Q&A: Is There a Soul, and Does a Woman Have a Soul or Only a Nefesh?
Is There a Soul, and Does a Woman Have a Soul or Only a Nefesh?
Question
Hello.
1. Do you think there is a soul?
2. In Olat Re’iyah [chapter 71] it says: “How many exalted and good qualities, and how much happiness and expansiveness, are there in this good portion of the soul being the soul of an active man—one who acts, creates, innovates, and brings about actions and ideas, aspirations and deeds, in accordance with his inner essence within the structures of his holiness—higher than the woman’s nefesh [not soul], which is considered like matter in relation to form, in contrast to the man’s soul, which is of the nature of form; and great is the gratitude owed to the Creator of the soul by each and every man: ‘who has not made me a woman.'” Does a woman also have a soul, or only a nefesh?
Answer
- Yes.
- I don’t think he meant specifically nefesh as opposed to soul. In Kabbalah there are nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah, and yechidah for every entity, even inanimate objects.
Discussion on Answer
Are you trying to show that there is no equality in Jewish law? I’ll save you the time: there isn’t.
That’s already the ABCs of what is known in Torah. A woman is considered property, and she’s compared there to a donkey, an ox, and a slave. All I did was point out what the Rabbi himself said. Too bad—he was a dear man and got carried away after the writings.
He wrote it explicitly. Why does one recite the blessing “who has not made me a woman”?