Orach Chayim Way of Life - Jewish Life - Torah Insights - Current Events

Bereishit 2:7
וַיִּפַּח בְּאַפָּיו נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים
vayipach be'apav nishmat chayim
He blew in his nostrils a living soul.

The nose is an instrument of the soul. The soul enters man by way of his nose and it leaves him by the same route. This is why Chazal (our Sages) in Yoma 85 have stated that if someone takes a fall that one has to examine him including his nose. This is based on Bereishit 7:22, "all who had the spirit of a living soul in their nose...died." It is one of he wondrous phenomena of the creation of man that the letter ש (shin) associated with this instrument (organ), the fact that the nose is divided makes it appear like the letter ש. This is an allusion to the Name of G-d שדי (Shakkai), which in this manner is engraved on the body of every human being who has been circumcised. This is the mystical meaning of Iyov 32:8, "the breath of Shakkai that gives them understanding."

We know that the nose is the organ by means which we smell and that the soul derives pleasure from certain fragrances This is the reason the Talmud Berachot 51 prohibits us from even smelling incense or other fragrances intended for idolatrous purposes. The smell of any fragrance leaves behind a memory. We have it on the authority of the Torah in connection with the sacrificial offerings VaYikra 6:8 that smell acts as a reminder. "Its pleasant fragrance is a memorial (portion) unto HASHEM," i.e. the person in whose name this frankincense has been offered will be remembered by G-d as having accumulated merit.

Maimonides in his introduction to Pirke Avot, Chapter 1, claim that the soul is a single force which however has three sub-categories:

1) the category which houses our desires, something we have in common with the animals.
2) the source of growth, something possessed both by animals and all manner of plants.
3) the ability to think coherently, the soul of wisdom.

All these functions are part of a single soul.

Avraham Ibn Ezra in his commentary on Kohelet 7:3, claim that there are three distinct souls operating within man all of which are distinct from one another. The intelligent souls is an entity of its own, the potential to grow is an independent force. The animal kind of soul, which is the seat of all desires, i.e. the desire to eat, drink, procreate or simply indulge in sex, as well as the desire to sleep, area all part of the animalistic soul in man and constitute a separate soul. They are part of what man has in common with the animal kingdom. The seat of that particular soul is the liver. This "soul" is called on occasion נפש (nefesh), and on occason רוח (ruach). Its seat is in the liver. In Devarim 12:20 it is called nefesh when the Torah writes, "when your soul desires to eat meant..."

The נפש הצומח (nefesh hatzomeach) is the force that enables man to grow physically. He shares such a force with all the trees, etc. Just as trees possess such built-in powers, man too possesses such a growth potential. As distinct from the seat of all desire which is presumed to be in the liver, this force does not have a specific location but is present in all parts of man's body. It remains active until a certain point his life. The soul of intelligence is something exclusive to man, something he shares with beings in the higher worlds, beings which live forever in their sacred domains. The seat of this soul is in man's brain, and it is generally referred to as נשמה (neshamah) This is what the Torah described as the נשמת חיים (nishmat chayim which G-d "blew" into Adam's nostrils. Also in Yeshayahu 42:5 writes, "He gives a soul (neshamah) to the people on it [earth]." There are numerous similar verses throughout the Scriptures.

According to the view of the philosophers who believe that each person has three separate souls, we find support for Chazal in Sanhedrin 65 who report that the famous teacher Rava created a human being (Golem). When he brought this creature before Rabbi Zeyra, Rabbi Zeyra spoke to him whereas the creature could not answer back. Thereupon Rabbi Zeyra said to the Golem, "You are man-made; go back to the dust you have been made of." This passage in the Talmud is proof that man has three distinct souls. Rava, who was familiar with Kabbalah, and had studied the Sefer Yetzirah, had infused this creature with the "soul" which governs motion. He was unable, however, to provide his creature with the power of speech. The power of speech stems from the soul called חכמה (chachmah).

