Beraishis 9C אבר מן החי Blood’s Relationship to the Soul

אַךְ־בָּשָׂ֕ר בְּנַפְשׁ֥וֹ דָמ֖וֹ לֹ֥א תֹאכֵֽלוּ

However, (although flesh is now permitted to be eaten) you shall not eat flesh whose blood is still in it (in its soul).

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Here the Torah refutes a materialistic view of life. It speaks to those who think that power, intellect, soul, and life are merely variations and attributes of the material. They think that הדם הוא בנפש, that the blood is the soul, and that if someone destroys the blood he also destroys the soul. They think that there is no realm of the spirit. Everything can be understood materially. The Torah is saying here that body and soul are distinct from one another, and that the body is subservient to the soul.

There are 3 components of an animal discussed in this verse:
1. בשר – flesh, the body
2. נפש – the soul, the individual
3. דם – the blood

The blood is the instrument of the soul. As long as the animal is alive, the blood is still in the soul, meaning, the blood is encompassed and dominated by the soul. The blood is merged in the soul.

When the animal is alive, the blood is the physical representative of the soul. Every part of the body is dependent on the blood. The blood then subordinates the entire body to the soul. The body, the בשר – the מבשר, “the announcer”, declares, via the blood, the existence of the soul.

The soul – individuality, is expressed through the living body (the בשר). As long as the body is subservient to the soul via the blood, the body retains its individuality.

The link between body and soul is the blood. Once this bond is broken, once the animal dies, the body reverts to the elements of which it is made, no longer having any connection to the soul of the animal.

Based on the above….

This law teaches us that the body of an animal may be eaten only when the soul has departed from the blood. Now the body is merely passive, not under the sway of the animal’s soul. The blood is already dead and no longer represents the animal’s soul. Whereas if a part of an animal was severed while it was still alive, the flesh still bears the invisible effect of the living animal’s soul, unfit to be assimilated by man.

(See pages 225-226 for a full discussion of all the places in the Torah where דם and נפש are mentioned together and how they all fit into this understanding.)

In the following post we will see that the soul of a human is different to that of an animal. The animal soul is rooted in the physical and the human soul is rooted in the spirit of God.

Beraishis 9:4
pages 223-226