Psalm 103 opens and closes with a blessing - "Bless Hashem, O my soul" (Barchi nafshi et Hashem). Rashi cites from Chazal that there are five instances of "Barchi nafshi" here, corresponding to the five worlds in which a person resides, as our Sages taught in Tractate Berachot. Let us begin with Chazal's exposition there, and through it, enter into the verses of the chapter.
לְדָוִד בָּרְכִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת־ה' וְכָל־קְרָבַי אֶת־שֵׁם קָדְשׁוֹ׃ - [A Psalm] of David: Bless Hashem, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy Name.
The Gemara in Berachot (10a) relates: Rav Shimi bar Ukva, and some say Mar Ukva, was frequently in the presence of Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi, and would arrange words of Aggadah before Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi. Let us recall what we have explained before: "Aggadah" does not mean mere fairy tales or folklore, but rather derives from the root meaning to draw out, as in negid venafik, gud asik, and gud achit - expressions of pulling and drawing. Aggadah refers to teachings that draw the heart.
He said to him: What is the meaning of the verse, "Bless Hashem, O my soul, and all that is within me, His holy Name"? He replied: Come and see that the nature of flesh and blood is not like the nature of the Holy One, blessed be He. The nature of flesh and blood is such that an artist draws a form upon a wall, but cannot endow it with spirit and a soul, innards and intestines. But the Holy One, blessed be He, is not like this - He forms a form within a form, and instills within it spirit and a soul, innards and intestines. A person painting a figure on a wall, or on a canvas, can only create the form; he cannot instill spirit into it. The Holy One, blessed be He, not only formed man and placed spirit within him, but He forms a form within a form - the fetus inside its mother's womb. Have you ever seen the craftsmanship of a ship in a bottle? A person carefully uses tweezers, piece of wood after piece of wood, to assemble an entire boat inside a bottle, and we marvel at the immense skill. Yet the Holy One, blessed be He, forms a form within a form, and even endows it with the breath of life, innards and intestines. And that is what Chana meant when she said: "There is none holy as Hashem, for there is none beside You, nor is there any rock (tzur) like our God" - what is meant by "there is no tzur like our God"? There is no artist (tzayar) like our God.
He said to him: This is what I was asking - corresponding to what did David say these five instances of "Barchi nafshi"? He replied: He stated them only corresponding to the Holy One, blessed be He, and corresponding to the soul. The Gemara presents five parallels between the soul and the Holy One, blessed be He. The foundation of this concept is that "one who blows, blows from his own essence" (maan denafach, midileih nafach), and therefore the traits of the soul reflect, as it were, traits of Him, blessed be He. The primary purpose of this is to provide us with an analogy for Godliness: when we attempt to grasp something abstract, sublime, and spiritual, we have no direct comprehension; but by means of an analogy, we can begin to understand.
Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, fills the entire world, so too the soul fills the entire body. The meaning of this is that every function of the body stems from the soul's extension throughout the entire body. For if the soul were present in only one specific location - for example, in the feet alone - where would the head and hands derive their vitality? And if it were only in the torso and not in the hands and feet, whence would those limbs receive their life? Since we see that there is vitality throughout the entire body, it is a sign that the soul fills it completely.
Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, sees and is not seen, so too the soul sees and is not seen. To this day, no one has ever seen the soul. A story is often told about a Russian neurosurgeon who was asked about the reality of the soul, and replied that he had operated on many brains and had yet to encounter a soul. They asked him: If so, what is the source of thoughts? He replied: Thoughts are simply a type of brain secretion, just as the kidneys produce their secretions. A wise man heard this and remarked: We have just witnessed one of this scientist's less successful secretions. The soul exists - it is simply invisible.
Incidentally, the research of Dr. Penfield, also cited by Rav Dessler, demonstrates that our actions are not merely physiological, but are activated by the soul. He attached electrodes to the brain - and today most of the human brain has been mapped, identifying which area controls which function - and stimulated a specific point. Suddenly, he saw the patient raise his hand and lower it. He stimulated it again, and again the patient raised his arm and lowered it. He asked him: "Why did you raise your hand?" The answer was startling: "I didn't raise it; you raised it." Now, if the body were merely a collection of molecules, if the body were just a machine, how could one claim that someone operated him from the outside? Rather, one realizes that while the body can be manipulated externally - since the body lifted, the machine moved - the "I" says: "I did not do that." A robot would never give such a response, for it is simply a functioning machine. This means that there is a spiritual force here that constitutes the "I," distinct from the body. The "I" is the soul. We see, then, that there is a spiritual reality to the soul: it sees and is not seen.
