The Soul and Breath: Kabbalistic Meditation Insights

Unlock your soul's potential through mindful breathing and meditation, reconnecting with your inner self.

### The Soul and Breath: Embracing Our Inner Essence through Meditation
* 🌬 The Hebrew word for "soul," "nephesh," is intricately linked to "n'shama," meaning **breath**, highlighting the **divine connection** between our existence and the act of breathing.
* 💖 Breathing is a continuous cycle of inhaling and exhaling, symbolizing the **soul's energy flow**, which is essential for both **physical and spiritual vitality**.
* 🔥 The soul is likened to a **flickering flame** that requires **movement and engagement**; resisting this natural restlessness leads to **stagnation and a disconnect from our true selves**.
* 🌱 As we grow older, materialism can numb our spirits, making us forget our **innate need for movement, creativity, and emotional expression**, which are crucial for **maintaining the vitality of our souls**.
* 🧘 Meditation serves as a pathway to **reconnect with our soul**, allowing us to **cultivate mindfulness** and **reclaim our natural state of being**, rather than viewing it as a task to be scheduled.
* 🌄 The essence of meditation is about **returning to our roots**, embracing our **unique purpose**, and fostering a **deeper understanding of our identity** beyond societal roles and expectations.
* 🎶 The practice of gratitude, expressed through morning meditations, reinforces our **connection to our soul** and can transform our daily experiences into a **more profound journey of self-discovery and fulfillment**.
* 💫 Ultimately, the journey involves **harmonizing our cognitive and emotional faculties**, allowing us to **transcend the limitations of the material world** and embrace the **full expression of our soulful existence**.

So let's just take the word "soul" itself. The word "soul" in Hebrew is "nephesh." It comes right at the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis, where it says that after six days, on the sixth day of creation, God took a clump of clay, of earth from the ground, shaped it into

what would become a body, and then He imbued it with His breath, with divine breath. So therefore, in Hebrew, the word for "soul" and the word for "breath" are actually the same word; they're just pronounced differently.  "Nephesh" is soul; "n'shama" means breath. So we breathe

physically; we inhale and exhale. It's exactly the same thing. As I mentioned, breath flows, comes through our mouths, into our throats, into our lungs, fills up the lungs, which in turn gets oxygenated and then distributed through the blood into the

body, and then we exhale the carbon dioxide and other elements that should be exhaled. And this process continues back and forth. As a matter of fact, it's called in the Kabbalistic literature a process, from the Book of

Ezekiel, of tension and resolution; like the contraction and expansion of the heart, the exhale and inhale of the breath. And that's the constant flow of energy that you have; the two poles, and that's how you create energy. There's a certain

tension, but then there's a resolution. And if you have the perfect balance, like a cardiogram, it looks like a wave in the breath; the same idea. We inhale and then we exhale; we inhale and exhale on a spiritual level, exactly the

The same thing: we all need a measure of angst, not anxiety. Angst, you know, animal bliss. Too much serenity creates complacency and therefore no motivation. But we also need resolution, so we reach for something greater than ourselves and then we integrate it. Essentially, if you think of

breathing, that's what we do when we breathe. So the soul is like a flame—another analogy for it is a flame. A flame is constantly flickering; it's restless. So you need to feed that restlessness. To try to fight it by saying, "I don't want

to be restless, I just want to be a couch potato and do nothing," you're actually undermining your own very soul. So it's about respecting the mobility, the fluidity, and the pulsating action of the soul's constant movement. And there is a battle because when

you're in a material world, there is a certain tendency to be lazy, to get sedentary, and not have that movement. And what you're doing is like taking something that by nature thrives on movement and trying to force it into a box. Imagine taking a

human being and locking them in a box. What would we feel like? Not just claustrophobia—it's just completely unnatural for us to be trapped. It's movement. Look at young children again, the purest version of us,

our selves. The young children—and what do you see? You see constant movement. Take a child and try to hold them for too long. Yes, you need to cuddle them, you need to nurture them, hug them, embrace them. But a child, by nature, is constantly moving and

