Originally posted by robbie carrobie
with regard to the human soul rather interestingly the scriptures use the same Hebrew phrase used of the animal creation, namely, nephesh chaiyah (living soul), it is applied to Adam, when, after God formed him out of dust from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, Genesis 2 verse 7 reads 'the man [b]came to be a living soul,' conscious entity as envisioned by the ancient Greeks and taught in many churches.[/b][/b]
Excellent posts, both of them.
After reading your first one, I was going to add a comment about
ruach and
neshama (which are generally treated in Jewish thought, along with
nephesh, as differing levels or aspects or perhaps nuances of “soul” )—but you beat me to it! π
Although I don’t think Judaism is univocal on the question, my sense is that you’re correct that any kind of soul-body dualism is generally rejected. [I'm not sure, for example, what various rabbinical understandings might be reflected in the Oral Torah.]
Again, good posts: they will inform my own further thinking on the subject, for sure.
EDIT: I have to correct myself: there is a fairly broad stream in Judaism that adheres to transmigration of souls. That's all I can say about it at this point, though.