Just as the Holy One, Blessed is He, sustains the entire world, so too the soul sustains the entire body - giving life to the whole body. Just as the Holy One, Blessed is He, is pure, so too the soul is pure: "My God, the soul You have placed within me is pure." In its intrinsic essence, the soul is given in purity, and if a person corrupts his ways, he blemishes his soul.
Yet to be more precise: a person can blemish the nefesh and the ru’ach, but cannot blemish the neshamah. As explained in Mishnat HaGilgulim, when a person sins, the neshamah simply departs; it is not there. Not every person possesses an active reality of a neshamah. The neshamah leaves when a person sins, and one can bring it back through teshuvah - but at the moment of sin, the neshamah is not present within him, because the neshamah cannot be subjected to a blemish; it comes from an exalted source. Blemish pertains only to the nefesh, and to some degree to the ru’ach. Therefore, you will find that karet (spiritual excision) is always stated regarding the nefesh; it is impossible for the neshamah to be cut off. The neshamah always remains bound to the Quarry from which it was hewn, to the supreme Source. What can be excised is only the nefesh, which is the lowest, most earthly aspect of the spiritual component within man. And how is a person’s existence restored after karet? "Before the silver cord is snapped" - the aspect of the neshamah, a portion of God from Above, remains connected, and through it a person draws down the ru’ach anew and renews it, and restores once more the reality of the nefesh.
And this is the meaning of "A Jew, even though he has sinned, remains a Jew." No one can eradicate the reality of the soul. A Jew can be compared to a diamond: take a diamond, place it in the mud, coat it with something repulsive - people will recoil from it and avoid it, but it remains a diamond; wash it, polish it, and behold, it is a brilliant gem. By contrast, a gentile is in the category of "dross silver coated upon an earthen vessel": the inner reality is earthenware, and whatever one does, it remains earthenware; even if plated with gold, it is merely an external veneer, while the interior remains as it was. This reflects a soul derived from the kelipot; a gentile does not possess a ru’ach, and certainly not a neshamah, which is a portion of God from Above. However, if a gentile wishes, he may convert, and then he truly receives these elevated spiritual levels. Yet as long as he has not converted, he remains in this lower state - "Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on a balance," nothing more than the fine dust lingering on the scales. A Jew, on the other hand, possesses a holy soul; no matter how wicked or corrupt he may become, it is a portion of God from Above. This is that inner point which Rav Dessler notes can never be nullified - the eternal spark of the soul, from which one can always renew the ru’ach and the nefesh, do teshuvah, and forge a new spiritual reality.
Just as the Holy One, Blessed is He, dwells in innermost chambers, so too the soul dwells in innermost chambers. When the Sages speak of "innermost chambers," they generally refer to the inner dimension of the sefirot. For the sefirot are garments, and the more interior a level is, the holier it is. The levels of Atik and Arich, the aspects of Keter, are the most internal; Abba and Imma are already surrounding them; while the outer seven, Ze’eir Anpin and Nukva, are more external still. The Holy One, Blessed is He, in His Essence, is the inner light infused into the sefirot - and this is "dwelling in innermost chambers," in the deepest sanctum, with all the sefirot serving as outer garments. In the same way, the soul is neither blemished nor corrupted. It may depart, as noted earlier, but it is not damaged, because its source is from the World of Atzilut, and regarding Atzilut it is written, "Evil cannot dwell with You." Blemishes can occur in the worlds of Asiyah, Yetzirah, and Beriah, but not in the world of Atzilut.
One must understand that when referencing nefesh, ru’ach, and neshamah, these are three spiritual tiers, and Scripture often does not address their specific distinctions but rather uses a general term. For example, "all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life [ru’ach chayim]" - does this refer specifically to the level of ru’ach? Surely it refers to animals as well, and animals possess no ru’ach, only an animalistic nefesh; rather, the term is used generically. This is elaborated upon in Mishnat HaGilgulim.
