"The Way of G-d"

Part 3: "The Soul, Inspiration, Prophecy, and the Supernatural"
Chapter 1: "The Soul and its Influence"

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There's no doubt that the Heavens speak to us -- the transcendent forces, angels, G-d Himself. The only question is, through which medium? Through our soul? Our heart? Our imagination? Our mind? Through all four? We'll have to back up a bit to explain a few things before we can answer that, though.

Let's start somewhat at the beginning. Unlike other beings, we humans are comprised of a blend of two dissimilar and utterly antithetical elements -- a body and a soul. (The antithetical nature of the two, by the way, explains most of our inner-conflicts, our confusions about just who we are, and so much more.)

Like our bodies, our soul is actually an amalgam of very many components. For now, though, we'll concentrate on its lowest one -- what's referred to as its "animating" component. Understand that the animating component is a part of our Divine soul all right, but it's the part that has direct bearing on our physicality and is also shared by other beings.

In fact, *everything* has an animating component of the soul (some refer to it as the "animating spirit"). It's the subtle and numinous phenomenon that quite literally *animates* each and every thing and governs its growth. It's passed on to everything at birth, and wends its way throughout its body until that particular entity -- person, animal, object, etc. -- becomes what it's supposed to be. The animating component stays with it throughout its existence, and governs both its physical and intellectual growth (depending, of course, on the kind of entity it is).

Now, our intellects are extraordinarily different from other beings', as we all know, despite the fact that we have the same type of animating component. And we also enjoy other abilities including imagination, memory, thought and will, which also derive from our animating component. Each one of them serves a unique function in our beings.

But, again, all of this only touches upon the lowest level of the soul -- though it has to do with very important elements of our being like our vitality, our physical well-being, our minds, and the like.

This series is dedicated to the memory of Yitzchak Hehrsh ben Daniel, and Sarah Rivka bas Yaakov Dovid.

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