However, our verse (2:7) here is proof that there is only one overall soul, but that it contains three different potentials without these different abilities having different origins. The reason is that Adam, as distinct from subsequent human beings, was merely a clod of earth; this is why the Torah states, 'G-d fashioned man dust from the earth" (2:7), as soon as Adam's form had materialized G-d "blew" into him this soul of which it is said, "man then became a living creature," i.e. he became able to move just as the fish and the animals of which the Torah had said that they had been "a swarm of living creatures. This is the meaning of the word חיה (chayah) that thanks to this "soul" Adam became a living creature whereas originally he had been inert unable to move, just like a stone.

Regardless of which view one has of the soul, all Jewish Sages and philosophers are agreed that the part of the soul which survives physical death is the נפש החכמה (nefesh hachachmah), "the soul which is rooted in the emanation chachmah." The body has absolutely no share in the mental and spiritual development of a person except that it serves the as the vessel, the container within which such mental and spiritual forces are able to function and to make it the base of their operations.

Dead people do not possess any mental or spiritual energy. The existence of such mental and spiritual energy is exclusively due to the living. It is clear then that what we have called נפש (nefesh), or נפש חיה (nefesh chayah), is a phenomenon that lives only within what we call "nature," for it is certainly true that this "natural soul" is able to absorb wisdoms of a variety of degrees. When the body dies it dies as part of "nature," and "nature" is unable to receive any input from such a dead body, i.e. the wisdom it used to possess.

Two remarkable principles has thus been established:

1) man is composed of two major components or essences. Part of man's essences lives as an integral part of "nature," in fact due to the existence of "nature." Without nature that part of man simply could not exist.

2) The second part of man's essence dies through the very fact that it is bound to "nature." This second part is the body. The reason both the soul and the body share such experiences is that they have been joined together so that (to a limited degree) each one has to share the experiences of the other. The body gets an inkling of what live's potential is all about because it has become joined to the soul. The soul experiences what death is all about because it has become tied to the mortal body. Death may be considered as a punishment for the soul who has allowed itself to be misled by the body. It follows that essentially the soul is suppose to live forever; its death is incidental. The reverse is true of the body which essentially is mortal but lives temporarily by merit of the soul it hosts.

Once body and soul part company, each one resumes its natural destiny, i.e. the body dies and the soul lives on forever. In both cases this separation means that a temporary, unnatural union or partnership has been broken up, each partner returning to its essential habitat.

The major foundation of our beliefs remains our holy Torah which is the source of our life. All true philosophers derive their wisdom only the Torah. True wisdom is always the fruit, i.e. the product of profound Torah study. The matter of the survival of the soul after the death of the body is made plain by the very fact that the soul G-d infused in Adam was called נשמת חיים (nishmat chayim), "a soul of life." This means the soul was "hewn" from the very source of life. The reason is that we know that the soul is derived from the source of wisdom, the emanation chachmah. The word "chayim" when part of the term "nishmat chayim," reminds us of Iyov 32:7-8 "I thought: 'let age speak; let advanced years declare wise things. But, truly it is the spirit in men.'" We find that in Iyov the words חכמה (chachmah) and רוח (ruach) appaer side by side. The author is telling us that רוח, "the spirit, the soul," is the source of חכמה (chachmah), wisdom. If our verse saw fit to call the soul שמת חיים, this is an allusion to Kohelet 7:12, "and wisdom [the emanation of wisdom] preserves the life of those who possess it." This is also what G-d assured the prophet of when He told him to promise the High Priest Yehoshua that his soul would be in the company of the angels if he would observe G-d's commandments (Zecharyah 3:7). The wording is "and I shall enable you to be able to walk among these who are stationary." The angels are spiritually stationary as they do not possess an evil urge the defeat of which would enable them to make spiritual progress.

The words ויפח באפיו (vayipach be'apav), "He blew into Adam's nostrils," are to alert us to the fact that this soul was not part of the basic four elements the terrestrial universe is made of, although רוח (ruach), "wind or spirit" is one of those four elements.  Man's soul shares five characteristics with G-d (Berachot 10). It is similar to G-d in all its virtues, at the same time being superior to the soul of the angels. The reason is that the soul of man was created on the first day of creation as compared to the angels who were created only on the second day. It is an accepted rule that phenomena which were created sooner are superior to those which were created later. We have an explicit statement in Sanhadrin 93 that the righteous are superior to the angels.

