Q&A: Where Did the Soul Come From?
Where Did the Soul Come From?
Question
Is the soul taken from the essence of the Creator ("and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life")?
And if not from the Creator Himself, where was it taken from?
Is it possible that it was created ex nihilo?
Answer
I don’t understand the words, and there is no way to answer this.
Discussion on Answer
The main thing that requires explanation you didn’t explain: what does "taken" mean? Did they cut off a piece of the Holy One, blessed be He, and that is the soul? As I wrote, these really are empty words, and there is no point in dealing with this.
Excellent, so if we rule out that possibility, what else is left?
Where did the soul come from?
What is its raw material?
I didn’t rule it out. I wrote that it is meaningless. And I also wrote that I don’t understand what the discussion is about. It could come into being ex nihilo, just like that, or through the Holy One, blessed be He. How exactly do you want to discuss this or decide it? Run an experiment and see whether souls are created?
What is its raw material? Again, this is a meaningless question that there is no way to discuss.
Explanations:
"Soul" = you know what that is. Sometimes you use the term too, if I remember correctly.
"The essence of the Creator" = the Creator’s essence. That is what He actually is.
As opposed to His positive attributes, like "the cause of all causes," "engineer," or "a perfect being," and of course
also as opposed to negative attributes like "He has no body."
"Ex nihilo" – the creation of something out of emptiness/nothing/an absolute vacuum. There is no raw material.
If things are clear now, I’d be happy to get an answer, if there is one.