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— that all actions depend on the bones. In truth, anatomy books do say that the human frame is the bones and that flesh, veins, nerves, and muscle serve and preserve the bones.
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But I know he did not say this through that reasoning but from limited insight — since every discipline has its own starting point, distinct from other disciplines; the discipline of religious law has nothing to do with anatomy.
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He also did not notice that 'Lord, who is like You?' does not specifically come from bones. And to compound the matter, he added that the bodies of Saul and his sons were burned by the people of Jabesh — as it says: 'They came to Jabesh and burned them there' (1 Sam 31:12).
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— and that their bones alone were buried — as it says: 'They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh' (1 Sam 31:13).
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Yet Scripture says 'Moses took the bones of Joseph with him' (Exod 13:19) — but who would have burned his body? And what shall we make of the man of God from Judah who said: 'Lay my bones beside his bones' (2 Kgs 13:21) — after his body had been buried?
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In fact, 'they burned them there' means 'they burned over them there' — as in: 'As they burned incense for your fathers, the kings... so they will burn for you' (Jer 34:5); and as language uses 'his father wept him' to mean 'his father wept over him.'
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In sum, those who attributed actions to the soul alone, to the body alone, or to the bones alone — none of them understood the convention and custom of language.
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For language's custom is: when an action is performed by three or four or five things, it sometimes attributes it to the first alone, sometimes to the second alone, sometimes to the third alone.
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Just as we know that speech is accomplished by five instruments — mouth, tongue, lip, palate, and throat — yet language says: 'My mouth declares Your righteousness' (Ps 71:15); 'my tongue expresses Your righteousness' (Ps 35:28); 'my lips praise You' (Ps 63:4); 'your palate is sweet' (Song 5:16); 'call out with the throat, hold back not' (Isa 58:1).
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— whichever of the five it mentions, the other four are implied with it.
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So too here: when it mentions soul alone, or body, or bones, or skin — it means all of them.
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Indeed, language sometimes attributes to a single limb alone an action that belongs to the body and soul together: 'Her feet do not dwell in her house' (Prov 7:11); 'she works with willing hands' (Prov 31:13); 'my eyes have lodged among their rebellions' (Lam 3:51); 'will my palate not discern iniquity?' (Job 6:30) — and the like.
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We have thus clarified through reason and Scripture that the two are a single moral agent. We add to this from tradition what the sages said: 'If a man comes to say, "Body and soul can excuse themselves from judgment" — to what may the matter be compared? To a king who had an orchard and stationed two watchmen, one lame and one blind...' — and the rest of the story.
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Section 6. I will now speak of the term of life. I say: their Creator has set a defined period for their being together — as He said: 'I will fill the number of your days' (Exod 23:26); and He said to the master of creation: 'Behold your days draw near to death' (Deut 31:14); and He said to one of the righteous: 'When your days are complete and you lie with your fathers' (2 Sam 7:12).
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I further say that this period may be extended or shortened. And in my view, this period is not something God knew the soul would remain in the body — for His knowledge does not change the true nature of things.
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Rather, in my view this period — which admits extension and reduction — is the duration of the powers given to the body to sustain itself. For from the very first moment of creation, there is no doubt that God built the body on some amount of power, greater or lesser.
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The duration of that power's subsistence is what is called the 'term' — and God can increase it so that it lasts thirty additional years beyond seventy; and He can weaken and loosen it