Whatever man's mouth can tell about the attributes (virtues) of G-d to the extent that He is the Creator is possible only because the soul of man is a direct creation of this Creator. Thus a famous quote: "Know your souls so that you may gain knowledge about your G-d."


וַיְהִי הָאָדָם לְנֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה
vayehi ha'adam lenefesh chayah
man became a living creature

During the entire report about the creation you will not find that the word ויהי (vayehi) was applied directly to something which had not been created, except to Light and to man. The message is that man's soul will endure forever just as the original Light will endure forever as both had been created on the first day. This fact inspired the liturgical poet Rabbi Yehudah Halevi in a poem commencing with the words, "G-d's established the souls together with the original Light, the first of G-d's creative activities." The meaning of the whole verse is, "the main purpose of the existence of human beings is on account of their spiritual soul."

May HASHEM continue to enlighten us with the Light of His Torah.

-Chazal

---------------

Bereishit Pardes - Creation
Bereishit Pardes - Gan Eden
Bereishit Pardes - Etz HaChayim - Etz HaDaat Tov vaRa

Bereishit 3:24
לִשְׁמֹר אֶת-דֶּרֶךְ עֵץ הַחַיִּים
lishmor et-derech etz hachayim
to guard the path of the Tree of Life

Torah observance is referred to here as "the path of the Tree of Life." We have other verses in Scripture which refer to Torah and the observance of its statues as the "Tree of Life," such as Mishlei 3:18 "she is a Tree of Life for those who take hold of it."


2:16
וַיְצַו הי אלוקים עַל-הָאָדָם לֵאמֹר מִכֹּל עֵץ-הַגָּן אָכֹל תֹּאכֵל
vayetzav HASHEM ELOKIM al-ha'adam lemor mikol etz-hagan achol tochel
HASHEM ELOKIM commanded Adam, "You may surely eat from every tree of the garden"

Adam was commanded two separate commandments here, a positive as well as a negative commandment.

Positive: "You shall eat from every tree of the garden."
Negative: "but from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil you must not eat" (v17)

These verse also contain what are known as the Seven Noachide Laws, i.e. the seven laws applicable to all mankind (enumerated in Sanhedrin 56).

The prohibition of:

1. idolatry
2. bloodshed (murder)
3. incestuous sexual relations of certain categories
4. blasphemy
5. robbery
6. consumption of living tissue from an animal
7. institution of judiciary to deal with violators of these commandments

The laws are derived from the text as follows:

vayetzav refers to idolatry. The word צו (tzav) is synonymous with idolatry, "because he has gone after futility" (Hoshea 5:11)

HASHEM alludes to blasphemy. The Torah states,"and he who curses the Name of HASHEM shall be put to death" (VaYikra 24:16)

ELOKIM refers to the establishment of a judiciary system, אלוקים לֹא תְקַלֵּל (ELOKIM lo tekalel) "you shall not curse a judge."
 
al ha-adam is an allusion to the prohibition of bloodshed, murder. The parallel verse is found in Bereishit 9:6, שֹׁפֵךְ דַּם הָאָדָם בָּאָדָם דָּמוֹ יִשָּׁפֵך (shofech dam ha-adam ba-adam damo yishafech) "he who spills the blood of a human being shall have his own blood spilled by a human being."

lemor alludes to forbidden sexual relations. The reference is based on Yirmeyahu 3:1,
לֵאמֹר הֵן יְשַׁלַּח אִישׁ אֶת-אִשְׁתּוֹ וְהָלְכָה מֵאִתּוֹ וְהָיְתָה לְאִישׁ-אַחֵר הֲיָשׁוּב אֵלֶיהָ עוֹד-הֲלוֹא חָנוֹף תֶּחֱנַף הָאָרֶץ הַהִיא (lemor hen yeshalach ish et-ishto vehalchah me'ito vehaitah le'ish-acher hayashuv eleihah od halo chanof techenaf ha'aretz hahi) "to say, 'If a man divorces his wife, and she leaves him and marries another man, can he ever go back to her? Would not such land be defiled?'"

mikol etz-hagan achol tochel, "from every tree of the garden you shall surely eat," is an allusion to the prohibition of robbery, i.e. man requires G-d's express permission to partake of matters in this world.

ume'etz hada'at tov vara lo tochal mimenu, "but you must not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil," is an allusion not to eat a living animal's tissue. The lesson derived from the words of this verse is, "from a certain object you must not eat part thereof."