You don't want to stop that. Yes, you want to make sure they don't get into trouble, but you never want to stop that movement because that's natural to them, because their soul is active. What happens is, as we continue to get involved in

the material world, materialism actually numbs us. It starts to freeze up; it starts to harden, not just our arteries, but also our movements, the flexibility, the free abandon, the imagination, the dreaming. It begins to stunt it; it begins to limit it. So, as we get older, the spirit, which is so free and like a flame, is becoming confined. I'm not in the mood; I've been disappointed; I've had disappointments; I don't

want to try anything new. What you're really doing is undermining the very fiery nature of the pulsating energy of your soul, of your breath. So it's really good to keep in mind that your soul is your breath, and your breath is actually constantly moving. Would anyone consider

any normal person consider it to stop breathing for a moment? No, it's necessary; it's the breath of life, and that is the soul. So understanding who you are—that you're not a body that happens to have an energy force called a soul; you're a soul that's traveling through a

vehicle called the body—is the most important foundation of it all. So the truth is, anyone who's in touch with that doesn't really need meditation, because that is the meditation; they're constantly in a meditative state, in a state of mindfulness, a state of

In the presence of the problem, it becomes especially apparent in the Western world.  Over-industrialized and over-commercialized things leave human beings frustrated, and that's why many people went off to the fields, to the meadows, to the mountains, on a journey to the East, to try to find something...

a little peaceful. People talk about it; it was so calming for me, just to walk through a forest, just to look at nature. Whereas rush hour, yes, it creates a type of, um, high-octane energy, but it's not completely natural to us. So we have this conflict.

So meditation, I would probably suggest, with all its benefits, also indicates, in a way, for a person who's in that type of contemplative state all the time, they are living on the soul level. They would say the meditation...

Okay, so now the West is looking for some solace, some healing, some balm, some form of dealing with a hectic, tense, and anxious life; the finance, the money, the rush hours, the drive for success, the competition demands of us. And in that sense, therefore, meditation became a very powerful force. But if you really go back

to the original sources, you'll discover that it was really always a natural process. Yes, a newborn child is meditating in a certain way; not that they sit down and are in any position or they're thinking and concentrating, but their natural state is

one where their natural being is expressing itself. So it's important to remember that meditation, healthy meditation, true meditation, is really taking you back to your natural being. And once you're there, it takes on a whole different meaning because then you're becoming more

Soulful, that's what it comes down to: to become more soulful, to the point where you realize that's your natural self, like a fish in water. Once you feel like a fish in water, it's not an act, okay? You know that over this

weekend, I'm going to meditate. I'm not suggesting and trying to criticize; listen, people are busy in the evenings. Take a break mid-day or weekends; at least that's a good beginning. But the real goal is to be

essentially a meditative and contemplative and soulful human being. It should be a state of being where you're in touch with that inner self and your body, and all your material activities are just vehicles, channels, containers to allow that

soulfulness to express itself. That's the ultimate goal. So if you really get to the core of meditation, what you're coming to discover is the natural, essential self, and it's very refreshing because we essentially are living the opposite way. We think that our businesses, our work,

the things we do, the things we produce are the real you, because that's where you're making your money from, that's how you're surviving, that's where you get your honor, your pride, your ego, respect. The truth is, the real you is really a very simple, innocent child, a

soul, a breath. In the famous classic story, the biblical story, when Elijah was looking for the essence of things, so first he saw, he heard a thunder and he thought that was the essence of reality, that was the Divine. Then came a strong wind and

