Friday, February 12, 2010

The Jewish concept of soul

Judaism teaches that man has a soul – a consciousness that exists independently of the physical body and brain. This belief has broad implications. For one it means that there is an afterlife and there are future lives – reincarnation. More than that, the human soul distinguishes man from the souls of the animal worlds and from inanimate objects. We are not biochemical robots; bodies filled with water, proteins, and nucleic acids. We are not merely a superficial shell. We possess a divine spark, which God has breathed into us. This is our true essence.

The soul is the secret to living a joyous life. Our soul constantly craves a return to its Divine roots, so that prayer, mitzvot, and Torah study nurtures souls longing for return to its source. Therefore, when we study a few verses of Torah we are directing our attention to our souls rather than to our daily lives. Our everyday Jewish practices determine whether we live in a state of happiness or of misery, depending on the condition of the soul.

According to Jewish thought, the soul consists of three levels: Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshamah. The Nefesh refers to the person, to our physical existence. The words Ruach and Neshamah both mean "breath” in the sense of the soul being an ethereal, spiritual essence, and they are the aspects that continue living even after death, they are our immortality. The outcome of our mundane happiness depends upon the balance between Nefesh and our spiritual essence; our traditional Jewish practices attempt to orchestrate that state of equilibrium.

Although Judaism concentrates its efforts on this temporal world (Olam Ha'zeh — "this world"), classical Judaism speculates an afterlife. Jewish tradition affirms that the human soul is immortal and thus survives the physical death of the body into the Hereafter, known as Olam Haba (the "world to come").

For further information click on the title of this post to go to the Jewish healing website