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Section 2. The seventh position — the correct position — I will now explain with God's help. I presented the foregoing positions first —
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The six positions mentioned above are cited so that whoever reads this book understands that inquiry into the knowledge of the soul is inquiry into a matter deep, subtle, and fine.
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Just as I described the difficulty of investigating the validity of creation ex nihilo and the meaning of the Creator of existing things — so too, in its own meaning, this soul perplexes many people in its subtlety.
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I say: for this reason you find the sage praising one who grasps the true meaning of the rational soul in the human person — saying: 'Who knows the spirit of humans — does it ascend upward? And the spirit of the animal — does it descend downward to the earth?' (Qoh 3:21).
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I should clarify that 'who knows?' is not an expression of doubt about whether some souls ascend and others descend — it is an encomium for one who knows this to be so.
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I say to the hearer: this is like saying 'who knows Reuben the scholar and who knows Simeon the worshipper?' — for by saying this you are certainly affirming learning for Reuben and worship for Simeon; your question about who knows them is an encomium or a mark of excellence for such a person.
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So the sage's statement 'who knows the noble ascending soul and the base descending soul' is a confirmation that the two souls are indeed thus — and 'who knows' means: whoever grasps this has attained wisdom, grown strong, and succeeded.
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I also say that 'who knows?' expresses wonder and praise precisely when the two souls are compared to the conditions of the two bodies — as he says: 'As for the conditions of the two bodies, we find them'
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— 'equal to the senses in body and accidents; yet we do not doubt that there is a difference between the two spirits — and who knows it and grasps it?'
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This is clear from his statement before: 'For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same fate — as one dies, so dies the other; they all have one spirit' (Qoh 3:19).
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And then he continued: 'Who knows the spirit of humans — does it ascend upward?' This interpretation is confirmed by the following addition: 'And the advantage of humans over animals is nothing' (Qoh 3:19).
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It is impossible that the sage meant that the human soul is not superior to the animal soul in the first place — for no sage would say this, as it would negate wisdom.
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And even the ordinary person who has a modicum of reason would not say this — for he sees himself as more noble than the animals in matters too lengthy to detail.
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Rather, what he meant is that the human body is not superior to the animal body in any way — for it too is composed of four elements, as he said after: 'All go to one place' (Qoh 3:20). The superiority, then, is: 'Who knows the spirit of humans?'
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This is like saying: 'In terms of their stone-nature, there is no difference between ruby and flint — both are stone; but who knows the luminous brilliance inside the ruby and the chalk inside the flint — that one has attained.'
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I also say: 'who knows?' can be read as an affirmation — like 'perhaps he knows and will return' (Jonah 3:9), meaning: one who knows understands that this soul is elevated and this soul is lowly.
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Having presented those positions, I must now bring the seventh. I say: what is correct regarding the soul is that it is created — in accordance with what I established earlier about the createdness of existing things, since it would be wrong for anything besides the Creator to be eternal.
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And by reason of God's word: 'He formed the spirit of man within him' (Zech 12:1) — our Lord creates it together with the completion of the human form, as indicated by the phrase 'within him.'
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— as the patriarchs continuously swore: 'As the Lord lives who made this soul for us' (Jer 38:16).
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And its essence is a pure substance, pure as the purity of the celestial spheres; it receives light as the sphere receives it, becoming luminous — and excelling it, since its substance is more refined than the sphere. It is for this reason that it has the power of speech.
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I arrived at this from two illustrious sources. The first is reason — for I observed the traces of its wisdom and management throughout the body; and I saw the body stripped of all of this at the soul's departure from it.
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Had it been like earthly elements, it could not perform these noble acts; had it been like the substance of the spheres, it would have no speech — for no sphere has speech. Therefore it must be a subtle substance, purer, more refined, and simpler than the substance of the spheres.
The second source is Scripture's statement that pure souls —
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— shine like the shining of the spheres from the stars: 'The wise will shine like the brightness of the firmament' (Dan 12:3).
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And evil souls do not shine but are lower than the condition of the discredited spheres — as it says: 'Behold, He does not trust in His holy ones; the heavens are not clean in His eyes — how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water' (Job 15:15–16).
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I understood that Scripture compared these souls to luminous spheres and those to spheres lower than the discredited ones only because the soul is of this same kind of substance.
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And these two analogies confirm what the sage said: 'The one that ascends goes upward; the one that descends goes downward' (Qoh 3:21).
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Then I say, by way of follow-through: the sage's statement at the end of his book — 'the spirit returns to God who gave it' (Qoh 12:7) — is an affirmation and confirmation that points to the correctness of the interpretation I gave to 'who knows.'
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If someone presses and insists it is still doubt on the sage's part — well, on that reading the sage has moved from the first conjecture to another certainty when he says: 'the spirit returns to God.'
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Then I understood that this soul knows through itself — for several reasons. One: it cannot derive knowledge from the body, since that is not the body's function. Also: it is established that a blind person may dream that he sees — and since he did not perceive this through his body, he perceived it through his soul.
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This also refutes those who consider the soul to be the interconnection, interweaving, and proximity of the senses — for the soul is what gives the instruments of sensation their capacity, so how could they in turn give it its own essence? Whoever says this has inverted the propositions and reversed the facts.
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Then I understood that it acts only through the body — for every creature's action requires some instrument; and when the soul is united with the body, three powers become manifest in it.
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The power of discernment, the power of desire, and the power of passion. This is why our language names it by three names: nefesh, ruaḥ, and neshamah.
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It indicates by the name nefesh that it has a power of desire — as in: 'whatever your nefesh craves' (Deut 12:20), and 'his nefesh craves food' (Job 33:20).
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It indicates by the name ruaḥ that it has a passionate, angry power — as in: 'Do not be hasty in your ruaḥ to be angry' (Qoh 7:9), and 'The fool vents all his ruaḥ' (Prov 29:11).
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And it indicates by the name neshamah that it has a knowing power — as in: 'the breath of the Almighty grants them understanding' (Job 32:8), and 'the neshamah of what came out of you?' (Job 26:4).
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In regard to these powers, those who made the soul into two parts — one in the heart and the other throughout the body — were mistaken; all three belong to the single soul alone.
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Language adds to these two further names: ḥayyah and yeḥidah. It is called ḥayyah because it is enduring — sustained by its Creator. And it is called yeḥidah because it has no equal among all created beings, neither heavenly nor earthly.
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Then I understood that its seat in the human being is the heart — for it is evident that all the arteries that provide the body with sensation and movement arise from the heart.
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And although I find the major nerve branches do not originate from the heart but from the brain, I understood that those branches are not for the soul — they are the body's sinews
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— and its attachments. That is why Scripture always pairs the heart with the soul: 'with all your heart and with all your soul,' 'with all your hearts and with all your souls' — and the like.