He thought that was it, then came a fire, lightning, and he thought that was it until he realized the next step came what's called a very subtle, gentle voice, barely audible, but it gets drowned out by the rush hour, by the loud noises,

the turbulence and all the distractions of life. You have that voice right inside you; it's your natural self. It's how you were shaped and formed in nine months of pregnancy and then, upon birth, is right there with you in our early formative

years until something changes that. In a healthy environment, that would be cultivated, but the fact of the matter is we live in a very material world, and the body, instead of being seen as a vehicle, suddenly becomes an end in itself. And now this still, gentle voice, the subtlety,

the innocence, that purity, that natural restlessness of the flame within you, the breath gets concealed, goes undercover, and we do everything possible to find it. One of the ways we seek it is through love, love, intimacy; these experiences are all really looking and seeking for that lost

rosebud, for that lost innocence, for that lost breath. So yes, we continue to breathe, but then we become defined by what the circumstances around us are instead of your real essence, of who you truly are. So the Kabbalah of meditation would dictate and expect of us—and I say

‘dictate’ in a positive way—would say that the key thing is to get back to your natural self. We're not looking to superimpose something. Think of a garden: you plant seeds and you nurture it, and you water it; you cultivate it; the flowers will

To grow, you'll need to weed. But if you allow the weeds to grow, and you allow other forces to take over, and you don't protect it, what will happen? So the natural flowers will be overrun by the weeds, by rodents, by predators that will not allow it to grow properly.

The same is true in this world. The material world is a challenging world. I'm not even getting into predators and abuse and hurt and criminal intent. The very fact that we live in a material world and that the soul is concealed creates the illusion that

the soul is in the back somewhere; it's a secondary thing. The truth is, we should never forget about our soul. It's something that we should be constantly aware of, and it should be the driving force of your life. So, in a nutshell, that is the concept, but

now, how do we get there? Now we're talking to adults. How do we get there when we're already so much consumed by—and, as I mentioned, inundated and overwhelmed by—the world around us? We have responsibilities and expectations and demands; many of them may be healthy, many

of them may not be. Someone asks you, "Who are you?" Very often, people will respond by giving you their business card. But that's what you *do*; that's not who you *are*. Well, we've been doing it so long, we think what we do becomes who we

are, when it should be the other way around. Your inner identity—again, your soul—should define who you are. So the truth is, what I'm going to be sharing now is obviously for adults, for people who can listen to what I'm saying, to help us get back to, reclaim, to regain

Our birthright, the natural soul, the beating heart within you—that should be your driving force. But my hope is that those of you who have children, or will have children, will help those children continue to maintain that connection, so they don't lose it and then have to

reclaim it. And that is, in a sense, by going through these meditations and these exercises that continuously reinforce the natural soul within every child. So, for adults, it may be more difficult because we have to now go back and undo damage done, or distortions, or

misconceptions, or prejudices and biases. But that is true in everything in life. You know, when you're innocent and a clean slate, it's easier to impress healthy habits. Once you've developed bad habits, it's harder to do so. So how do we

do so? So let's break it into two parts, and I'll talk briefly about the third part. And that is: our faculties divide into mind—cognitive faculties; we use our minds—and our emotional faculties. And they're very clearly distinct. The mind is contemplative; it's

reflective. A healthy mind is objective; it allows us to look at something without yet thinking in terms of, 'What's in it for me?' The emotions are the exact opposite; they're impulsive, reflexive. And the emotions are all about my feelings for it: Am I attracted,

am I repelled? Am I loving it? Is it something not for me? When they work well together, the mind is like—think of it like a captain of a ship, and the emotions are the ship itself; they experience things. If you have a mind without a heart, it's like a computer.

