul' or a 'spirit', or am I a 'soul' or am I a 'spirit'? Let me make myself clear:


Adam became a living soul, humans are living souls, but it seems that HaShem didn't give us a soul, but that this is the outcome of something else: body+animating force= nefesh. So in that sense a human is a living being or living soul; It's an existence that is alive.


The 'force' that plants 'an animating facet' in the body is the mechanism behind the implanting of life in the body; in this case the breathing (napach) of G-d.


The 'animating facet' seems to be called the nishmat chayim or in other scriptures such as Kohelet 12:7 the ruach, mostly translated as spirit.


I wanted to make sure that I got it right; is that what forms our inner being, what we call spirit? And the physical life or appearance as a living being (the life that runs through our veins) what we call soul?


Is my living body a nefesh with a ruach/neshamah? Please help me out




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