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Shareשכן כתוב בספר בן סירא במופלא ממך אל תדרוש ובמכוסה ממך אל תחקור במה שהורשית התבונן אין לך עסק בנסתרות
From the Talmud
So it is written in the book of Ben Sira:
Do not study what is beyond you,
Do not research what is covered from you.
Contemplate the realm that is permitted to you.
You have no business with the hidden.
(7) There is hope for a tree; If it is cut down it will renew itself; Its shoots will not cease. (8) If its roots are old in the earth, And its stump dies in the ground, (9) At the scent of water it will bud And produce branches like a sapling. (10) But a person dies and withers; Man expires; where is he? (11) As water vanishes from a lake, And the river dries up and is parched. (12) So man lies down never to rise; He will not arise when the heavens are no more, he will not be awakened from his sleep.
How is plant life different from animal life?
Does this author seem to have a concept of a soul that is separable from the body?
(23) But make sure that you do not partake of the blood; for the blood is the soul, and you must not consume the soul with the flesh.
Why is the blood described as the soul? What type of soul is this? Is the verse using the word "soul" or nefesh the same way you would?
Ecclesiastes 3:18-22, 9:4-5, 9:10-12, Psalms 16-17
מרגלא בפומיה דרב [לא כעולם הזה העולם הבא] העולם הבא אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתיה ולא פריה ורביה ולא משא ומתן ולא קנאה ולא שנאה ולא תחרות אלא צדיקים יושבין ועטרותיהם בראשיהם ונהנים מזיו השכינה שנאמר (שמות כד, יא) ויחזו את האלקים ויאכלו וישתו:
From the Talmud
Rav used to say: The world to come is not like this world. In the world to come, there is no eating, drinking, procreation, business dealings, jealousy, hatred, or competition. Rather, the righteous sit with their crowns on theirs heads and enjoy the splendor of God.
What is the pleasure of the righteous in the world to come?
כי מתער אומר אלקי נשמה שנתת בי טהורה אתה יצרתה בי אתה נפחתה בי ואתה משמרה בקרבי ואתה עתיד ליטלה ממני ולהחזירה בי לעתיד לבא כל זמן שהנשמה בקרבי מודה אני לפניך ה' אלקי ואלקי אבותי רבון כל העולמים אדון כל הנשמות ברוך אתה ה' המחזיר נשמות לפגרים מתים
From the Talmud, and included in the prayer book
When one awakens, recite:
My God, the soul You have placed within me is pure. You formed it within me,
You breathed it into me, and You guard it within me. One day You will take it from me, and restore it to me in the time to come. As long as the soul is within me, I thank You, my God and God of my ancestors, Master of all worlds, Lord of all souls. Blessed are You, God, who restores souls to lifeless bodies.
(ט) חמשה שמות נקראו לה: נפש, רוח, נשמה, יחידה, חיה. נפש, זה הדם, שנאמר (דברים יב): כי הדם הוא הנפש. רוח, שהיא עולה ויורדת, שנאמר (קהלת ג): מי יודע רוח בני האדם העולה היא למעלה. נשמה, זו האופיה, דברייתא אמרין האופיתא טבא. חיה, שכל האברים מתים והיא חיה בגוף. יחידה, שכל האברים משנים שנים והיא יחידה בגוף, הדא הוא דכתיב (איוב לד) אם ישים אליו לבו רוחו ונשמתו אליו יאסוף.... רבי ביסני ורבי אחא ור' יוחנן בשם ר"מ אומרים: הנשמה הזו ממלאה את כל הגוף ובשעה שאדם ישן, היא עולה ושואבת לו חיים מלמעלה. ר' לוי בשם ר' חנינא אמר: על כל נשימה ונשימה שאדם נושם צריך לקלס לבורא. מאי טעמא? (תהלים קנ) כל הנשמה תהלל יה, כל הנשימה תהלל יה:
Talmudic era text
(The soul) has five names: nefesh, ruach, neshamah, yechidah, and chayah. ‘Nefesh' refers to the blood...‘Ruach’ refers to its capacity to go up and down, as it is said... ‘Neshamah' refers to a person's distinctive character... ‘Yechidah’ (from the word echad, or one) - while all other parts of the body are pairs, this one is unique in the body... ‘Chayah’ (literally alive), because all limbs or organs are dead (or inanimate), it is alive in the body....
