Music for the Soul

After 120: In his newest book, After One Hundred-and-Twenty: Reflections on Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in the Jewish Tradition, Hillel Halkin speaks of medieval Jewish philosophy, division of the soul into three parts.

During the Ten Days of Repentance, each of us is enjoined to conduct a חשׁבּון הנפשׁ Heshbon HaNefesh, a Soul-Accounting, of our deeds - those we did, and those we should have done but did not.

The prayers we pray on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur help us perform this task. Not only the words, of course; the music is also of supreme importance.

Here, for the three divisions of the soul, are Abq Jew's offerings for the High Holy Day prayer  אבינו מלכּנו Our Father, Our King.

נפשׁ Nefesh

Vital Soul

Basic Biological Functions

רוח Ru'ah

Passional Soul

Seat of the Emotions

נשׁמה Neshamah

Intellectual Soul

Mental and Spiritual Faculties

And to all of us -