Did you ever wonder if there is more to life than just your - TopicsExpress



          

Did you ever wonder if there is more to life than just your physical self - whether or not you have a soul? Ever wonder what made us different from the lower animals? Consider the following: Imagine that you woke up this morning, looked into the mirror and instead of seeing yourself, you saw someone else? Would you ask, Who am I? or would you ask, What happened to my body? Why do people sacrifice themselves to help or save others, to put their lives in danger for complete strangers? Why do we human beings tend to see whatever we do as justified, that we are right and the other person is wrong - whether we cut off someone in traffic or commit genocide? (Adolf Hitler, may his name and memory be obliterated, once gave a speech that the German people are the only truly moral people. His proof? While the Germans were sending millions to death camps [which was justified ethnic cleansing, not murder in their minds], they were setting up societies to take care of their pets.) Why if someone asks, What are you going to do about people starving in Africa? people dont say, Its not my problem. Instead we respond, What can I do about it? I am only one person! Your essence is something other than your physical self. There is something in the makeup of every human being that goes far beyond survival of the fittest - giving up ones life is not the way for either an individual or a species to survive. Why do we need to see ourselves as righteous? If you could, you would do something about the worlds problems; you dont say it is someone elses problem. There is something wired in us that we are responsible for the whole world and that if we could do something, we must do something! That special something is the soul. The answer to all of the above questions is that the soul is talking, not the body. The Torah teaches that we have a soul, that it is eternal and that is the essence of a human being. In the portion dealing with the creation of man the Torah says, And the Almighty formed the man of dust from the ground, and He blew into his nostrils the soul of life (Genesis 2:7). On this verse, the Zohar states that one who blows, blows from within himself, indicating that the soul is actually part of Gods essence. Since the soul is part of Gods essence it is impossible that it should die. Maimonides writes in the Mishneh Torah, Foundations of the Torah 4:9, The soul is not made of physical matter, which will decompose. It is from God. Therefore, when the body dies, the soul is not cut off (except in the cases specified) from God. It exists forever. This is what King Solomon was referring to when he wrote, The dust will return to the ground as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 3:20). The dust refers to man, who was made out of dust, and thus will return to dust. Likewise, the spirit (soul) which was from God, will also return to Him. The body is the vessel that houses the soul and allows the soul to have expression and development in the physical world. The soul is eternal and is subject to the consequences of our actions and receives reward and punishment. Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzatto, the great kabbalist and Jewish philosopher, explains the purpose of life and the soul in his books The Way of God and Path of the Righteous The Almighty is good. It is the nature of good to bestow good. Therefore, the Almighty created us in order to bestow good upon us. As an additional kindness, He allows us to earn this good rather than receive it for free. One who receives for free, like a beggar, experiences embarrassment for not having earned his keep while one who works and receives reward experiences pleasure. The Almighty spared us that embarrassment by setting up a system of allowing us to earn that goodness through fulfilling His mitzvot, commandments, as the means to receive this reward. This world is the place to earn it. While the Almighty gives us what we need for this world, ultimately it is the World to Come where our soul experiences the reward. If we realize that our essence is our soul and not our body, then we can live our lives on a higher level, a soul level. If we realize that this world is about pleasure and that the ultimate pleasure is connecting with the Almighty, then it changes how we act and we respond to people and difficulties in our life. It is our challenge and our goal to live life as a soul and not a body.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 04:45:01 +0000

Trending Topics



Recently Viewed Topics




© 2015