R. Bisni, R. Aha, and R. Johanan in R. Meir's name said: The neshamah fills the body, and when a person sleeps it ascends and draws life from above....
R. Levi in the name of R. Chaninah said: With every breath one takes one must give praise to the Holy One...
The first paragraph lists five names for the soul. What aspects of the soul does each of these name describe? Are they describing different aspects of the same soul, or different types of souls?
Does this text suggest whether the soul can persist after death? Where might it go?
Is this text using the word soul in the same way that the Biblical texts do?
Is it using the word in the same way that you tend to use it?
...ועתה אחל לדבר במה שכוונתי לו הוי יודע כי כמו שלא ישיג הסומא עין הצבעים ואין החרש משיג שמע הקולות ולא הסריס תאות המשגל כן לא ישיגו הגופות התענוגים הנפשיות וכמו שהדגים אינם יודעים יסוד האש לפי שהיותם ביסוד המים שהם הפכו כן אינו נודע בזה העולם הגופני תענוג העולם הרוחני אבל אין אצלנו בשום פנים תענוג זו זולתי תענוג הגוף בלבד והשגת החושים מן המאכל והמשתה והמשגל וכל מה שזולתו אלה הוא אצלנו בלי מצוי ואין אנו מכירין אותו ולא נשיג אותו בתחלת המחשבה אלא אחר חקירה גדולה. וראוי להיות כן לפי שאנחנו בעולם הגופני ולפיכך אין אנו משיגים אלא תענוגיו הגרועים הנפסקים אבל התענוגים הנפשיים הם תמידים עומדים לעד אינם נפסקים ואין ביניהם ובין אלו התענוגים יחס ולא קורבה בשום פנים ואין ראוי אצלנו בעלי התורה ולא אצל האלהיים מן הפילוסופים שנאמר שהמלאכים והכוכבים והגלגלים אין להם תענוג אבל באמת שיש להם תענוג גדול במה שהם יודעים ומשיגין באמיתת הבורא יתברך ובזה. הם בתענוג תמידי שאינו נפסק ואין תענוג גופני אצלם ואינם משיגין אותו לפי שאין להם חושים כמונו שישיגו בהם מה שאנו משיגין אותו וכמו כן אנחנו כשיזדכך ממנו מי שיזדכך ויעלה לאותם מעלה אחר מותו אינו משיג התענוגים הגופנים ואינו רוצה בהם אלא כעין שירצה המלך שהוא גדול הממשלה שיתפשט ממלכותו וממשלתו ויחזור לשחק עם הנערים בכדור כשהיה עושה לפנים מן המלכות וזה בקטנות שניו כשלא היה מבחין בין מעלת שני הענינים כמו שאנחנו היום משבחין ומנשאין תענוגי הגוף ולא תענוגי הנפש. וכשתתבונן בענין שני אלה התענוגים תמצא פחיתות האחת ומעלת השניה ואפילו בעולם הזה. וזה כי אתה מוצא רוב בני האדם כלם מיגעים נפשותיהם וגופותיהם בעמל ויגיעה שאין למעלה מהם כדי שיגיע לו מעלה וכבוד ושינשאוהו בני אדם והנאה זו אינה הנאת מאכל ומשתה וכמו כן הרבה מבני אדם בוחר להנקם מאויביו יותר מהשיג הרבה מתענוגי הגוף והרבה מבני אדם מתרחקים מן הגדול שבתענוגי הגוף מיראתו שישיגהו מזה חרפה ובושת מבני אדם או לפי שמבקש שיהא לו שם טוב ואם ענינו כן בעוה"ז הגופני כ"ש בעולם הרוחני והוא העוה"ב שנפשותנו משכילות שם מידיעת הבורא יתברך כמו שמשכילות הגופנים העליונים או יותר ואותו תענוג לא יחלק לחלקים ולא יסופר ולא ימצא משל למשול בו אותו התענוג אלא כמו שאמר הנביא ע"ה (ע' תוי"ט אהלות פי"א) כשנפלאו בעיניו גדולת הטוב ההוא ומעלתו אמר מה רב טובך אשר צפנת ליראיך וכן אמרו ע"ה (ברכות יז:) העוה"ב אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתיה ולא רחיצה ולא סיכה ולא תשמיש אלא צדיקים יושבים ועטרותיהם בראשיהם ונהנים מזיו שכינה. רוצה לומר באמרו ועטרותיהם בראשיהם השארות הנפש בקיום המושכל להם והוא הבורא יתברך והיות הוא רוצה לומר המושכל והוא דבר אחד כמו שזכרוהו גדולי הפילוסופים בדרכים יארך ביאורם בכאן. ואמרו ונהנים מזיו שכינה רצוני לומר שאותן הנשמות מתענגות במה שמשיגות ויודעות מאמתת הבורא יתברך כמו שמתענגות חיות הקודש ושאר מדרגות המלאכים במה שהם משיגים ויודעים ממציאותו. הנה כי הטובה והתכלית האחרון הוא להגיע אל החברה העליונה הזאת ולהיות בכבוד הזה ובמעלה הנזכרת וקיום הנפש כמו שבארנו עד אין סוף בקיום הבורא יתברך שהוא סיבת קיומה לפי שהשיגה אותו כמו שנתבאר בפילוסופים הראשונים וזה הוא טוב הגדול אשר אין טוב להקיש לו ואין תענוג שידמה לו כי איך ידמה התמיד אשר אין לו סוף וקץ בדבר הנפסק
