Book of the Discipline of Wisdom

Chapter 48

The Ga’on says, It is clear to us that the soul is created and renewed, just as other substances are created and renewed; and this renewal is the creation of something out of nothing, in a subtle and wonderful manner; for as it is impossible that there should be a substance prior to and apart from the Creator, it necessarily follows that all objects must be created, and the soul is one of them, as it is written: And forms the spirit of man within him (Zechariah 12:1). Hence the soul is something created, and it is a pure essence, a substance which is bright, simple, very fine and pure, illuminative in a higher degree than the heavenly spheres and bodies generally. It is, therefore, the seat of the intellect and the understanding. [ . . . ]

Chapter 49

As R. Abraham Ibn Ezra has some good and clear points on this subject, I add them here. According to him, the “soul” [nefesh] is the vegetable nature resident in the liver, which enters into the composition of every living being; from it are derived such feelings as the desire for food and sexual connection. The “spirit” [ruaḥ] resides in the heart, and upon it depend man’s life and movement: when this spirit, which is like the air, departs out of man’s body, he dies; this is the nature which gets the upper hand in us, and is prone to anger. As regards the “breath” [neshamah], this is the highest endowment, its faculties residing in the brain; it is on this account that it is continually searching after that which may help it to acquire the knowledge of God’s actions. Now, according to the statements of these authorities of ours, combined with that which I, Berekhiah, have learned from the scientific work which I have rendered into Hebrew from a non-Jewish source, I have come to the conclusion that, fundamentally, the seat of the neshamah is, in truth, in the brain; and that, for this reason, man has been created erect in stature, so that the neshamah should point to heaven, and thus have before its view, and ever present to its gaze, the place from whence it derived its origin.

And when the desire of man would be about to get the better of his reason, prompting him to perform deeds which should not be done, then Recollection, proceeding from the neshamah’s upward glance, would intervene to forewarn him, even to restrain him from that unhallowed action, unless he permit his baser nature to coerce him.

Every sensible person will control his bodily wants in such a manner, as to fit in with the necessities of the neshamah; for unto such as walk on fours, that neshamah has not been granted, they having been created for the sole purpose of ministering to man’s wants, either as food, or to do the work man demands of them.

If, however, man were but an animal walking on all fours, his neshamah would become affrighted, defiled, and rendered unclean by reason of its groveling in the dust of the earth.

Now as long as the working and faculties of the neshamah are manifest in the brain, the organ is termed neshamah—the word itself being derived from the term shamayim [heavens], for thereupon it keeps its gaze fixed.

We know also that the power of the neshamah is felt throughout the body; and if its chief seat be in the brain, it is because there are nerves ramifying from the brain, and spreading through the body, which are more sensitive than other nerves; of such are those that supply the organs of sight and hearing: for, surely, the members of the body have of themselves no sensation.

It is also true what R. Se‘adya has said, that the word neshamah often stands for “understanding,” but he did not explain himself fully; I will endeavor to do so.

It is well known, that when we use the word “wisdom” with regard to man, we refer to those forms and images which are stored up in the back-part of the brain; “knowledge” consists

in the coalescence of sensations in the cerebral cells in the frontal portion of the brain; while “understanding” refers to that form of intelligence which is midway between knowledge and wisdom: in reality the words tevunah and binah are, etymologically, derived from “between.” All these forms of intelligence, in fact, have their origin in the nerves of the neshamah.

This is the rule for your guidance—the name of the noumenon varies according to the phenomenon; when, for example, its phenomena are manifest in the liver, the neshamah is called nefesh [soul], because the ultimate source whence the desire grows is in that organ, the word nefesh being of the same root as the form [u-fish-tem] in the clause: “And ye shall go forth and grow,” etc., in the sense of “increasing,” “being over and above.” When, again, the neshamah’s manifestations are in the heart, [and this organ is more susceptible of the powers of the neshamah than any other bodily member, and it is on this account that all the members are subservient to the heart], then we attribute those phenomena to the ruaḥ [spirit], for the movements of which man is capable during life are derived from it, and it is on account of this movement that the neshamah is called ruaḥ.

These two terms ruaḥ and nefesh are equally applicable to both man and beast, for their powers are visible even in those who walk on fours [ . . . ]. But the neshamah in its ultimate form, dumb animals do not possess; some instincts which are offshoots and derived from the neshamah, they have; these lead them on so that they reach their destination when they wish to feed in the grazing field, and they remember the spot whence they came and whither they are going. Man alone possesses the ultimate form of the neshamah, for the Creator breathed it into his nostrils as the breath of life, and placed it below in the brain, from whence it is once again to return unto the God who gave it.

I have culled all this information from the learning of the Greeks, which had been translated into other languages by certain non-Jews; I have redeemed it from the hand of the stranger and have given it a purer turn of my own and incorporated it in this work.