Consider an example from everyday life. Someone might refer to the refrigerator in his house as a "Frigidaire" - but what brand is it? Sharp? Then it is not a Frigidaire. General Electric? That is not a Frigidaire either. Frigidaire is a brand name. Or if someone drives a Suzuki "Jeep" - is it really a Jeep? Jeep is a brand name. This illustrates how a specific term is often used as a general category: all vehicles of that type are colloquially called a "jeep," even though in exact terms, "Jeep" is merely one specific make within that class. The same applies to the spiritual realm: people might say of someone that he lacks a neshamah, lacks a ru’ach, or lacks a nefesh, and none of these expressions refers specifically to the exact level within the tripartite structure of nefesh, ru’ach, and neshamah; rather, the term is used generically. When analyzing the inner structure, however, there is nefesh, there is ru’ach, there is neshamah, and there are even higher tiers - chayah and yechidah - which are dealt with less frequently. As for the precise nature and locus of nefesh, ru’ach, and neshamah, countless pens have been broken over this subject, and the holy Ari delves into it deeply: what exactly is the nefesh and what is the ru’ach, when does one receive a nefesh and when a ru’ach, why they do not always arrive together, how one merits them, and whether multiple reincarnations are necessary or if they can be attained in a single lifetime. This is discussed at length in Mishnat HaGilgulim; it is a vast subject that cannot be grasped on one foot, with many facets discussed across sacred literature.
The Gemara concludes: Let him who possesses these five attributes - namely man, who possesses the soul endowed with these five qualities - come and praise Him Who possesses these five attributes. These correspond to the five times "Bless the Lord, O my soul" appears in this chapter. Although it is referred to here as nefesh, as noted, this is the same general concept; it is by virtue of these five qualities that man is fitting to praise Hashem, may He be blessed.
Radak explains that our chapter was also composed in the voice of the people of the exile - expressing how those living in the diaspora turn to, praise, and glorify Hashem, may He be blessed. Every wise and pious individual among them offers praise and thanksgiving to God for the kindnesses He bestows upon us even while we are in exile, while yearning and waiting for redemption. In addressing the wise soul, he says: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me [vechol keravai], bless His holy Name" - meaning, let all my inner organs bless His holy Name. The word "bless" carries over to the second clause as well, as though written twice. What are "my inner organs" [keravai]? The kidneys and the heart, situated within the person’s interior. Alternatively, Radak notes, keravai can mean the body itself, just as Scripture says, "All my bones shall say" - does it mean only the bones and not the flesh? Rather, it is an idiom signifying the entire body, and the same applies to keravai.
The Malbim explains that David wrote this psalm to elucidate Hashem's providence and the acts of lovingkindness that the Holy One, blessed be He, performs for the human soul, and how He devises means so that none who are banished remain cast off. "Bless Hashem, O my soul" - the soul, which is the spiritual part within me, a portion of God from Above, the daughter of God, will bless the Holy One, blessed be He, for the kindness He bestows upon it. "And all that is within me" - this is the body, which serves as a garment for the spiritual soul, and it will bless "His holy Name."
And what is "His holy Name"? We have already explained that when we speak of a "name," it means that one does not know the essence of the thing itself, but only its name. "Let them praise the Name of Hashem" - one does not perceive Hashem directly, but one has heard of the Name of Hashem. Just as someone might ask you: "Do you know so-and-so?" and you reply: "No, but I have heard the name." Does that mean I know him? No, only that his name is familiar to me. Thus, when one wishes to express an acquaintance that is not deep - a surface-level acquaintance - one speaks of familiarity with "His holy Name." According to this, it is magnificent: "Bless Hashem, O my soul" - for the soul possesses deep knowledge, very high levels of perception, and is unbounded; but "my innermost parts," the body, the outer sheath, cannot grasp Divinity itself, and only grasps His holy Name - hearing His renown from afar, hearing of Him by reputation.
בָּרְכִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת־ה' וְאַל־תִּשְׁכְּחִי כָּל־גְּמוּלָיו׃ - Bless Hashem, O my soul, and forget not all His bounties.
