Neshamah (נשמה) — Soul

Core definition

In the corpus, "neshamah" is used in two senses. Broadly, it denotes the divine soul of the Jew in general — the Divine life-force enclothed in the body. Narrowly, it is the third of the soul's five names/levels: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, Chayah, Yechidah (נר"ן חי' יחידה), the five names called to the soul in the Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 14) [58843/maamar_009 :: §226]. The Zohar's fourfold mapping aligns them against the letters of Havayah's name: generally Nefesh-Ruach-Neshamah (naran) on the one side, and the "neshamah l'neshamah" — Chayah and Yechidah taken as one level — on the other [58841/maamar_028 :: Overview; 58843/maamar_009 :: §232].

The daily prayer "neshamah shenasata bi tehorah hi; atah verasa, atah yatzarta, atah nafachta bi" is read as four levels against the four worlds: verasa/beri'ah, yatzarta/yetzirah, nafachta/asiyah — the soul drawn down and enclothed level by level [58841/maamar_028 :: Overview].

How the Rebbeim develop it

A central teaching of 5696's "Ashreinu" maamar is the sharp refutation of the philosophers' view that sechel (intellect) is the neshamah. Three tangible reasons are given: (1) man's existence and sechel's existence are two distinct matters — praise-titles presuppose the man apart from his sechel, and one without developed sechel still lives with a neshamah; (2) sechel changes from small to great ("yamim yedaberu") while the neshamah is atzmi and unchanging — change-through-vessels itself proves non-essentiality; (3) "atem kru'im adam" (Yevamos 61a) — sechel exists in non-"adam" too. Sechel is only a ziv, a ray/ha'arah from the Awtsmoos; the soul's essence is yechidah [58841/maamar_028 :: Overview].

Sechel and middos, per Likutei Torah ("v'lo sashbis"), are kelim (vessels) to the neshamah's Awtsmoos — not levushim (garments) like machshavah, dibbur, and ma'aseh — but unlike the brain, where sechel becomes "mis'atzem," the Awtsmoos stays separate and above: true hislabshus, where the enclothed becomes like the enclother, does not apply to the Awtsmoos. The kechos (powers) are knowable in their inyan, tachlis, and end; the Awtsmoos not at all — "lo yadati nafshi," the "reisha d'lo isyada" [58841/maamar_028 :: Overview].

The Awtsmoos never separates from Divinity — "chavukah u'devukah bach"; the talk of "neshamas ha'ashukos" or chayvei krisos refers only to nitzotzos (sparks), not the essence. Its hisgalus (revelation), however, is not constant: it breaks through in actual mesirus nefesh al kiddush Hashem — which is above ta'am v'da'as (the Torah gives a reason for love, at each order and level, but no reason for mesirus nefesh) — and in teshuvah's "tza'ak libam el Hashem," the cry of the heart, the movement of the atzmi that "carries everything out and pulls out of everything" [58841/maamar_028 :: Overview].

Yechidah itself is "achdus" — our root in Avinu shebashamayim, as the Rebbe received it as kabbalah from the Maggid. Yechidah unifies: "yechidah to unify You" — ta'anug and ratzon as one, receiving from the level of Yachid, the One; called yechidah for "Yachid Havayah" — and its drawing-down is mesirus nefesh in actuality, bringing yechidah into the lowest deeds [58841/maamar_028 :: Overview; 58843/maamar_009 :: §785, §788, §791].

Key distinctions

Neshamah vs. sechel. The soul's powers (sechel, middos) are instruments; the soul's Awtsmoos is the ungraspable, unchanging essence. This is why Ribaz could weep on his deathbed (Berachos 28b) despite forty years of learning and teaching: his doubt was whether the neshamah's Awtsmoos was in avodah — since high neshamas can carry sitra-achra sechel and middos (with easy teshuvah), while low neshamas can carry avodah sechel and middos with an Awtsmoos able to flip; hence "lo yadati nafshi — where and what it is" [58841/maamar_028 :: Overview].

Chelek vs. goral. In "ashreinu mah tov chelkeinu u'mah na'im goraleinu": "chelek" (the bounded portion) = the naran level, the ordered avodah per da'as — "tov"; "goral" (the lot) = the higher level, cast without the caster's knowledge, like the Temple lots — corresponding in avodah to ratzon above sechel ("shtok kach alah b'machshavah"), where the strong and sharp becomes sweet — "na'im" [58841/maamar_028 :: Overview].

The hei of Havayah. In the Zohar's mapping, the neshamah (of naran) is the hei of the Name: the soul's sense to feel Divinity in everything; the vav is the middos and tzedakah spreading from that hasagah; the final hei is action — mesirus nefesh in actuality [58843/maamar_009 :: §802].

Related concepts

Sources