The Torah portion of Vayechi closes the book of Genesis. It records the final wishes of Jacob, the last of the Patriarchs and the blessings he gives his sons, the twelve tribes, before his death. At the end of the portion Joseph passes away, thus setting the stage for Israel’s enslavement in Egypt.
Jacob’s blessings to his twelve sons and the twelve tribes that will descend from them, is a mixture of prophecy, personal history, insight into their personalities, and at times rebuke. An interesting usage of animals in the blessings appears many times. Some references refer to a direct description of his sons and others as a description of their actions. For example:
A cub [and] a grown lion is Judah. From the prey, my son, you withdrew. He crouched, rested like a lion, and like a lion, who will rouse him? He binds his foal to a vine, and to a tendril [he binds] his young donkey. [He launders] his garment with wine, and with the blood of grapes binds his raiment (Genesis 49:9, 11).
Issachar is a bony donkey, lying between the boundaries (Genesis 49:14).
Dan will be a serpent on the road, a viper on the path, which bites the horse’s heels, so its rider falls backwards (Genesis 49:17).
Naphtali is a swift gazelle; [he is one] who utters beautiful words (Genesis 49:21).
Benjamin is a wolf, he will prey; in the morning he will devour plunder, and in the evening, he will divide the spoil.” (Genesis 49:27).
At the end of the Torah, Moses employees the character of animals as well in his blessings of the tribes:
To his firstborn ox [Joseph is [given] glory. His horns are the horns of a re’em. With them, he will gore peoples together [throughout all] the ends of the earth these are the myriads of Ephraim, and these are the thousands of Manasseh (Genesis 33:17).
And of Gad he said: “Blessed is He Who grants expanse to Gad; he dwells like a lion, tearing the arm [of his prey, together] with the head Genesis 33:20).
And of Dan he said: “Dan is a young lion, streaming from Bashan (Genesis 33:22).
It is clear from all of these references to animals that the language employed is highly symbolic and metaphoric. Therefore, it behooves us to look deeper into why so many of these blessings use this kind of imagery. In doing so we will reference usage of the general word used for “animal” in other places in the Tanach in order to assess the deep relationship between animal, human and the angelic realms.
The word in Hebrew for animal is chaya and chayot when plural. The word first appears in the account of creation on the fifth day when the fish are created and on the sixth day when the land animals are created:
And God said, “Let the waters swarm a swarming of living creatures [nefesh chaya], and let fowl fly over the earth, across the expanse of the heavens (Genesis 1:20).
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures [nefesh chaya] according to their kind, cattle and creeping things and the beasts of the earth according to their kind,” and it was so (Genesis 1:24).
What is of great interest is that when creating mankind, the Torah uses the same description as with the creation of the animal kingdom:
And Hashem E-lohim formed man of dust from the ground, and He breathed into his nostrils the soul of life, and man became a living soul [nefesh chaya] (Genesis 2:7).
On the verse regarding the creation of man, Rashi makes the comment that cattle and other beasts are also called nefesh chaya, but the nefesh of man is the most highly developed, because to mankind was granted understanding and speech. In fact, Onkolos, the Aramaic translator of the Torah defines nefesh chaya as a “speaking soul.” Here we see that human beings have an animal component as well as a unique intellectual component of soul that other animals do not possess.
Rashi also comments on the words “he breathed into his nostrils,” in conjunction with man being created from the “dust of the earth”: God made Adam of both earthly and heavenly matter; the body of the earthly and the soul of the heavenly. Human beings containing both a physical and spiritual component is seen clearly in the name Adam [אדם]. When dividing the word into its syllables, the first letter [A] an alef represents the soul, the spiritual nature of a human being, while the letters dalet and mem which spells dam, meaning blood, represents the body, the physical component.
In one place the Jewish people as a whole are compared to animals when Pharaoh commands the Jewish midwives to kill newly born male babies while saving the female ones. The Jewish midwives did not cooperate and when asked why they had not fulfilled what was commanded of them they exclaimed: “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are skilled [chayot]as midwives; when the midwife has not yet come to them, they have [already] given birth” (Exodus 1:19). The straightforward understanding of the word chayot in this verse is “skilled.” In fact, the word for nurses in modern Hebrew is chayot. Yet, Rashi adds a second explanation from the Talmud that the Jewish people are compared to animals of the field that gave birth naturally and have no need for midwives. And where, Rashi asks, do we see the Jewish people compared to animals? – in the various usages of animals in the blessings that Jacob and Moses imparted to the twelve tribes, as described above.
There is one more interesting reference to people compared to animals. When the brothers returned from selling Joseph they dipped his cloak in the blood of a goat and showed it to their father Jacob: “He recognized it, and he said, “[It is] my son’s coat; a wild beast has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn up” (Genesis 37:33). Rashi comments that when Jacob said this he did so with a spirit of prophecy, as later the wife of Potiphar would try to “devour” him [sexually]. As is known, one of the primary animalistic urges in a human being is sexual desire.
