Musar zu Ijow 10:25

The reason for Scripture's singling out just these things seems to be this: It is known that every man has 248 physical organs and 365 physical sinews, as it is written (Iyyov 10:11): "With skin and flesh did You clothe me and with bones and sinews did You cover me." Now Scripture mentions skin and flesh and sinews and bones, and calls them only "clothing" and "covering" — "You clothed me"; "You covered me." Whom did He clothe if not the soul that is in his midst — "the essential man." And every organ of the soul is clothed from above with a bodily organ which corresponds to that organ as a garment to the body. And corresponding to this, the Holy One Blessed be He gave us 248 positive commandments and 365 negative commandments. And they are also distributed among the organs. For there is a mitzvah depending on the hand and a mitzvah depending on the foot. And so with all the other organs, as stated in the book of Charedim. And when a man fulfills a mitzvah in this world with a certain organ, in the world to come the light of the L-rd reposes on that organ, and it is that light which vivifies that organ. And so, with each and every mitzvah. It emerges, then, that when a man fulfills the 248 positive commandments, then he is the "complete man," who is sanctified to the L-rd with all of his organs. And this is the intent of what is stated in the section of tzitzith [fringes] (Bamidbar 15:40): "And you will do all My mitzvoth and you will be holy to your G-d." But if, G-d forbid, he be lacking one of the 248 positive commandments, which he has "cast behind his back," and which he did not repent of, there will be a defect in his soul in the world to come in the organ corresponding to that mitzvah. And this is the intent of Berachoth 26a: "(Koheleth 1:15): 'The crooked cannot be made straight' — This refers to one who omitted the Shema of the evening prayer or the Shema of the morning prayer, or the Amidah of the evening prayer or the Amidah of the morning prayer.'" And when a man is careful not to transgress the negative commandments of the Torah, he draws down the light of sanctity upon the sinews of his soul. And if he is not careful, they will be — G-d forbid — defective, as is explained at length in the book, Sha'arei Kedushah, Chapter I.

A person has two kinds of skin that serve as clothing/protection for man. One is the skin/leather of animals, i.e. shoes. The other is his own skin. We find in Job, 10,11, עור ובשר תלבישני, "You have dressed me with skin and flesh." The latter is the material part of man that he shares with the animal kingdom. Man whose physical origin was אדמה i.e. "holy soil" should have been garbed in כתנות אור, the word אור spelled with the letter א. The fact that this word was spelled with the letter ע instead, represented the demotion of man. He was now clothed in skin and flesh being compared to the animals since he had sinned. Moses ascended to a level where his face reflected אור as had been intended for all of mankind (compare Exodus 34,29 et al, כי קרן עור פניו). The word קרן אור suggests that the word for skin should have been spelled with the letter א in the first place. He gave off rays of light. He had been predisposed for such stature from the day he had been born, to wit his mother's comment at his birth "she saw that he was good" (Exodus 2,2). Our sages comment that this was in response to the whole house having been filled with light (Sotah 12). One of the superior qualities of Moses' prophecy was that he received communication from G–d without his body undergoing any kind of weakening, as we have explained elsewhere. This was a level Joshua had not attained. If Joshua stood on ground described as holy, then the ground Moses stood on must be viewed as the holiest of holy. This is why Moses had to take additional steps to sanctify himself.

To get back to the meaning of “אחד” in the prayer known as קריאת שמע. The first letter א in that word symbolizes both Jacob and Joseph, each of whom were unique. That letter is not just the first letter of the alphabet, but it symbolizes the Aleph= Eleph of the first man, who commenced human history. Adam's uniqueness is joined by Jacob's uniqueness, seeing Jacob's beauty has been described as similar to Adam's. In turn, Joseph, the בן זקונים, was the זיו איקונין, the spitting image of his father. Moreover, the א of Adam is an allusion to the garments of אור, light, that Adam wore before his sin and which were exchanged for garments of עור, skin or leather, after he had sinned. G–d Himself had made these garments for Adam and his wife as recorded in Genesis 3, 21. When we read in Job 10, 11 “עור ובשר תלבישני,” You have clothed me with skin and flesh, this is an admission that Adam's, i.e. man's "Oneness" the fusion of body and soul, was torn asunder as a result of his sin. Ever since that time man became a dichotomy of גוף ונפש, body and soul. The ascent of the one meant the automatic descent of the other. Before the sin, whenever the soul shone, the body lit up also. Body and soul worked in tandem. At that time the soul radiated a major amount of light, the body a smaller amount; the important thing was that both radiated light. We have elaborated on these concepts repeatedly.

It emerges, then, that even when a man's matter disintegrates and becomes dust, and his soul returns to G-d, as it is written (Koheleth 12:7): "And the dust will return to the earth, as it was, and the spirit will return to G-d, who gave it," it retains all of these faculties — sight, hearing, and speech — for these will not have been annulled by the separation of matter from it [the soul]. For matter is only the garment of the soul, as it is written (Iyyov 10:11): "With skin and flesh did You clothe me." Now if one removes his garment, will his soul be annulled thereby?