Consider those unique moments of Creation when Adam was made. In the time between the formation of Adam's flesh and when G-d breathed into his nostrils, his body was 100% human and 100% flawless, undefiled, and uncorrupted- and yet not fully alive. It was only after G-d breathed the breath of life (נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים, nishemat chayyom in Hebrew) into Adam's body that he became a living being (לְנֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה, l'nephesh chaya).
I think of it like a basic algebra equation: the body + the breath of life = a living being.
A+B=C. Simple, right?
It is as if G-d zippered the body and the breath together to create a living being. Perhaps this is what King David meant when he wrote, "You knit me together in my mother's womb." (Psalm 139:13). Someone alive has both a body and the breath of life. If you are missing one or the other, you aren't alive.
At the other end of the Good Book, we find the story of the two witnesses who will prophesy for the Lord and then be slain by the beast that comes up out of the abyss (Revelation 11:7). They are dead for three and a half days, and then that same "breath of life" from G-d restores them to life (Revelation 11:11).
We find throughout Scripture that most individuals die of disease, injury, or old age. In all of these situations, the "body" side of the zipper is damaged and cannot stay zippered together. In other cases, we find otherwise healthy individuals who die because G-d takes their life (for example, Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5). The two parts of their zipper were in good condition... G-d just "unzips" them because of their sin against the Spirit.
What is this "neshamah" that G-d breathed into Adam? Is it the same "breath of life" that the animals of Noah's Ark had (Genesis 7:15)? Is it physical breath or spiritual? What happens if we hold our breath? Are we temporarily "dead" until we breathe again?
We'll take a look at those questions next month.
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