So it is seen that the basic Seven Noachide Laws are all alluded to in some form or other in these two verses.


2:17
וּמֵעֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע לֹא תֹאכַל מִמֶּנּוּ כִּי בְּיוֹם אֲכָלְךָ מִמֶּנּוּ מוֹת תָּמוּת
ume'etz hada'at tov vara lo tochal mimenu ki beyom achalcha mimenu mot tamut
but from the Tree of Knowledge of what is Good and Evil you must not eat, for on the day you eat from it, you will surely die.

The words in this verse do not mean that Adam, or anyone else, would die immediately on the very day he would eat from the tree; rather the meaning is that as soon as he would eat from that tree man would become mortal, would forfeit his right to live on earth indefinitely.

According to Chazal in Shabbat 55, man had been meant to live forever just like the angels.


מוֹת תָּמוּת
mot tamut
you will die twice

The Torah repeats the reference to death to tell us that from that moment on man would be subject to two kinds of natural death.  1Shmu'el 26:10 is clearly detailing this, "and HASHEM Himself will strike him down, or his time will come and he will die, or he will go down in battle and will perish." When David spoke of "or his day will come," he referred to natural death.

Chazal state unequivocally that if Adam had not sinned he would have lived forever. This view is supported by Tehillim 82:6, "I (HASHEM) said that you are divine beings and that all of you are sons of the Most High." The remarkable thing in that Psalm is that Assaf did not quote G-d as saying, "you are like a divine being," or "like the sons of the Most High." He referred to an actual divine quality possessed by Man (Adam) i.e. his immortality.  Scripture contains many other verses along the same lines.


בְּיוֹם
beyom
on the day

The Torah emphasizes the word beyom to refer to a day in G-d's calendar, i.e. 1000 years in terms of our calendar. In order that G-d's word, when He created Adam, should not have been wasted, He granted Adam a "day" of His own calendar, and Adam lived close to 1000 years. He was only 70 years short of G-d's day when he died, but in terms of our lives nowadays these 70 years represented a whole lifetime, so that he died on the day he ate, i.e. being deprived of a life span.

★ Adam had bequeathed 70 years of his life expectany to David whom G-d had shown him as destined to die at birth (Midrash Yalkut Tehillim 843)

The SOD (Kabbalistic meaning) of this verse concentrates on the repeated appearance of the word "death" when the Torah spoke of mot tamut.  It is understood as the warning of two deaths, a physical death of the body and a spiritual death of the soul. We find a repetition of the word "died," when the Torah reported the death of Aharon's two older sons, Nadav and Avihu (VaYikra 16:1). We also find similar repetition (implication) of the word "death" when Moshe prayed for Re'uven in his final blessing (Devarim 33:6), especially when the translation of that verse by Onkelos is translated as follows, "let him not die a second death."


3:5
כִּי יֹדֵעַ אלוקים כִּי בְּיוֹם אֲכָלְכֶם מִמֶּנּוּ וְנִפְקְחוּ עֵינֵיכֶם וִהְיִיתֶם כֵּאלֹהִים יֹדְעֵי טוֹב וָרָע
Ki yode'a ELOKIM ki beyom acholchem mimenu venifkechu eineichem viheyitem ke'Elokim yod'ei tov vara
For Elokim knows that on the day you will eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Elokim, knowing good and evil.

From this it would appear that prior to his sin Adam did not possess the ability to distinguish good from evil. If that were true, then what happened here would violate a Talmudic principle, i.e. that a sinner should not be allowed to benefit by his sin.  It is clear that one must not understand the verse to mean that Adam did not know the difference between right and wrong prior to his sin any more than do the animals. The meaning of the words, "you will be like Elokim," is appropriately translated by Onkelos who render these words as "you will become possessed of superior wisdom knowing what is good and what is evil." There can be no question that at the time G-d created man He had equipped him with a superior intelligence, "He created him in the image of Elokim." The word tzelem (image) in that verse is a reference to intelligence.

If G-d commanded man not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, the reason He did so was precisely because man was intelligent enough to distinguish between truth and untruth. G-d is not on record as commanding animals what to do as they have no intelligence.

