The Greater Aspect of the Body Over the Soul

From the Teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Zt”l

This week's Torah portion is called Chayei Sara, literally "the life of Sara." It begins, however, with the passing of our first matriarch: "And Sara died in Kiryat Arba, which is Hebron, in the Land of Canaan."

According to the primary Jewish mystical text, the Zohar, Sara symbolizes the body while Abraham is symbolic of the soul. In this context, the Zohar explains that the verse describes the death of the body. The fact that "Abraham came to lament Sara and to weep for her" indicates that the soul weeps even after the death of the body since it remains related to the body.

Earlier in the Torah, when Abraham questioned Sara's judgment in sending away his son Ishmael, G-d told Abraham, "All that Sara may say unto you, listen to her voice." According to the Zohar, then, it would seem that the soul must listen to the body!

What is the "working relationship" between the soul and the body? Mitzvot - commandments - are given to the soul, but only souls that have been brought down into bodies. The mitzvot themselves are performed through material objects. This applies not only to mitzvot involving a physical act, but also to those mitzvot which are essentially duties of the heart - e.g., love and fear of G-d, or duties of the mind - e.g., the belief in the unity of G-d. The latter, too, are meant to be fulfilled by the physical heart and brain.

It is conceivable to meditate on and contemplate all of the intentions of a mitzva, and yet not fulfill the actual mitzva. For example, one may go through all the devotions relating to tefilin, without actually donning the tefilin, or relating to Shabbat candles, without actually lighting them.

Obviously this would constitute not only a failure in fulfilling the mitzva, but an actual transgression - by negating the mitzva. On the other hand, if one fulfills a mitzva without contemplating any of the devotions involved, though he should have had these thoughts in mind, he has at least fulfilled the mitzva.

Our ultimate preoccupation, then, is with the body. Although this is not totally apparent now, in the Messianic era it will become much more obvious. In fact, at this time, the soul will actually derive its life-force from the body.

Reprinted from the 2003/5764 Parashat Chaye Sarah edition of L’Chaim, a weekly publication of the Lubavitch Youth Organization