(Maimonides)
... And now I will begin to speak about that which I intended: You should know that just like the blind person does not grasp appearance of colors and the deaf person does not grasp the sound of voices and the eunuch sexual desire, so too bodies do not grasp spiritual pleasures. And just like the fish do not know the element of fire, since they are in the element of water, which is its opposite; so too, in this physical world, pleasures of the spiritual world are not known. Rather we do not have among us any of this pleasure, but only pleasures of the body and that which is grasped by the senses [regrading] food and drink and sex. We do not have (spiritual pleasure), so we do not recognize it or understand it without great analysis. And it is fitting that it is like this, since we are in the physical world, and that is why we only grasp the lower temporary pleasures. But the spiritual pleasures are permanent, lasting forever, without end. And there is no connection or similarity in any way between these [two types] of pleasures.
It is not fit for us, the masters of Torah, and not for the Godly of the philosophers, that we should say that the angels or the stars or the spheres do not have any pleasure; but rather they truly have great pleasure in that they know and grasp the truth of the Creator, may He be blessed. And so [too], when the one that will be purified is purified and he goes up to that level after his death, he does not grasp the physical pleasures and does not want them. It is like a king who is the top of the government would divest himself of his kingdom and his government and go back to playing ball with children, like he used to do before his kingdom. Since that was in his being small of years when he did not distinguish between the worth of these two things; just as we today praise and elevate the physical pleasures and not the spiritual pleasures.
And when you reflect on the matter of these two pleasures, you will find the inferiority of the one and loftiness of the other - and even in this world. And that is because you will find that most people always tire themselves and their bodies in toil and exertion, that has no equal, in order that worth and honor come to him and that people elevate him. And this pleasure is not pleasure of food and drink. And likewise, many people will choose to take revenge on his enemies more than acquiring many physical pleasures. And [also] many people distance themselves from the greatest of the physical pleasures out of fear that disgrace and embarrassment from people come to him from this, or because he is seeking to have a good name.
And if its matter is such in this physical world, all the more so is it in the spiritual world; and that is the world to come - that our souls will fathom there the knowledge of the Creator, may He be blessed, just like the supernal bodies fathom [Him] or more [so]. And this pleasure cannot be divided into sections and cannot be recounted; and you will not find a parable by which to compare this pleasure. But rather it is as the prophet, peace be upon him, said when the greatness of that good and its value were so wondrous in his eyes. He said (Psalms 31:20), "How great is Your good that You have hidden for those that fear You."
