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The Old Testament consistently uses three primary words to describe the parts of man: basar (flesh), which refers to the external, material aspect of man (mostly in emphasizing human frailty); nephesh, which refers to the soul as well as the whole person or life; and ruach which is used to refer to the human spirit (ruach can mean "wind", "breath", or "spirit" depending on the context; cf ...
(The intimate connection between "holy war" and the "one true god" belief of monotheism has been noted by many scholars, including Jonathan Kirsch in his book God Against The Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism and Joseph Campbell in The Masks of God, Vol. 3: Occidental Mythology.) [1] [2]
Nephesh (נֶ֫פֶשׁ nép̄eš), also spelled nefesh, is a Biblical Hebrew word which occurs in the Hebrew Bible.The word refers to the aspects of sentience, and human beings and other animals are both described as being nephesh.
Ultimately, this is seen as the reason that God chose to emanate His Divinity through the 10 Sephirot, and chose to create the corresponding chain of four Worlds (called the "Seder hishtalshelus"-"order of development"). He could have chosen to bridge the infinite gap between the Ein Sof and our World by a leap of Divine decree.
Psalm 51 refers to "Your holy spirit" (ruach kodshecha). [3] Chapter 63 of the Isaiah refers twice to "His holy spirit" (ruach kodsho) in successive verses. [4] Psalm 51 contains a triple parallelism between different types of "spirit": Fashion a pure heart for me, O God; create in me a steadfast spirit (רוּחַ נָכֹון ).
In Hebrew the word for Spirit (רוח) (ruach) is feminine, (which is used in the Hebrew Bible, as is the feminine word "shekhinah" in rabbinic literature, to indicate the presence of God, Arabic: سكينة sakina, a word mentioned six times in the Quran).
Higher levels of the soul give a person emotion (ruach), logic (neshamah) and awareness of G‑dliness (chaya). Within the category of nefesh are the nefesh habehamit and the nefesh haelokit. In yeshivah, we typically spelled the word as nefesh, although I am unsure about the rest of the world.
It is also used very occasionally in Hebrew texts to refer to God (e.g. Psalm 136:3.) [37] Deuteronomy 10:17 has the proper name Yahweh alongside the superlative constructions "God of gods" (elōhê ha-elōhîm, literally, "the gods of gods") and "Lord of lords" (adōnê ha-adōnîm, "the lords of lords": כִּי יְהוָה ...