I've always thought that our true essence, who we actually are, our personalities are our souls. To me, bodies are just temporary "homes" for the soul. My body can perish, but my soul will continue with its path. And I've always thought this is what Judaism teaches us. But I recently noted that in the Elokai Neshama, which we say every morning, the soul and the body are described in a completely opposite way:
אֱלֹהַי, נְשָׁמָה שֶׁנָּתַֽתָּ בִּי טְהוֹרָה הִיא. אַתָּה בְרָאתָהּ, אַתָּה יְצַרְתָּהּ, אַתָּה נְפַחְתָּהּ בִּי, וְאַתָּה מְשַׁמְּרָהּ בְּקִרְבִּי, וְאַתָּה עָתִיד לִטְּלָהּ מִמֶּֽנִּי, וּלְהַחֲזִירָהּ בִּי לֶעָתִיד לָבוֹא. כָּל זְמַן שֶׁהַנְּשָׁמָה בְקִרְבִּי, מוֹדֶה אֲנִי לְפָנֶֽיךָ, יְיָ אֱלֹהַי וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתַי, רִבּוֹן כָּל הַמַּעֲשִׂים, אֲדוֹן כָּל הַנְּשָׁמוֹת. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, הַמַּחֲזִיר נְשָׁמוֹת לִפְגָרִים מֵתִים.
My G-d, the soul that You have placed into me is pure. You created it; You formed it; You breathed it into me; and You preserve it within me. You will eventually take it from me, and restore it within me in Time to Come. As long as the soul is within me, I give thanks before you, Lord my G-d and G-d of my fathers, Master of all works, Lord of all souls. Blessed are You, G-d, Who restores souls to dead bodies.
Here, when I say me, I'm referring to my body. And I'm thanking G-d for giving me back my soul. But why is the body "me"? Shouldn't the soul be the real "me"? Am I the soul or the body?
Answer
Am I the soul or the body?
The answer is yes.
The mashal is given of a blind man and a lame man in the king's orchard. The blind man put the lame man on his shoulders. The lame man steered the blind man to the fruit and they were able to collect a harvest.
Emperor Antoninus asked Rabbi how there could be punishment in the life beyond, for, since body and soul after their separation could not have committed sin, they could blame each other for the sins committed upon earth, and Rabbi answered him by the following parable: "A certain king had a beautiful garden in which was excellent fruit; and over it he appointed two watchmen, one blind and the other lame. The lame man said to the blind one, 'I see exquisite fruit in the garden. Carry me thither that I may get it; and we will eat it together.' The blind man consented and both ate of the fruit. After some days the lord of the garden came and asked the watchmen concerning the fruit. Then the lame man said, 'As I have no legs I could not go to take it'; and the blind man said, 'I could not even see it.' What did the lord of the garden do? He made the blind man carry the lame, and thus passed judgment on them both. So God will replace the souls in their bodies, and will punish both together for their sins" (Sanh. 91a, b)
The soul and the body are individual parts of the human being. In Olam Hazeh, we are only able to exist as a combination. We are thanking Hashem for putting the soul in the body so that we can continue to exist in this world as the combination that we are.
The Art Scroll siddur explains that we are thanking Hashem for returning our faculties to us so that we can get up and continue to exist in this world. Without the soul in the body we would be unable to function.
There are those who say that when the time comes for the judgement Hashem will merge the body and the soul so that judgement can be made on the two together. In the meantime, this is what is going on during Olam hazeh. Once we go to Olam Haba, circumstances change and we do not really know what will happen and what existence is like.
The Modeh Ani is strictly for Olam Hazeh and how we exist here and now.
During Olam Hazeh, the combination sets up the circumstances in which we will exist in Olam Habo.
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