נשמת חייםThe Glassblower's Breath

nishmat ḥayyimIn Gamatria ↗

Breath in the mouth, wind in the pipe, rest in the glass.

Neshamah means "breath." It is not man's breath rising from the heart, but, as it were, God's own breath: "He blew into his nostrils" (Gen. 2:7). Drawing on the sages' comparison to glassmaking (Sanhedrin 91a), the author describes three stages of the blower's breath. In his mouth it is neshamah. Streaming through the pipe it is ruach, "spirit." Resting inside the shaped vessel it is nefesh, a word tied to rest. So the nefesh lies wholly within the body. The ruach is poured down, tied above to the lowest part of the neshamah. The essence of the neshamah never enters the body at all.

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