🌅 A pure gift
A prayer said each morning begins: 'My God, the soul You placed within me is pure.' It goes on to say that the Almighty created it and breathed it in. So Jews believe each person starts every day with a clean soul.
Jewish Beliefs about the Universe and Human Beings » The Unity of Body and Soul in Judaism
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 1, 1.2 (Judaism)
- What Genesis 2:7 teaches Jews about how a human being is made
- What the neshamah is, where Jews believe it comes from and where it goes at death
- Why Judaism teaches that body and soul belong together, and how this shapes Jewish life
- How Jews respond to the idea of an immortal soul and to physicalism
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Unlock This CourseDust and breath: one living being
The lesson Do Humans Have a Soul? Human Nature and Physicalism set out the general views. Jewish teaching begins with one verse of the Torah. Genesis 2:7 says that the Almighty 'formed man from the dust of the earth', blew into his nostrils 'the breath of life', and man became 'a living being'.
Jews draw three ideas from it:
- The body comes from the earth. The first man is called Adam, and the Hebrew word for earth is adamah. The body is part of the physical world.
- Life comes from the Almighty. The breath of life is his own gift. Without it the body is only dust.
- The result is one being. The verse does not say that a soul was put inside a container. Dust and breath together become a single living person.
Key terms:
- Neshamah: the Hebrew word most often used for the soul. It comes from the word for breath, as in the 'breath of life'.
- Nefesh: another Hebrew word for soul or life. In Genesis 2:7 the whole living person is called a nefesh.
- Unity of body and soul: the Jewish belief that a human being is body and soul together, not a soul that just happens to live in a body.
Remember that Jews believe humans are made in the image of God. Many Jewish teachers apply this to the whole person, body included, not only to the soul.
The neshamah: a gift on loan
Jews believe that each person's neshamah is given by the Almighty and still belongs to him. Two teachings show this.
🍃 Returned at death
The Almighty tells Adam: 'For dust you are, and to dust you shall return' (Genesis 3:19). Ecclesiastes, a later book of the Jewish Bible, adds that at death the dust goes back to the earth and the breath of life goes back to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
So Jews see the soul as on loan: at death it is handed back to its owner.
Why body and soul belong together
Some thinkers have seen the body as a prison that the soul longs to escape. Judaism does not teach this. The body is part of a creation the Almighty called 'very good'. Body and soul need each other.
🤝 They act together
A soul alone cannot keep the mitzvot. It takes hands to give to people in need, a mouth to pray and to eat the Shabbat meal, and feet to walk to the synagogue (the Jewish place of worship). A body alone has no life and no knowledge of right and wrong. Every good deed, and every bad one, is done by the two together.
🍒 They answer together
The Talmud tells a parable, a story with a meaning. A king set two men to guard his orchard of fine figs. One was blind and one could not walk. The man who could not walk climbed onto the blind man's shoulders, and together they took the figs. Later each said he could not have done it: one could not walk and the other could not see. The king sat one on top of the other and judged them as one.
The rabbis explained that the body could blame the soul and the soul could blame the body, since neither can act alone. So Jews believe the Almighty holds the whole person responsible, body and soul together. What Jews believe happens after that judgement is studied in Resurrection and the World to Come in Judaism.
Respect for the body in life and death
If the body is half of a person, it must be treated well.
🛁 In life
A rabbinic story tells how Hillel, a famous rabbi of about 2,000 years ago, told his students he was going to do a mitzvah. He was going to the bathhouse to wash. If statues of the king are kept clean, he said, how much more should he care for a body made in the image of God. Maimonides taught that keeping the body healthy is part of serving the Almighty.
🕯️ In death
Jews still treat the body with honour after death. Members of the chevra kadisha ('holy society'), a group of Jewish volunteers, wash the body gently and dress it in plain white clothes. The body is not left alone and is buried as soon as possible. Orthodox Jews do not allow cremation (burning the body), because the body should return to the dust as Genesis says. Many Progressive Jews accept cremation as a personal choice.
Jewish responses to the immortal soul and to physicalism
Remember that physicalism says the physical world is all there is. Jews respond to both ideas in different ways.
An immortal soul. The Torah itself says very little about life after death. Its attention is on how to live now. Later, the rabbis taught that the neshamah lives on when the body dies.
- Orthodox Jews believe the soul survives death, but they do not think a soul without a body is a complete person. This is why they also hope that body and soul will one day be joined again.
- Many Progressive Jews believe that the soul lives on with the Almighty and do not expect the body to rise again. For them the unity of body and soul is about how to live this life.
- Some Jews are unsure what happens after death. They say it is in the Almighty's hands and that this life is what counts.
Physicalism. Religious Jews reject the claim that a person is nothing more than a physical body. They believe the Almighty is real but not physical, that the breath of life comes from him, and that being made in his image gives each person a worth that science cannot measure. Yet Judaism shares some ground with physicalists. It takes the body seriously, it values medicine and science, and it puts its main effort into this world.
Common mistakes
Do not write that Jews see the body as bad or as a prison for the soul: the body is the Almighty's good work. Do not say the body does not matter: Genesis 2:7 makes one living being from both. Do not say all Jews hold the same view of life after death: Orthodox and Progressive Jews differ.
Exam-style question
Paper 1 style. (a) and (b) test AO1; (c) and (d) test AO1 and AO2.
(a) Identify three beliefs that people hold about the soul. [3 marks]
(b) Choose one religion. Outline two beliefs about the nature of human beings in this religion. [4 marks]
(c) Choose one religion. Explain why the human body is treated with respect in this religion. [6 marks]
(d) 'The soul matters more than the body.' Evaluate this statement, showing you have considered different points of view. In your answer you should refer to at least one religion. [12 marks]
Model answer
(a) 1. The soul is given by God (1). 2. The soul lives on after the body dies (1). 3. There is no soul, only the physical body and brain (1).
(b) Judaism. Jews believe a human being is a unity of body and soul (1), because Genesis 2:7 says the Almighty formed man from dust and breathed in the breath of life to make one living being (1). Jews believe the soul, the neshamah, is a gift from the Almighty (1), which goes back to him when the person dies (1).
(c) Judaism. Jews believe the Almighty formed the body himself from the dust of the earth. It is part of his good creation, so it should not be neglected or harmed.
Jews believe humans are made in the image of God, and many Jews apply this to the whole person. In a rabbinic story Hillel called washing a mitzvah, because his body carried that image.
Body and soul are a unity. The soul needs the body to keep the mitzvot, so looking after the body is part of serving the Almighty, as Maimonides taught.
This respect carries on after death: the chevra kadisha wash the body with care before burial.
(d) Plan. For: in Jewish teaching the neshamah is the Almighty's own breath and returns to him, while the body returns to dust; many Progressive Jews believe the soul lives on and the body does not rise; dualists say the soul is the real self that thinks and chooses.
Against: Genesis 2:7 makes one living being from dust and breath, so neither part is the whole person; the parable of the blind man and the man who could not walk shows both act and both are judged together; the soul cannot keep the mitzvot without a body, and Jews honour the body in life and in death; physicalists say there is no soul at all, so the body and brain are everything.
Possible conclusion: judge each point as you go, then pick a side. For example: I disagree. In Judaism the soul may last longer, but a person is both together, so it makes no sense to rank one above the other.
Exam tip
In part (d), look hard at the words 'matters more'. You can agree that the soul lasts longer and still argue that it does not matter more.