There's no experience if you have a heart without a mind. It can be...we can be misled, misguided, because emotions can seduce us, and things can seduce our emotions and manipulate us, and so on. You really want a

perfect combination and blend of these two. The third dimension, which is the superconscious—and I've discussed this in previous programs—is not something I want to focus on, but it's important to mention because when we align our minds, hearts, and

emotions toward that deeply focused soul within ourselves, it allows the superconscious to naturally flow as well. But the superconscious always remains behind the scenes; that's why it's called superconscious—we're not conscious of it. So, basically, healthy conscious living, healthy cognitive conditioning and emotional

conditioning, and we'll also talk about behavioral conditioning, which means bringing it into action, allows the superconscious to flow properly. Again, for young children, before there's been any...before they've been jaded or experienced any distortions, that's all happening naturally without any

effort. We want to go back to that mode, but we're going at it now as adults, so it's more deliberate; it's an effort. It's not just something we just...like you talk to someone who's older, and their breathing is difficult, or they're not

using their entire lungs; they need to figure out ways to exercise, to clear out the toxins, to open up the channels. For a newborn child or a young child, that may not be necessary, but we're trying to regain that purity and that innocence.

Think of it like freshly fallen snow. After it's trampled on, it's no longer white and pure, but we want to reclaim and regain that. So, meditation in the Kabbalah of meditation, there are actually two types of meditations, two categories I should say: one is cognitive, that's

focusing with your mind on something; and the second is emotional meditation, which is more complicated because emotions don't use the mind, but the mind can lead the emotions to also be focused. What I'm saying is basically that if you leave things to emotions as

much as you're concentrating on something—if the phone rings, or someone comes by, or something attracts you—you can suddenly leave it all behind and just be drawn to whatever your emotions are drawn to. You're hungry, you're thirsty. But in a healthy process, what you want

to do is have the mind create an oasis, a focused state, a mindfulness state where you're present and not being distracted, and then open the door up for your emotions to have similar focus, so your feelings are aligned with your mind toward this inner soul of who we are.

Sometimes it's described as focusing on the unity, the integral unity that connects everything, which is essentially saying the same idea that the soul is a connector. So, in the process of the Kabbalah of meditation, you find these two different categories, and the truth is they work together hand in hand. It may be

interesting for you to note that the concept of prayer actually is very much about emotional meditation driven by contemplative meditation. So, even though we think of prayer sometimes as saying thanks and gratitude, or opening our hearts to God and asking for what we need, or

Prayer in times of crisis, but it's much deeper than that. Prayer is equated—the Kabbalah teaches, the Kabbalists teach—with song and music, and as such, it's more than just reaching out; it's actually an emotional conditioning.

It says, 'What is the service of the heart?' Prayer. So the word 'prayer' can be a misnomer, can be misunderstood. That's why 'prayer,' really, the word for it in Hebrew is *avodah*: to serve, service, dedication, commitment. You're taking all of yourself

and focusing emotionally toward your calling, toward your soul's calling. So that's why you'll find there's the concept of *hitbonenut*, which is a contemplative meditation, pondering, contemplating, thinking, focusing with your mind. And once you create that environment, then you start, you begin to

pray. That's how the Talmud puts it, because then you can bring your emotions in. It's not easy to just get the emotions focused if your mind is not focused; if your mind is racing, or distracted, or being drawn here and there, your emotions are just not going to have

that direction. Like I said, the mind is the captain of the ship. So, with that said, let us actually do and discuss an actual meditation, as well on a cognitive level as well as on an emotional level, and then we'll connect it to song.

Because song has a natural ability—more than the words I'm speaking right now, even if it resonates, something is still not there—because words are words. If you really want to get into that meditative state, the Kabbalah insists you need to have

So, what I'm going to do now is go through a contemplative and emotional meditation, and then conclude with a song that captures this experience. This is just one of many, but it's a good beginning if you've never done this before.

