Neshamah

Yom Kippur Morning
September 28, 2009
Rabbi Seymour Rossel

     In the Torah, God says, "Let us make Adam in our image." The rabbis who pored over every word of Torah to make sense of it were especially interested in this use of the phrase "our image." It never occurred to them to question the unity of God. God is One. But they knew that the phrase needed to be explained, for other nations would see it and say, "Look, there is more than one God in the heavens and the God of the Israelites spoke to them and cajoled them into making a human being in the image of the gods." For the rabbis, this was an unthinkable answer.

     But what answer could they imagine? Rab Judah answered by recalling a teaching of Rav. The phrase "our image" can explained in this way: When the Holy One determined to create the human being, God first created a company of angels and said to them, "Is it your desire that we make a human being in our image?" The angels responded with a question: "Sovereign of the Universe, what will be the deeds of this human?" God described what human beings would do. Thereupon, the angels exclaimed: "Sovereign of the Universe, ‘What is the human that You should care for him, and the child of the human that You should think of him?' [Ps. VIII, 5]. Hearing their words, God consumed the angels with fire.

     Then God created a second company of angels and put the question to them. "Shall we make a human being in our image?" The second company of angels pointed out that human beings would turn away from God to do evil. Hearing their response, God consumed them with fire, just as God had done to the first group of angels.

     Now God created a third company of angels and asked them the same question. They said, "Sovereign of the Universe, what did it avail the first group of angels or even the second that they spoke to You and advised You not to create human beings? The whole world is Yours and whatsoever You wish to do therein, may it please You to do it."

     But later, when human beings turned away from God and God punished them with the great flood, and when human beings challenged God by building a tower to assault the heavens and God punished them by confusing them with many languages, the third company of angels returned to God and said, "Ruler of the Universe, did not the first company of angels, and even the second company of angels, predict the terrible way in which human beings would behave?"

     But God answered them, saying, "Be silent. Human beings are precious to Me and I shall suffer them under all conditions, no matter how they behave." [comp. Isa. XLVI, 4].

     This was an answer to the question of why God spoke the words in the Torah, "Let us make Adam in our image." But it led to a new question. What made Adam so special? Even the grass of the field came before the human being. And all the rest of life was created first -- from the lowly gnat, the fly, and the mosquito; to the hippopotamus, the elephant, and the lion. All living things preceded the human being in the order of creation. Then why were Adam and his children so precious to God?

     Before the creation of all other things, there was only God's word to bring them into being. God spoke and the grass sprouted. God spoke and the world was filled with swarming things. God spoke and the animals came forth. Only in the case of the human being did God say specifically, "Let us make the human being in our image." It was this very phrase that set the human being apart.

     So there must be a deeper sense to the words. Truly, all things that are created always partake of the image of their creator. And here the rabbis delved more deeply into what distinguishes us as human beings from the rest of creation. What is unique about us, they said, is our soul. The human soul had to come last in creation because it is the most complex and precious thing that God ever created -- it is the very climax of creation itself.

     At the base of our soul is the part called nefesh, meaning "animation," and humans share nefesh with all forms of life -- with plant and with animal. Above nefesh comes ruach, the "spirit" or personality -- this part of our soul is shared only by the animal life of the world. And above nefesh and ruach comes the crowning achievement, the part of our soul that is called neshamah or "breath." Neshamah came into the human being at the very moment that God breathed the nishmat chayim, "the breath of life" [Genesis 2:7] into Adam. And it is this unique neshamah, bequeathed directly by God, that separates human beings from the rest of living creation.

     According to the rabbis, neshamah, the breath of life, is known by five names: it is called "life," "spirit," "soul," "the solitary," and "the one that lives on." The name "life" refers to the blood, as it is written in the book of Deuteronomy (12:23), "For the blood is the life." The name "spirit" refers to the capacity of neshamah to go up and down, to refresh itself nightly in heaven as we sleep. The name "soul" refers to our distinctive character, while the name "the solitary" refers to the truth that while the rest of the body is constructed in pairs, the neshamah with us is solitary. And neshamah is called "the one that lives on" because, while all other parts of our bodies die, the soul which God created for us endures forever. It is not just our breath, but the very breath of God. [Gen. R. 14:9]

     Human beings are unique because can use our neshamah, we can use our soul, to sense the Presence of God in all things. We recall the story of Reb Zusya of Anipoli who was stricken with blindness toward the end of his life. Normally, when tragedy strikes, people doubt and question. "Would a merciful God allow this to happen?" "Why does God not put an end to the suffering of the righteous?" Questions such as these tend to be on the levels of nefesh and ruach. But overcoming tragedy without jeopardizing faith requires a deeper strength. In this spirit, Reb Zusya assigned himself the difficult task of finding a blessing where there seemed to be a curse. Using his neshamah to overcome the lesser forces of his soul, he offered up a prayer, "Thank You, O God, for making me blind so that I might better perceive the inner light."

     Of course, there is no law commanding us to thank God for personal tragedy. Any such law would be both cruel and bitter. And there is no commandment requiring us to accept whatever happens without anger, disappointment, or discouragement. But Reb Zusya realized through his neshamah that there is also no blindness as destructive as the blindness of the heart. Because neshamah is that part of our soul directly attuned to God, Reb Zusya could bless God even for sending him blindness. As we read in the Book of Proverbs (20:27), "The neshamah of a person is the lamp of God. It searches all the inward parts."

     It is the neshamah, our uppermost soul, that makes us precious to God, for it is the neshamah that we share with God, and it is the neshamah that God has shared with us. And so it was written from the very beginning, "Let us make Adam in our own image." And so we learn the truth of the matter, that if a person causes a single soul to perish, Scripture accounts it as though the entire world had been destroyed; and conversely, if a person saves a single soul, Scripture accounts it as though the entire world had been saved. [Sanh. 37a]

     It is our curiosity that, when we meet another person, asks the question, "How do you earn a living?" But what if you stopped answering by saying I am a plumber or I am a lawyer or I am a soldier or I am a merchant or I am a salesman? What if you answer, "I earn my living by doing what God requires. I earn my living by doing tzedakah. I earn my living by finding blessings all around me. I earn my living by treating my children with kindness, my family with caring, my congregation with sharing. I earn my living by being holy as God is holy." Because this is the true answer to how to earn a living. Many people are among the walking dead because they do not use their neshamah -- they refuse their souls. The only truly living people are those who know that with every breath, they are taking in God's breath and with every positive action they are actualizing themselves. And let us say: Amen.