Introduction to Embodiment in the Jewish Tradition EJL Network Advanced Learning Seminar

GEMARA: Corresponding to what were these eighteen blessings instituted? Rabbi Hillel, son of Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani, said: Corresponding to the eighteen mentions of God’s name that King David said in the psalm: “Give unto the Lord, O you sons of might” (Psalms 29). Rav Yosef said: Corresponding to the eighteen mentions of God’s name in Shema. Rabbi Tanḥum said that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Corresponding to the eighteen vertebrae in the spine. Rabbi Tanḥum said that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: one who prays must bow until all the vertebrae in the spine protrude. Ulla said: Until he can see a small coin [issar], on the ground before him opposite his heart (Rav Hai Gaon). Rabbi Ḥanina said: There is room for leniency; once he moves his head forward, he need not bow any further. Rava said: But that applies only if he is exerting himself when doing so, and he appears like one who is bowing.

“It is known that there are 248 human limbs corresponding to 248 positive commandments. According to this, all operable limbs are required to be performing commandments, for surely this is the essence of performing a commandment that takes place in the limbs of the arms and legs; and even more so the parts of the face that are unique to seeing, hearing, or speaking. This is not the case regarding the vertebrae of the spin, which are physically different to the other limbs, and have no recognizable purpose related to the performance of a mitzvah. Therefore, it was required to establish in correlation to them the eighteen blessings in order that a person should remember at all times of prayer with all their might to exert themselves to fulfil the text that is written, ‘All of my bones speak of You, oh God who is like You,” and it is also understood on the side of the Meimra (Statement) by Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, that a person must kneel in their prayer until the vertebrae of the spine loosen…”

"When you see the donkey of your enemy struggling under its burden" - Meaning, the donkey is the body, susceptible to the "Yetzer Hara" (evil inclination), and it struggles under that burden... help it, with your prayers, and then it too will pray and return in Teshuvah....

To quote, by way of preface, the comment of the Yenuka (Zohar, Parshat Balak) on the verse: "The wise man's eyes are in his head": "Where else are a man's eyes? ... But the interpretation of the verse certainly is as follows: We have learned that a man must not walk four cubits bareheaded. The reason is that the Shechinah rests on his head; and a wise man's eyes and everything he possesses are 'in his head,' i.e. in Him Who rests and abides above his head; and if his eyes are there, he must know that the Light which shines above his head needs oil; for the body of a man is a wick, and the Light is kindled above it. And King Solomon cried, saying, 'Let there be no lack of oil above thy head.' For the Light on a man's head must have oil, meaning good deeds, and this is the meaning of the phrase, 'The wise man's eyes are in his head.'" The quotation ends here.

The explanation of this figure, whereby the Light of the Shechinah is compared to the flame of a lamp which produces no light nor clings to the wick without oil, and likewise the Shechinah does not rest on a man’s body, which is likened to a wick, except through good deeds alone, and it is not sufficient that his soul (neshamah), which is a part of G‑dliness from above, should act for him as oil to the wick—is clear and understandable to every intelligent person.

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Therefore, when a person occupies himself in the Torah, his neshamah, which is his divine soul, with her two innermost garments only, namely the power of speech and thought, are absorbed in the Divine light of the blessed En Sof, and are united with it in a perfect union. This constitutes the resting of the Shechinah on his divine soul, as the Rabbis stated, "Even if one person sedulously occupies himself with the Torah, the Shechinah is with him."

However, in order to draw the light and effulgence of the Shechinah also over his body and animal soul, i.e. on the vital spirit clothed in the physical body, he needs to fulfil the practical commandments which are performed by the body itself. For then the very energy of the body itself which is engaged in this action is absorbed in the Divine light and in His will, and is united with Him in a perfect union. This is the third garment of the divine soul. Thereby also the energy of the vital spirit in the physical body, originating in the kelipat nogah, is transformed from evil to good, and is actually absorbed into holiness like the divine soul itself, since it is this [animal soul] that carries out and performs the act of the commandment, because without it the divine soul could not have been acting through the body at all, for it is spiritual whilst the body is material and coarse. The intermediary linking them is the vital animal soul, which is clothed in the human blood, in the heart and in all the body.

....Thus the energy of the vital soul that is embodied in the performance of the commandment is actually absorbed into the Divine light and is united with it in a perfect union, thereby illuminating the totality of the vital soul throughout the body, and also the physical body itself in a manner of "Encompassing from above," from head to foot. This is what is meant by the phrase, "The Shechinah rests on his head; the word "on" indicates this. Similarly, "On every [assembly of] ten the Shechinah rests."...