Body and Soul – Parshas Vayikra 5769
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Loading ...דבר אל בני ישראל לאמר נפש כי תחטא… (ד:ב)
“Speak to the Jews saying, a soul that sins…” (4:2).
Why does the verse mention the soul, shouldn’t it simply say, “a man that commits a sin”?
To answer this question, the Midrash tells a parable. Once upon a time a king owned a precious orchard. Its fruits were so special that he feared that even his own watch-guards would be tempted to eat from it. He devised a plan to avert this problem. He hired a crippled man and a blind man to be his guards. Thus, one wouldn’t see them, and the other would have no way to reach them, and they would both ward off intruders. All went well until one day the guards started to talk.
The lame one said, “I see delicious fruit”.
“So let’s eat!” came the response from the blind man.
“I can’t reach them,” said the lame one.
What did they do? The lame man got onto the blind man’s shoulders and together they were able to eat the fruit. The king noticed the loss which his orchard had incurred and angrily questioned his guards. “How could I have done it?” said the lame man, “I can’t reach the fruits!” “Look at me,” said the other, “I am blind.” The king however, being intelligent, uncovered their scheme. He placed the lame man on top of the blind man and judged them together!
So too in the future, Hashem will ask the soul why it sinned while alive on Earth. The soul will answer, “blame the body, for ever since we’ve been separated, have You seen me do anything wrong?” Hashem will then ask the body why it sinned. He will respond, “blame my soul, You see that since we’ve been separated, I have lied limply and innocently on the ground!” How will Hashem resolve this? He will place the Neshamah back into the body and judge them together!
Much depth is encapsulated here regarding the function of our body and soul. Let us extrapolate upon a few points.
The soul is the cripple and the body is the blind man.
The soul’s main function is to spiritually attach us to Hashem and to see Him with clarity. He then must provide the body with a clear map as to which course of action should be pursued and which should be avoided. He is the navigator of the powerful machine called “man”. He is the one with proper sight, but is crippled from acting, that is the department of the body.
The body on the other hand, has much raw force, he moves freely, but he is blind as a bat and needs to be directed and channeled towards the correct direction. To summarize, the soul only sees but cannot move by itself, thus it is cripple. The body, on the other hand, can move but cannot see where to go, thus it is blind.
Actions that one takes stem from both the control center, the soul, and also the vehicle, the body. The Neshamah must not allow itself to become tainted and perverted, it must focus on the true goals of life. The body must not let itself be dragged down by its two detractors. Firstly, the body is intrinsically materialistic, and secondly it is found in a physical surrounding. This is hinted to by the words of Shlomo at the beginning of Koheles. “Mah yiss’ron l’adam b’chol amalo she’yamol tachas ha’shamesh, what gain does man benefit from all of his physical toil which he performs under the sun.”
1- Man is called Adam which connotes adamah, dirt, as his essence is physical.
2- He is found “under the sun,” his place of residence is physical.
The job of the Neshamah is to purify itself, attach to Hashem, achieve a clear vision of how to bring out its full potential and grab the reins of the body and steer towards success. The body however, must cooperate.
Thus, we can now understand the verse which we began with. If it were to say “a man that sins,” one may think that “man” refers to the body, who is exclusively responsible. This is not true, as man is one unit comprised of both a body and a soul. Therefore, it says “a soul who sins,” to tell us that even the soul is responsible for a sin.
Let us learn to function with our bodies and souls together, serving Hashem according to our great potentials!
Categories: Parshas Vayikra, Uncategorized Body and Soul, Ruchnius / Gashmius
The Zohar says – that the posuk is punctuated by a question mark. In other words, the Torah is asking Nefesh ki techeta? Shall a soul sin? Can a Jewish soul, a yiddishe neshamah, a spark of divinity, really and truly stoop to commit a lowly sin? How is that possible?
Indeed, the only way it can happen is when we forget who we are, when we are no longer in touch with our true spiritual identity.
And who really are we? We are a Jew! Sons of Avraham, Yizchok and Yakov, a daughter of Sarah, Rifka, Rachel and Leah. We are a member of the “kingdom of priests and holy nation.” We were freed from Mitzrayim and stood at Sinai. We have survived countless attempts on our life and our faith. We have emerged from the ashes of Auschwitz only to live again.
The holy Zohar reminds us that we are not only “a person who may sin.” We are a soul, and shall a soul sin? A soul is by definition a piece (spark?) of Hashem. And for this G-dly soul within us – this burning ember inside every Jewish soul, an ember that remains inextinguishable no matter what – means, that distancing ourselves from our very source is absolutely unthinkable.
So if you ever have doubts about who you are, remember the Zohar. You are a soul. And a soul never dies.
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