“Body and Soul” p: 173

AyinBase, Ayin Beis, with R' Paltiel Wednesday 11 Elul 5772 

Page 173 – middle of the page (line starts, 'kuli...') For text, see picture below.

Yesterday we looked at body and soul. We were looking at how the body is a garment for the soul that allows it to function in a physical world – nothing more! And actually the functioning is a soul functioning.

The reason we can think of the body as primary is because we are so involved with providing the body with its needs...

Imagine yourself with all you physical needs contained in a capsule and shot off into space. Some say, 'so what's so terrible?!' But it is beyond terrible – horrific idea. But the reason it has a degree of accepatbility is because there is such a focus on bodily needs. But satisfication of these needs is not what the human being stands for. The human being is a soul reality. The body is there to help the soul accomplish its mission.

In the human being the body and soul are inseparable. The definition of a human being is that he functions with a soul quality in a physical world. So they are inseparable.

Then there is the level of 'letters of thought'. Thought's significance is it its 'letters'. The soul has its truth and reality – that is inherent to it. Through thought you can know what it stands for. The letter/ot/os of thought is the 'coming forth' of the soul. The real thoughts are, 'what am I experiencing of being a soul in the body?'

The body is in total subservience to the soul. When we see a man we see body and soul unified. We see life itself, because the body is totally null to the soul, without any life of its own.

You don't know what the soul is about, unless it is put into words – 'letters of speech'.

Since a person cannot function without thought it means it is 'part-and-parcel' of him. He's in a constant state of 'thought action' – even when resting, he's doing something. Only the soul can be passive, since it is truth itself. The body is continually active when it is alive – the thoughts move continually.

We have been looking at 2 levels of garments. The soul dressed in the body (and the body says, what you give me I will take), in contrast to the 'letters of thought', where the soul participates in bodily terms.

Then there is a third level of garment – this is speech. It is also a garment of the soul, but it is not a necessity. There is a time to talk and a time to refrain from speaking.