Hebrew Word Study – Physical Body – ‘Adam  אדם Aleph Daleth Mem

Genesis 1:26-27: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and overall the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

Deuteronomy 19:15: “One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.”

Mishnah Torah, Laws of Sanhedrin 18:6: “But your body doesn’t belong to you; it belongs to God.  It’s not your property to do with as you please.  It is a treasured loan that God gives you for however long you’re on this earth.  It’s absolutely not yours to do with as you please, and so a persons’ own admission in court will be rejected if the outcome is death.” 

I was reading in the Mishnah the other day and discovered the above quote.  What the Mishnah, which is an explanation of the Hebrew laws, is saying is that you need a minimum of two witnesses to a crime. One witness can be the party to the crime itself. But in a crime that carries capital punishment, the alleged perpetrator cannot be a witness, even if he confesses and says he committed the crime. The reason is that he is committing his body to death and he has no right to do this for his body does not belong to him.

Like most people I own a few of these electronic devices, a smartphone, computers, laptop, and a tablet and like most people I struggle with its unforgiving nature. You type in your email on some form on the computer and miss one stinking dot and you get an error message which makes you type the whole thing over again. Have you ever ordered anything online and after painstakingly filling in every blank, checking, and rechecking you hit the enter button only to have an obnoxious window pop up and declare that the system does not recognize you? I read where 75% of the uses of these electronic devices admit to pounding their head on their desk. That same survey found that 35% of these users commit acts of violence upon their devices. 

The point is that if it is a personal device that you own, you may assault it, beat it, and commit whatever act of violence you want on it and no one will ever call the police or have you arrested because it is your property and you can do whatever you want to your own property that you purchased and paid for.   You own it, it’s yours, your car, your house, your television. If you don’t like the news you can shoot your television set with a shotgun but you can’t shoot the newscaster. Your television is your property but not the newscaster. 

We have the same attitude towards our bodies. Our bodies belong to us. No one has the right to tell us what to put in our bodies. There is a big debate going on today with the vaccinations for the Covid 19.  People are not taking the vaccine and declare they have the right to do what they want with their own bodies as it is their property and no one has the right to force them to do something with their bodies that they don’t want to do. 

The fight over vaccinations and wearing a mask is really heating up. I recently heard someone comment: “The very same people who say they cannot be forced to take the vaccine because they have a right to do what they want with their bodies are the same people who want to outlaw abortions claiming women do not have the right to do what they want with their bodies.”  Of course, the immediate response is that abortion involves another life and that another life has no say in what it wants to be done with its body. 

In Jewish thought, all these situations and the arguments based upon the right of ownership of our own bodies are pure nonsense because no one has the right to their own bodies. You can commit all the acts of violence upon your smartphone that you wish because you own it, but you cannot commit any acts that are harmful to your body because you don’t own your body, it belongs to God.  

Here is the reasoning.  God created man, physical man.  The word is ‘adam in Hebrew which means from the earth. He made us in His image.  Then after that, he breathed neshemah into man. That is, He gave man life. Then man became a living nephesh or soul. Then it says He created zacar – male and neqevah – female.  The only thing that belongs to man is his nephesh/neshemah which I will refer to as nephesh for simplicity’s sake as there is much confusion between the two and I do not care to get into that for this study. That is the only thing we can do what we want to do with.  Your biggest choice with your nephesh – soul is whether you want it to spend eternity in hell or heaven. God can’t control that because he gave us our nephesh to do with what we please. The only thing God can do is offer our soul an eternity with Him and He provided the way by sending His Son to die for us to make it possible for our souls to live in heaven with Him but it is our choice.

However, when it comes to our bodies, that was created in His image. That is His tselem. A tselem is not a mirror image but a representation of one’s desires, longings, passions. God forged man into an image of his longing, desires and passions. He owns that body, He just stuck a nephesh into it to let it be controlled by a free will, the nephesh or soul. 

Our bodies are God’s work, He can make it pretty, ugly, strong, weak, or whatever He wants it to be and the soul is merely in the driver’s seat of God’s vehicle. I drive a disability bus.  I do not own the bus, I only drive it.  I call it my bus, I play the music I want on its radio, I take the streets that I want to take to drive to my destination, but I have absolutely no right to alter the bus physically like put on bumper stickers or install speakers.  So too with our bodies, our souls can take them where it wants to go, to use it to further God’s kingdom but we have no right to abuse our bodies, fill them with harmful drugs, alcohol, or tobacco just to bring pleasure it nephesh.

The argument that a woman can have an abortion because it is her body doesn’t hold up, not just because it affects another life which has no say in the matter, but because the simple matter is that she does not own her body, it is not hers. God controls whether that body continues or ceases to function. 

Now there are some advantages to not owning your own body. Like my disability bus, if the transmission goes out, I don’t have to bear the cost of repairs, the owner, my employer pays for that.  I don’t have to pay for the license plates, registration, city sticker nor insurance. I can drive all day and not have to pay a dime for any of those things, although I am limited in driving where my employer wants me to go, I can still enjoy the freedom of the road within the restrictions of my employer.  So too, with our bodies. If it starts to break down that is God’s problem.  Now I do have to report anything unusual, like a grinding sound coming from the brakes on my bus, so the employer can deal with it and to make sure any fluids I put in the bus are not harmful. If I don’t, I will lose my driving privileges. So too with our bodies, we need to make sure we address any signs of physical problems with our bodies and make sure what we put in our bodies are not harmful or our souls will lose its driving privileges. 

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