The problem is that knowledge of good and evil is not something within the realm of intelligence. Prior to his sin, Adam's intellect was totally spiritually oriented; it was not concerned with matters of the body. He was not even familiar with such matters. He was completely unaware of the carnal implications of nudity, etc. He considered his genitals as organs no different from all his other organs. Once he had sinned, and suddenly experienced the sex drive as an instrument of physical gratification, i.e, "he saw that the Tree was good to eat and a pleasurable experience for the eyes," he was immediately punished by being stripped of his ability to use his intellect objectively; from that moment on, considerations such as physical desire, appreciation of physical beauty or ugliness clouded his previous pure intellect. This is why the nachash (serpent) spoke of "you will become intimate (an alternate meaning of yode'a) with good and evil." The nachash had been careful not to say, "you will know truth and falsehood," or words to that effect.

★ Pay special attention to the wording of verse 7, וַתִּפָּקַחְנָה עֵינֵי שְׁנֵיהֶם וַיֵּדְעוּ (Vatipakachnah einei shneihem vayede'u) "the eyes of both of them were opened..." The Torah deliberately did not write that as a result of this opening of their eyes ויראו (they saw) but it wrote וידעו (they knew) that they were naked. What they suddenly "knew" they had already "seen" previously. The Torah wanted to emphasise that they now "saw" something they had been aware of previously in a totally new light. What had previously not been shameful had suddenly become something shameful. The reason was that they had overstepped the boundaries and displayed a tendency to derive physical pleasure from something G-d had denied them. They had displayed a desire to be more animal-like in their cravings. As a result, their punishment consisted in their being allocated animal-like food as we find in v18 "you will eat the grass of the field." Previously, they had been allocated only the kind of herbs which produced self perpetuating seeds, as distinct from the food allocated to the animals (1:29).


3:6
וַתֵּרֶא הָאִשָּׁה כִּי טוֹב הָעֵץ לְמַאֲכָל
Vatere ha'ishah ki tov ha'etz lema'achal
the woman saw that the Tree was good for food.

Chazal disagree as to the exact nature of this tree (Berachot 40). Some say it was a fig tree and they base themselves on the fact that immediaely after eating from the tree Adam and Chavah are describe as covering their genitals with fig leaves (v7). They feel that this shows that the very thing which had become their downfall now had become the instrument of their rehabilitation.

Other Sages believe that the Tree in question was the grapevine. This is why we read in Bereishit Rabbah 19:8 "Chavah squeezed the juce from the grapes and brought it to her husband." Seeing that its appearance was red like blood, their blood would be spilled and the blood of the whole universe, measure for measure, the punishment fitting the crime. The blood of the female of the species which would be spilled at regular intervals is the menstrual blood. This is also the mystical dimension of Devarim 32:14, "and the blood of the grapes you will drink as if it were delicious wine." The Torah called the grape "blood," seeing that grapes had brought blood into the world.

Still another view is that of Rabbi Abba from Acco in Bereishit Rabbah 15:8 who believes that the Tree in question was the Etrog tree, the citron fruit. From the Kabbalistic point of view, the Tree was indeed the Etrog tree something which is hinted at in the words וְנֶחְמָד הָעֵץ לְהַשְׂכִּיל (venechmad ha'etz lehaskil) "and the Tree was a desirable means to gain insights." Onkelos translates these words as, "that the fruit was exceptionally beautiful and desirable." The nature of that fruit was that it excited and dominated one's intellect. This is also why the Targum translates VaYikra 23:40 again using the word אתרוג (etrog) to describe an especially beautiful fruit. We may thus understand v18 where the curse (punishment) for eating from such a beautiful tree is that henceforth the earth will sprout forth thorns and thistles as another example of punishment fitting the crime.


וְכִי תַאֲוָה-הוּא לָעֵינַיִם
vechi ta'avah-hu la'einayim
and that it was a delight for the eyes.

Originally man was a totally intellectually oriented creature. The Torah wanted to remind us that at that stage (before the sin) whatever motivation prompted Chavah and Adam to eat from this Tree was the desire to gain further insights (lehaskil). This would correspond to Tehillim 38:10, "You G-d are aware that (nearness) to You is the objective of all my desire." According to this interpretation it was the intellect which dictated to them to eat what G-d had withheld from them.