Or, if you're an expert in this exercise—expert may not be the right word, because the more you do it, the more you realize you're not an expert—

whether you've never done this before, or you're very accustomed to it, I believe this will be enlightening for all of us, including myself. So, what I'm going to focus on is

a morning meditation; you can call it a prayer, in the context I've described, but it's not just words, it's not just an idea. It focuses exactly on what we were discussing: your soul. So, in Hebrew, I'll first say

it in Hebrew, then translate and explain, and then go through the meditation in two parts: the contemplative/cognitive part and the emotional part. The goal, as I said, is to allow the subconscious to

emerge, and that will be experienced through pure serenity, through calm—a deeper calm than you usually experience in the hectic life we live. So, the prayer or meditation is called 'Toda,' which literally means 'thank you,' gratitude. So that alone, we know

Gratitude already is a powerful force. When you say thank you, recent psychological studies show how much gratitude is such a tremendous force that actually increases life expectancy and eliminates different levels of stress. So we begin with, which is thank you, thank you. And I'll say the

Hebrew: 'I thank you, I submit to you, I acknowledge you.' And it doesn't say *to whom*, which can also mean to the inner you. The word 'melekh' in Hebrew, the living and eternal King – interesting word here, 'King' meaning an authority, something greater than

ourselves, but not authority in a negative sense, but accepting, surrendering, dissolving into a presence that's higher than ourselves. And, 'for returning my soul to me,' that you have returned my soul to me – which, with much compassion and faith, I'm going to be focusing on the

words 'returning my soul to me.' So when we're asleep, well, obviously our soul is still working, just like our heart is beating, but everything slows down. The conscious faculties are not really functioning in a way that we're aware of. It's not minimal. So what happens to

that living soul, that vitality, that energy that we have once we wake up? So the soul, in a sense, recedes and goes back to its source. Think of a flame or sparks coming out of a hot coal, receding back into the coal. So the soul goes back to its natural

place. And in the morning, we're acknowledging that, to basically say, 'Thank you for returning my soul to me.' Remember the word 'Nishma' also means the word 'breath,' because breath is an expression of the soul; it's the divine breath within you that is now re-emerging in a

conscious way as you awake and you're focusing on it, something we do every morning. So here's the meditation: close your eyes, taking a few breaths, focus with your mind. Let's start with our minds, the cognitive focus on the soul within you. You're not focusing

on your functions; you're not focusing on your arms and legs and ears and eyes and taste, touch, and smell. In a way, you're almost closing down your senses. Imagine if you close your eyes, your ears, your taste, touch, and smell. So what are you left

with? A certain inner force, being. That breath is the very word for soul. So breathing helps you focus on that because you go within and realize there's a whole force within you, that subtle, silent voice, that quiet voice, quietude. The more you can create that

space—and it doesn't necessarily have to take time—you're entering that space through your breath, through your soul. Once your mind focuses on that, then allow yourself to feel it, which would mean not focusing on 'What am I going to eat for breakfast?' or 'What am I going to'

do next,' but allowing your emotions to feel that: 'I am a soul. I'm unique. I'm indispensable.' That's really what you're saying. Thank you for—thank you for giving me life. Thank you for making me unique, for making me indispensable.

That takes us to the next step where you say, 'I have a mission that's unique to me. No one but I can accomplish what that mission is,' because it's unique to your own soul. That's the focus, and that is the meditation, and it has to have a

cognitive side to it and an emotional side to it. The emotional side is the commitment to it; that's not just an idea—oh, it's an interesting thing—that I have to have a soul and it was returned to me. No, it's who you are; it's what drives you.

It gives you purpose, it gives you a sense of urgency, a sense of direction and guidance. This can be one minute; it could be two minutes. But when you do it properly, what you go away with is, in the morning, before you're doing anything

else, you've established your hub, your mission statement. You've declared it, which in turn will inform all the spokes and all the details of your life, instead of the other way around. Because now that soul is going to express itself through the vehicle of your body and your activities, whatever

they may be, and whatever involvements or commitments or endeavors that you're involved in throughout that day are all informed by this central hub, the breath of your soul. Now, to take this a step further, let's take it a step further into the

into the something that we can all really appreciate and really get us into that mindset and heart-set, which again will allow the superconscious to emerge. So we all know that before we became aware of our lives, we spent nine months in our mother's

womb, and then you were born. None of us remember our birth; we don't remember our early formative years. Everyone—you start having snapshots and little glimpses, some from two years old, three years old, four years old—but even then it's not like a

