ymarkov | Заметка для себя

On Mon, 6 Sep 2004 16:45:46 0000 (UTC), Joel Shurkin <shurkin@mac.com> wrote:
: Not even sure where to start. What does "soul" mean in Judaism, and I don't
: mean in music.

It depends on which Jewish philosophy you're speaking of.

According to the Rambam, it's raw intellect, form without substance.

Rav Saadia Gaon (Emunos veDei'os 6:3) says it's the seat of three
abilities: physical desire, emotion, and thought. We therefore use
three terms to describe it, nefesh, ru'ach, and neshamah respectively.

Note two things:
1- RSG considers the soul a single thing, where each term differs in
connotation; and
2- His description of the soul is of things we associate with the mind.

The Qabbalists take these terms as denoting the structure of the soul,
that the soul has nefesh, ru'ach and neshmah as components. Here's an
example quote that I can cut-n-paste from an older email:

Our Rabbonim za"l already compared the three-fold living ruach of man
-- the making of a glass utensil to reviving the dead. They said, "It
is a kal vachomer (a fortiori) argument from a glass utensil, which
is made by the breath of flesh and blood... Flesh and blood, which
is made by the breath of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, how much more so!"...

For the moral must be similar to the metaphor. When we study the
breath of the mouth of the worker into the glass container when he
makes it, we find in it three concepts. The first idea is when the
breath of air is still in his mouth, before it goes into the opening
of the hollow tube, we can only call it then a "neshimah". The second
idea, when the breath enters the tube, and continues like a line,

then it is called "ruach" (wind). The third, lowest, idea, is when
the breath goes from the tube and into the glass, and inflates in it
until it becomes a container to fit the will of the glass-blower, then
his wind stops and is called "nefesh", a term of rest and relaxation.
- R' Chaim Vilozhiner, Nefesh HaCHaim 1:15

Free will requires conscious choice. Thus, the two are inextricable.
There is some difference of opinion as to where in this structure free
will and therefore consciousness resides.

The Ramchal says it's within the nefesh, with the ru'ach and neshamah
as higher influences of which you are usually not aware.

The Vilna Gaon places consciousness within the ru'ach, the nefesh
prejudicing one toward physical needs, and the neshamah toward
spiritual. (Distinctly different, but yet comparable to, the kinds of
models one finds in psychological schools.) The prophet is one who can
raise his awareness to include information from the neshamah and the
loftier plane in which it exists. For most prophets, the ru'ach would
then coerce this into terms it can relate to; so the prophet would
percieve the prophecy in parable. Moshe was capable of relating to
the message directly, and so he "spoke to G-d 'Face' to face", without
need of getting into a special mental state, nor with the message being
cloaked in mundane imagery.

-mi

--
Micha Berger "Fortunate indeed, is the man who takes
micha@aishdas.org exactly the right measure of himself, and
http://www.aishdas.org holds a just balance between what he can
Fax: (270) 514-1507 acquire and what he can use." - Peter Latham