Month: January 2014

More on the Soul

Nephesh ha-Chaim 1:15 (here the author explains why the parts of the soul are called nephesh, ruach and neshamah respectively): One might wonder that indeed the meaning of the term ‘neshamah’ (soul) is ‘breath’ (neshimah), and it appears that man’s breath is the air that rises from the chest, from below to above… and is not a higher order […]

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More on Nephesh

From Nephesh ha-Chayim, 1st Gate, Chapter 14: “Action is the faculty of the Nephesh, as it is written, ‘the soul (nephesh) that will do…’ (Numbers 15:30), ‘the souls (nephashoth) that do…’ (Leviticus 18:29), as well as many similar examples, ‘for the blood is the soul (nephesh)’ (Deuteronomy 12:23), meaning that the nephesh dwells and clothes itself in […]

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How Man’s faculties correspond to regions of the Soul

Kabbalistic literature sometimes reckons the soul as having three components, each “higher” than the last — nephesh (can be translated roughly as “spirit,” “soul,” or “life”), ruach (can be translated as “wind” or “spirit,” but in the context of the soul undoubtedly is more closely related to the latter), and neshamah (invariably translated as “soul”). (Seeming similarity or redundancy […]

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Two Tablets given at Sinai in the form of G-d’s Name

The Tetragrammaton, or Four-Letter Name of G-d, is formed by the Hebrew letters ‘Yud’-‘Heh’-‘Vav’-‘Heh.’ According to Rabbi Yeshayah Horowitz (zt”l) in his magnum opus, Sheney Luchoth ha-Berith (known by its abbreviation, the ShLa”H), this name is reflected in the shape of the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments. The letter ‘yud’ has a numerical value of 10 in Hebrew,thus the […]

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