flowing narrative; it's fragmented pieces. So the meditation—let's go back to the model and take it to a more expanded form—is: let's talk about this soul as it was in our early formative years. So close your eyes and imagine the sound of a

heartbeat. And if you can find a heartbeat somewhere that you're allowed to play, even better. The sound of a heartbeat: contraction, expansion; a healthy heart. And that's what's surrounding you; nothing else. You know the feeling sometimes you go underwater and you just feel everything is

quieted down; you just feel yourself in a different way. Well, even more so with this heartbeat. This is the heartbeat of your mother, 24/7 for nine months. That's all you heard; that was the rush, that sound, the heartbeat. And sometimes it sounds a

little like water as well, in the background: the soothing sound of a heartbeat with, like, rushing water, but not loud; very, very gentle. That subtle, quiet voice within you—that's what you heard. You were being fed, nurtured, nourished, not through any of your own

efforts. And this is what surrounds you once you get into that place, which should lead you not just to a cognitive experience of it, but an emotional experience of it. Because imagine when you feel that way, there's a certain soothing element; it's like being

embraced; you're completely surrounded, submerged in the embryonic fluids, protected, nurtured—the thing that we all crave so much: unconditional love. And now we continue, and then you hear this gentle voice speaking to you; this is your mother speaking to you: "I've waited for you so"

Long I can't wait to meet you in person. I will do everything possible to help you live up to your calling, to your purpose. I have made a room ready for you, a beautiful new crib with pure, clean white sheets and a beautiful, warm blanket. I will wrap you in it; I will

cuddle you; I will nurture you; I'll embrace you unconditionally. And anything that comes your way, I'm here to protect you. And the heartbeat, all along in the background... What this will elicit, if done properly, is strong emotions and feelings. Firstly, the resonance of

a truth that we all have heard and wanted to hear. For some of us, it may bring tears of joy, of connecting to something that we don't remember consciously, but we feel something that we experienced in our early childhood. For others, it may be

tears of pain—not having heard that message, not having had a mother or father that spoke that way, or even worse, that actually invalidated us in some fashion. The point is, whoever you are, this idea of being spent nine months in that environment, with that

The Hebrew word for "soul" will blow your mind

Rabbi Simon Jacobson at Meaningful Life Center

The Hebrew word for soul, "nephesh," is related to "n'shama," meaning breath.

Breathing is described as a process of tension and resolution, like the contraction and expansion of the heart.

The soul is compared to a flame, constantly flickering and restless.

Fighting this restlessness undermines the soul.

The soul is the breath of life and is constantly moving.

We are souls traveling through a vehicle called the body.

Western society's over-industrialization and commercialization lead to frustration, causing a search for peace and calmness.

Meditation is viewed as a way to reconnect with one's natural being and become more soulful.

Meditation is presented as a return to one's natural state, like a fish in water.

The true self is simple and innocent, a soul, a breath.

The story of Elijah searching for the essence of things is used to illustrate the importance of listening to the inner voice.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding who we are, not just what we do.

The path to reclaiming the soul: cognitive, emotional, and behavioral conditioning

The faculties are divided into mind (cognitive) and emotions (emotional).

A healthy mind and heart work together; the mind is the captain of the ship, and emotions are the ship.

Two types of meditations are described: cognitive and emotional.

Prayer is equated with emotional meditation driven by contemplative meditation.

The meditation, "Toda" (thank you), involves acknowledging gratitude and the return of the soul in the morning.

The meditation involves closing the senses and focusing on the inner force, the breath.

The emotional aspect involves feeling the uniqueness and indispensability of the soul.

The meditation establishes a mission statement for the day, driven by the soul.

This meditation involves imagining the sound of a heartbeat and the prenatal environment.

The meditation includes imagining the mother's voice expressing unconditional love and protection.

The goal is to integrate the calmness and nurturing of the meditation into daily life.

An evening meditation is suggested, mirroring the morning meditation.