And so [too], they, may their memory be blessed, said (Berakhot 17a), "In the world to come there is no eating and no drinking and no bathing and no anointing and no intercourse, but rather the righteous ones sit and their crowns are upon their heads and they derive pleasure from the radiance of the Divine Presence." He wants to say by stating, "and their crowns are upon their heads," the permanence of their soul in the existence of that which is fathomed by them, and that is the Creator, may He be blessed; and in that He - meaning that which is fathomed (the active Intellect) - and he are one thing, as the philosophers have mentioned in ways that are [too] lengthy for here. And by their saying, "and they derive pleasure from the radiance of the Divine Presence," I would say that those souls derive pleasure in that which they grasp and know of the truth of the Creator, may He be blessed, like the holy creatures and the other levels of angels derive pleasure, in what they grasp and know of His existence. Behold, that the ultimate good and objective is to reach this supernal company and to be with this honor and the level mentioned, and the preservation of the soul - as we have explained - without an end, in the existence of the Creator, may He be blessed, Who is the cause of its existence, since [the soul] has grasped Him, as is explained by the first philosophers. And this is the great good, to which there is no good to equate to it and no pleasure to compare to it, since how can the eternal that has no end compared to something finite.
Maimonides speaks in analogies, to describe concepts that are difficult to comprehend. What are some of the analogies in this passage?
In Maimonides view, can a person experience spiritual pleasure of any kind in this world?
After death, does a person's soul persist as an individual?
Man's body is not the essential person, the man himself - for man's body is called his "flesh," as in the words of Job: "You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knitted me together with bones and sinews" (Job 10:11). The essential person is the soul, the אני (ani) -I (Likutey Moharan I, 22:5). The soul is a particular class of spiritual entity destined to enter a physical body, and this distinguishes it from angels and other purely spiritual forces in the creation, which are not associated with physical bodies...
It is important to be aware that the term "soul" refers to two different aspects of man's being. One type of soul that man has is similar to that which exists in all living creatures. This is called his "animal soul". This is the animating force of our physical bodies, governing bodily growth, development and functioning, including both those aspects of our physical functioning that are under our conscious control and those that are not. On the level of consciousness, we experience the animal soul as our "worldly ego"-- our basic instincts and feelings, and the faculties of will, intelligence, memory, imagination, etc. with which we satisfy our material needs and desires
.
Besides this, however, there exists in man a spiritual entity that is very different from this animal soul and spiritually far more exalted. This is the "divine soul", which connects us with the highest spiritual planes of creation. Through it, our thoughts, words and actions have an effect on those planes, and conversely, the divine soul is the channel through which the influences bestowed upon us from those planes are transmitted. From the divine soul, these influences are then transmitted via the animal soul to the physical body. Thus the divine soul is "clothed" in the animal soul, and the animal soul is "clothed" in the physical body.
This divine soul is often referred to as a single entity, but in fact it consists of a number of parts on different levels, bound together like links in a chain. Just as all the links form a single chain, so do all these levels of the soul constitute a single entity, which is called the divine soul. Its five parts, from the highest downwards, are called yechidah ("unique essence"), chayah ("living essence"), neshama ("breath"), ruach ("spirit") and nefesh ("soul"). Each of these levels is bound to the one below it, until the lowest one is bound to the animal soul, and the animal soul is bound to the body...
...The mission of the divine soul in this world is to harness the faculties of the animal soul and the body for its own purposes, in order to turn even their necessary material functions in this world -- eating and drinking, making a living, procreation, etc. -- into acts of outreach and connection with God...
Although the divine soul is higher than the animal soul and clothes itself within it, we actually experience the two of them as if they exist side by side. They express themselves in our conscious minds in the constant ebb and flow of our different and often conflicting thoughts, desires and impulses. The mission of the divine soul in this world is to harness the faculties of the animal soul and the body for its own purposes, in order to turn even their necessary material functions in this world - eating and drinking, making a living, procreation, etc. - into acts of outreach and connection with God. All the associated mitzvot (e.g. blessings, the laws governing interpersonal relationships, business activities, etc.) are "food" for the divine soul, nourishing and strengthening it.
Excerpted from Chapter 12
Why do you suppose this modern, though traditional, writer, seeks to draw a distinction between our animal soul and our divine soul? Do our ancient texts draw that distinction?
In what level of soul does your personality reside? Which part of you do you suppose survives after death?
(My point here is to) cast some doubt on a dogma, usually unquestioned in our world, which could be phrased as a slogan: “One body, one soul.” (If you don’t like the word “soul”, then feel free to substitute “I”, “person”, “self”, or “locus of consciousness”.)....