We bring one last reference to the word chayot which is found in the mystical vision of Ezekiel, referred to as the “Workings of the Chariot,” wherein he envisions many different heavenly phenomenon and angelic beings. Here are the first of many references to the angelic living beings, the chayot:
And the likeness of the living beings [chayot]; their appearance was like fiery coals, burning like the appearance of firebrands; it was going among the living beings; and there was a brightness to the fire and from the fire came forth lightning. And the living beings would run and return, like the appearance of the sparks. And I saw the living beings, and behold, one wheel [was] on the ground beside the living beings for its four faces (13-15).
Having completed our general survey of the usage of the words chaya/ chayot, and nefesh [soul] as well, it is incumbent upon us to contemplate how this term refers to animals, humans and angels.
We begin with five names of the soul as learned from an ancient Midrash: nefesh, ruach, neshama, chaya and yechida (Bereshit Rabbah 14:9). Each name refers to an ascending hierarchy of soul powers and serves as a powerful tool in analyzing and understanding the human psyche.
Nefesh, the lowest level of soul, refers to what is commonly termed the animal soul, the instinctual and behaviorist drives and patterns of human action, most associated with the body of man. Ruach, or “spirit,” relates to the emotions; neshama, the inner soul, is considered the seat of the intellect; chaya, “the living one,” refers to the interaction between consciousness and its superconscious origin; and yechida, “the single, unique one,” relates to the most Divine aspect of soul.
Here we see an interesting phenomenon: the lowest level of soul is the nefesh, the animal soul associated with the body, while the fourth level is called chaya, a very high level of soul which rises to its superconscious origin. This hierarchy of soul powers is not in any way a moral or ethical statement, rather it describes the existential reality of the human soul and its relationship to both its relatively “lower” instincts and its higher calling and potential. Each level of soul has its place and time, and each component has its positive and potentially challenging aspects. Ultimately, every soul needs to reach a holistic unity were the physical and spiritual, emotional and intellectual, conscious and unconscious, subconscious and superconscious levels of soul assist each other in revealing and actualizing one’s ultimate purpose and potential.
A good example of how the lowest and highest levels of soul can work together is human sexuality which has the power to awaken humanity’s most base animalistic desires. When this happens, the result is superficial, emotionally unfulfilling, and a waste of spiritual potential, at best; at worst, it leads to violence, degradation, and the debasement of humanity’s most sacred morals and values. Yet when sexuality is awakened in a context of holiness it can bring with it deep love, intimacy, and true satisfaction. The Torah, through the laws of family purity, attempts to channel sexual arousal, and, in fact, all of humanity’s primal forces, in order to help human beings reach the highest levels of goodness, pleasure, and intimacy with each other as well as with God.
For this reason, the most auspicious time for marital relations is considered to be on Shabbat. Although Shabbat is the most spiritual days, paradoxically we celebrate through very physical means such as refraining from work, sumptuous meals, the best cutlery, wearing the finest clothes, marital relations and in general physical rest and relaxation. This indicates a foundational principle in Torah that ultimately physical and spiritual need to be unified. This holds true as well for the different levels of soul ranging from the animal soul to the Divine spark of God within.
The nefesh, the animal and behavioristic instincts, the ruach, the emotional component, and the neshama, the intellectual aspects of the soul, when clarified, refined and rectified, serve as a springboard to fully activate the higher levels of soul – the chaya and the yechida. The fact that the angels in Ezekiel’s vision are called chayot and operate in the heavenly realms alludes to the elevated levels human consciousness can reach.
Although we quoted the following verse in the vision of Ezekiel – “And the living beings would run and return, like the appearance of the sparks” – the prophet Zechariah actually depicts angels as “standing”: “then I will give you access among these who stand by” (Zechariah 3:7). The Sages taught that in this verse those “who stand by” are the angels. Angels are described as “standing by” because they do not possess free will. Most angels are said to emanate from the World of Formation, instead of the higher World of Creation where souls emanates from, because they lack free will. It is important to note that the level of chaya in the soul is most associated with the power of will.
In one sense, angels lack of free will indicates a very high level in that they are programmed to fulfill a higher calling – God’s will – without question. Before receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai, the people proclaimed “we will do and we will hear.” Rashi explains that they were actually imitating the angels who similarly “do” God’s will, so to speak, on automatic pilot. Thus, the people’s proclamation that they will “do and we will hear” represents a very high level of human achievement. Yet, one of the explanations of mankind being created “in the image of God” means with free will and the ability to choose. This is thus the greatest gift and challenge: to choose freely to do God’s will as revealed in the Torah and by the Sages. In this sense, the level of chaya in the soul comes from a higher place than the angelic chayot.
One of the many explanations for God stating in the plural – “Let us make man in our image and likeness” is that God coalesced all of creation to contribute to the creation of humankind. Along with the animal and angelic creations that we have discussed, humanity also has in common with the vegetable kingdom the fact that both have life force. In fact, the very root of the word chaya is chai which means “life,” and thus the translation for animal, human and angel as “living beings.”
The level of yechida, the highest level of soul, relates to the Divine spark within each person. Yet, nothing in creation, including the mineral kingdom can exist without a spark of Divine energy. Paradoxically, in this aspect there is a deep connection between the mineral kingdom which appears to lack life force and those creations which are alive, as all are animated by a Godly spark.
In conclusion we see the interdependence and the inter-inclusion of not only all five levels of soul, one with the other, but an even more all-encompassing unity with all of creation which all contributed in some manner to the creation of mankind the “crown of creation.”
