Quotes About Nephesh

The lowest part of the soul, which corresponds to Assiah, the Material World, is called the Nephesh—animal vitality or the animal soul.

Hebrew anthropology was not dualistic (body and soul) but unitary. Nephesh means something like life force or even breath. It is not a substance that can leave a person and exist independently of the body. It is the thing that makes bodies live. When the body stops breathing, it becomes dead matter. In modern terms, when you stop breathing, your breath doesn't go somewhere. It just stops. So too with the Hebrew nephesh . The person is then dead.