The Radak states: At first he said, bless the Holy One, blessed be He, according to His greatness, His exalted stature, and His holiness; and afterward he said, bless Him for the good He has performed for you. These are two aspects: the first is acknowledging His essence and His greatness, and the second is recognizing what I have received from Him and how I am sustained by Him, which merits its own thanksgiving. "Bless Hashem, O my soul" - according to His greatness; "and forget not all His bounties" - to bless Him for the personal favors we have merited to receive from Him.
And the perception we are speaking of is at the minimal level that the Holy One, blessed be He, has enabled us to perceive Him. We have discussed this several times, including in our study of the Kuzari: we have no grasp whatsoever of Him, blessed be He, and the most we can grasp is His actions. From His actions we know that He is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in kindness - all based on the influx we receive from Him. But to perceive the Bestower Himself - of this we say, "no thought can grasp Him at all"; this lies entirely beyond our reach. Even so, the soul, as well as the angels, certainly possesses a far higher perception than the body can attain. We, within the physical constraints of mortal intellect and coarse perception, attain only the most minimal comprehension; but the soul, being a spiritual entity, perceives the Holy One, blessed be He, at a vastly higher level. This is why it is written, "For man shall not see Me and live" - the body acts as a dividing screen against Divine perception. The soul, however, after a person passes away, is said to see the Creator, blessed be He; yet while "alive" this is impossible, for as long as a person lives, the physical body forms a barrier. Therefore, it is fitting for the body to praise "His holy Name" - hearing His renown from afar; but the soul already possesses deep knowledge and far higher perception.
The Midrash states regarding "and forget not all His bounties": Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said, if a person takes a purse and turns its opening downward, the coins fall out; yet this woman has her opening facing downward and walks upright on two feet, and the fetus is preserved within her womb. This is a continuation of what we mentioned earlier regarding the praise "There is no artist [tzayyar] like our God" - that the Holy One, blessed be He, fashions a form [tzurah] within a form. After He forms a shape within a shape, the woman walks about, and the form inside her is situated, as it were, in a pouch whose opening faces downward. If you turn a bag upside down, everything inside spills out; by natural law, the fetus should have fallen out, yet you see that the fetus is miraculously kept safe within her womb. This is "and forget not all His bounties."
The Malbim explains: Why does it say once again, "Bless Hashem, O my soul," after it already said, "[A psalm] of David: Bless Hashem, O my soul"? What does the second verse add? Rather, here it refers to a particular blessing, to the kindness that the Holy One, blessed be He, performs with us in a personal and unique manner. "And forget not all His bounties [gemulav]" - a gemul is an act done out of an awakening of love, stemming from the stirrings of nature, will, and emotional attributes within oneself, and out of that stirring one bestows kindness upon another. In other words: the Holy One, blessed be He, loves the soul of a human being - and as the saying goes, would that we loved the greatest tzaddik as much as Hashem loves the greatest rasha! There is therefore an immense kindness and a great bounty that the Holy One, blessed be He, bestows upon the soul. And how is this expressed? In that the Holy One, blessed be He, accepts a person in teshuvah and forgives their iniquities, as King David will explicitly state shortly: "Who forgives all your iniquity."
Where is this hinted at? Chazal say in Berachot (10a) - and see how the Malbim learns the Gemara in a Kabbalistic manner. As is well known, the holy Ari stated that there are six ways to study the Gemara according to peshat, and one way according to sod - to take the entire Gemara and study it through the prism of the esoteric secrets. Anyone who examines *Likutei Halachot* of Breslov will see that it takes a section of the Shulchan Aruch dealing with an ox that gored a cow, and explains everything according to the spiritual aspect of an ox, the aspect of a cow, the 280 judgments, and the like. That is, one can take the Shulchan Aruch in Choshen Mishpat and study it in a Kabbalistic manner, showing that it speaks of profound, elevated matters.
Chazal said that one must thank Hashem for placing a woman's breasts in the place of understanding (*Binah*). In the natural order, when a calf nurses from a cow, the place of nursing is very close to the place of waste; but with an infant nursing from its mother, it is not so - Hashem placed a woman's breasts, from which the baby nurses, in the place of understanding, in an elevated place, a place of intellect, rather than near the lower place of waste.