No one has trouble with the idea that “the same gene” can exist in two different cells, in two different organisms. But what is a gene? A gene is not an actual physical object, because if it were, it could only be located in one cell, in one organism. No, a gene is a pattern — a particular sequence of nucleotides (usually encoded on paper by a sequence of letters from the four-letter alphabet “ACGT”). And so a gene is an abstraction, and thus “the very same gene” can exist in different cells, different organisms, even organisms living millions of years apart....
The name “Carol” denotes, for me, far more than just a body, which is now gone, but rather a very vast pattern, a style, a set of things including memories, hopes, dreams, beliefs, loves, reactions to music, sense of humor, self-doubt, generosity, compassion, and so on. Those things are to some extent sharable, objective, and multiply instantiatable, a bit like software on a diskette. And my obsessive writingdown of memories, and the many videotapes she is on, and all our collective brain-stored memories of Carol make those pattern-aspects of her still exist, albeit in spread-out form — spread out among different videotapes, among different friends’ and relatives’ brains, among different yellow-sheeted notebooks, and so on. In any case, there is a spread-out pattern of Carolness very clearly discernable in this physical world. And in that sense, Carolness survives.(page 109-110)
In the wake of a human being’s death, what survives is a set of afterglows, some brighter and some dimmer, in the collective brains of all those who were dearest to them. And when those people in turn pass on, the afterglow becomes extremely faint. And when that outer layer in turn passes into oblivion, then the afterglow is feebler still, and after a while there is nothing left.
This slow process of extinction I’ve just described, though gloomy, is a little less gloomy than the standard view. Because bodily death is so clear, so sharp, and so dramatic, and because we tend to cling to the caged-bird view, death strikes us as instantaneous and absolute, as sharp as a guillotine blade. Our instinct is to believe that the light has all at once gone out altogether. I suggest that this is not the case for human souls, because the essence of a human being — truly unlike the essence of a mosquito or a snake or a bird or a pig — is distributed over many a brain. It takes a couple of generations for a soul to subside, for the flickering to cease, for all the embers to burn out. Although “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” may in the end be true, the transition it describes is not so sharp as we tend to think.
It seems to me, therefore, that the instinctive although seldom articulated purpose of holding a funeral or memorial service is to reunite the people most intimate with the deceased, and to collectively rekindle in them all, for one last time, the special living flame that represents the essence of that beloved person, profiting directly or indirectly from the presence of one another, feeling the shared presence of that person in the brains that remain, and thus solidifying to the maximal extent possible those secondary personal gemmae that remain aflicker in all these different brains. Though the primary brain has been eclipsed, there is, in those who remain and who are gathered to remember and reactivate the spirit of the departed, a collective corona that still glows. This is what human love means. The word “love” cannot, thus, be separated from the word “I”; the more deeply rooted the symbol for someone inside you, the greater the love, the brighter the light that remains behind... (page 130)
One day, as I gazed at a photograph of Carol taken a couple of months before her death, I looked at her face and I looked so deeply that I felt I was behind her eyes, and all at once, I found myself saying, as tears flowed, “That’s me! That’s me!” And those simple words brought back many thoughts that I had had before, about the fusion of our souls into one higher-level entity, about the fact that at the core of both our souls lay our identical hopes and dreams for our children, about the notion that those hopes were not separate or distinct hopes but were just one hope, one clear thing that defined us both, that welded us together into a unit, the kind of unit I had but dimly imagined before being married and having children. I realized then that although Carol had died, that core piece of her had not died at all, but that it lived on very determinedly in my brain.. (page 112)
How does Hofstader use the word soul? Is is the same as the way you tend to use it? How is it similar to the way some of the classic texts use the word? How is it different?
In Hofstader's view, is there life after death?
כָּל הֲעוֹלָם כּוּלוֹ גֶשֶר צָר מְאֹד וְהֲעִקָר לֹא לְפָחֵד כְּלָל
Kol HaOlom Kulo Gesher Tsar Meod v'HaIkar Lo l'fached klal
The world is a very narrow bridge, and the essential thing is to not be afraid at all.
- Rabbi Nachman of Breslov