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The OOOF Blog
Body and Soul
(posted 04/22/10)
One of the
first payers said each morning upon rising, is one in which we thank
God for restoring our souls each day.
My God! The soul which You bestowed in me is pure; You created
it,You formed it, You breathed it into me and You preserve it within
me. You will eventually take it from me, and restore it to me in the
time to come. So long as the soul is within me, I give thanks to
You, Ha Shem my God, and God of my fathers, that You are Lord of all
creation, Master of all souls, Ruler of all creatures, alive and
existing eternally. Blessed are You, Ha Shem, Who restores souls to
dead bodies.
What exactly is the soul?
How is it different from the body?
What part of who we are is our soul and what part is the body?
Genetics
My daughter
has two children. They have two different fathers, neither of which
has been present through much of their early years of development.
She has raised her two children as a single mother, and yet it is
quite obvious they both have personality traits from their fathers.
Are those genetic personality traits part of the body or soul?
Matters of the heart
Are our
likes and dislikes, our quick temper, or our appreciation of art and
music part of our bodies or part of our soul?
Several
years ago I was producing a radio program. The guest on the show was
a heart surgeon. I had heard stories about what happens when a
person receives a heart from a donor, and was curious as to their
validity. So I asks the question, “I have heard stories about heart
recipients taking on likes and dislikes and certain personality
traits of the donor, does that really happen?” “Absolutely”, he
replied. And there was no way to explain this phenomenon. The
recipients had no knowledge of the donor and yet there personality
may have altered or their taste in art, music or certain foods
became reflective of the donors. Is that the soul or the body?
If my memory serves
me right ...
What about
our memories, that collection of information that defines our past
and directs our future? Is that body or soul?
I recently
heard an interview with an medical expert on the memory. He said
that our memories are formed and kept through a series of chemical
reactions and electronic impulses. Our memory and our ability to
remember is dependent on some very physical bodily functions. We
have the ability to “dump” a certain amount of memory so as not to
become overly cluttered. False memories can also be created and
formed. In other words, we can have “real” memories of things that
never happened! Are our memories part of our body or soul?
The soul's
existence is something that most everyone will agree on. But
determining exactly what the soul is (or isn't) seems to be allusive
at best.
Rick Richardson
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