Now let us understand these matters in their inner dimension. The Malbim asks: What is meant by saying that He "placed her breasts in the place of understanding"? One must always know that in the holy writings, when breasts are mentioned - such as "her breasts will satisfy you at all times" (Mishlei 5:19) and the like - they refer to the pouring out of divine bounty, the bestowing of *shefa*. "He placed her breasts in the place of understanding" refers to teshuvah, which famously draws its sustenance from the sefirah of *Binah*, as it is written, "and his heart will understand, and he will repent and be healed" (Yeshayahu 6:10).
Let us arrange these concepts according to the *partzufim* (divine configurations): there are Abba (Father), Imma (Mother), Zeir Anpin (the Small Face), and Nukva (the Female). Abba is Chochmah; Imma is Binah; Zeir Anpin corresponds to the six lower sefirot; and Nukva is Malchut. Zeir Anpin and Nukva form a union; Abba and Imma form a union - Chochmah and Binah. When we speak of Binah, we are speaking of the aspect of Imma. And note carefully: teshuvah originates from Binah.
Everything connected to the lower world is associated with the number seven, because divine governance here begins from Chessed: Chessed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut - the seven sefirot that govern the world. In contrast, the three higher sefirot - Keter, Chochmah, and Binah - belong to the realm of the World to Come, and do not govern the routine functioning of this world. It follows, therefore, that teshuvah is not inherently part of the natural world, just as Chazal taught, "Teshuvah preceded the world" (Pesachim 54a). For the governance of the world takes place through the seven lower sefirot, whereas teshuvah stems from Binah, far above the plane of the world's governance.
Based on this, we can understand the wording of the blessing, "Blessed are You, Hashem, Who desires repentance": What are the vowels of the Name Havayah in this blessing? If someone needs to start searching in the siddur, that is not ideal; if one does not focus on it at all, that too is not ideal. Rav Ovadia Yosef notes that this is a straightforward kavanah, not esoteric mysticism but basic intention: the vocalization is with a *tzeirei*, and the vowel *tzeirei* corresponds to Binah. That is, the spiritual flow of the acceptance of teshuvah that we draw down at that moment comes through Binah. Why? Because Binah is Imma. What happens through teshuvah? "A convert who converts is like a newborn child" - he is like a newborn baby; and in the same way, teshuvah is like a rebirth, as though one undergoes gestation in the Mother and the Mother gives birth anew. Therefore, teshuvah resides in Binah, which is Imma - a rebirth for the person who repents.
Through this principle, we can understand an intriguing question: When Chizkiyahu saw through Ruach HaKodesh that wicked sons would emerge from him, why did he not also foresee that his son Menasheh would ultimately repent? You saw that they would act wickedly, but you did not see that he would repent? Did the broadcast cut out in the middle? Was the Ruach HaKodesh interrupted? If you already see that he acted wickedly, see also that he repented! The answer is that prophecy originates in the seven lower sefirot - specifically from Netzach and Hod, as is well known. Through prophecy, it is impossible to grasp the three upper sefirot, and this is what Chazal expounded on the verse, "No eye has seen it, O God, beside You, which He will do for him who waits for Him" (Yeshayahu 64:3) - the three upper sefirot are exalted, belonging to the realm of the World to Come, and are beyond comprehension. And where did we say teshuvah is found? In Binah, an elevated realm that prophecy cannot reach, and which no prophet can attain. Therefore, he could not see the teshuvah his son would perform. The wickedness - which belongs to this lower realm - can be seen; the sins can be seen; but the matter of teshuvah, which is so elevated and rooted in Binah, an aspect of the World to Come beyond prophetic grasp - that he could not perceive.
David opened the psalm with five expressions of "Bless, my soul," corresponding to the five qualities in which the soul resembles its Creator: it fills the entire body, it sees and is not seen, it sustains the whole body, it is pure, and it resides in the innermost chambers - "Let that which possesses these five attributes come and praise Him Who possesses these five attributes." The soul, which is a portion of God from Above, blesses Hashem Himself, whereas the body - which is its garment - blesses "His holy Name," for it can grasp only hearing the Name from afar. In the second verse, David adds a specific blessing for divine recompense: for the Holy One, Blessed is He's love for the soul, which is expressed in the acceptance of repentance and the forgiveness of sins - teshuvah originating in the sefirah of Binah, high above the world's governance and beyond prophetic perception, and through whose power a person is born anew. And over all this: "Bless Hashem, O my soul, and do not forget all His benefits."