Whatever his or her motivation, the fact remains that Chavah (and Adam) violated G-d's will as expressed by His prohibition. Just as his intellect had told him that the fruit of the that Tree held promise of further insights, the same intellect had also told him that the acquisition of such insights was clearly against G-d's will, else why would He have forbidden its fruit? At this stage the yetzer hara, the force within man which moves him to assert his independence, was in the shape of his wife, Chavah. He was misled into believing that what he did was in order.

After having eaten from the fruit of that Tree Adam began to experience a new sensation altogether, a sensation which became an integral part of him from then on. This was the sex drive which is a drive originally inspired by the commission of a sin.

The question may be asked, if indeed this drive was and is responsible for sinning and Adam and Chavah did not yet have it before they ate from the tree, how did they come to sin? The fact is that even angels who most certainly do not have a sex drive and are motivated purely by intellectual considerations also sin on occasion. One example is found in Bereishit 19:13 where the angels who had been commanded to destroy Sedom and to save Lot described themselves as if it were they who were destroying Sedom and not G-d. They told Lot, "for we are about to destroy this place."


וַיֹּאכַל
vayochal
and he ate

At this point Adam sinned seeing G-d had warned him previously, "and you must not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" (2:17). The one warning applied to earthly matters such as not to eat from the fruit in order not to ingest the ource of the evil, carnal desires, etc. The other warning pertained to celestial matters, that as a result of eating from the Tree and obtaining new insights he should not speculate about the origin and essence of G-d. From a practical point of view the word "mimenu" (3:5) also included the prohibition not to use the branches of that Tree to plant a duplicate.

Philosophically speaking, Adam was not to make the mistake made later by the generation of the Tower who thought that there was no one beyond the heavens.

★ Inasmuch as his spiritual image in the celestial regions received its input from the "left" part of the emanations, the seat of the attribute of Justice, it became necessary for him to offer an ox with only a single horn as expiation after he had done teshuvah in order to demonstrate that he recognized the Unity of G-d and did not believe that G-d had partners, i.e. that there was a power-sharing arrangement between the various midot (attributes) of G-d. In order for Adam to learn this lesson G-d especially made available to him an ox which had a unicorn on its forehead. The word קרן (keren) "horn" in Hebrew is equivalent to כח (ko'ach) "power." The strength of an ox is concentrated in its horns. The unicorn was in the center of that ox's forehead, the center of its body, in order to symbolize the קו האמצעו (center line, mid-line - a Kabbalistic concept pertaining to the diagram of the emanations). The purpose of that "line" is to unify the "lower" and the "higher" regions. This is the meaning of the enigmatic though well known Midrash based on Tehillim 69:32 "that will please HASHEM even more than the ox, i.e. bull whose horns protruded beyond its hooves."

The verse from Tehillim contains a double entendre as the word מקרין though spelled with the letter י (yod), is read as if it were written without the letter yod.  The first (regular) spelling would symbolize the strength radiated from the animal, whereas the defective spelling, i.e. the way we read the word suggests that the ox in question had only one horn, mi-keren. When the Benei Yisrael sinned in the desert and they made the golden calf they had to sacrifice an ox in atonement for their sin as we know from VaYikra 9:3 "take a he-goat for a sin-offering; a calf and a lamb,...and an ox and a ram for a peace-offering..."

From that time on, the Benei Yisrael were commanded to take the four species including the Etrog in the month of Tishrei, the month in which man was created, in order to combine all these species. These four species were a symbolic offering atone for the first sin man had committed around that time of the year. In all other instances of publicly paid for sin-offerings on the festivals, a bull or bulls are included in the Torah's list of such offerings. The same applies to the sin-offerings on Rosh Chodesh (New Moon). All of this was to teach that when doing penance it is appropriate to use the instrument with which one had sinned to effect forgiveness.

May HASHEM continue to enlighten us with the Light of His Torah.

- Chazal

----------------

Bereishit Pardes - Creation
Bereishit Pardes - Gan Eden
Bereishit Pardes - Nishmat Chayim - Living Soul