Pensée juive sur L’Ecclésiaste 1:16

The Torah states that man became a human being after G'd had imbued him with nishmat chayim, which Onkelos renders as "a talking spirit." Clearly, he refers to the internal spirit, the thought process leading to speech. Kohelet 1,16, "I spoke with my heart," reflects the same idea. Speech is a mechanical process, merely reflecting and relaying the thought process that has preceded it. Adam had already possessed the power to reason. What G'd had added was the means to communicate his thoughts. Scripture provides ample proof for this interpretation. When G'd said to Moses "who gave man a mouth, or who made him dumb, deaf, seeing or blind?" (Exodus 4,11), it is clear that the power to express thoughts is part of the definition of being a human being. A deaf/mute is not obligated to keep the commandments of the Torah since he is not able to communicate his thoughts or have thoughts communicated to him. He is an incomplete human being.

As discussed in chapter ten, man's cognitive powers are twofold. Perception is possible by means of one's intellect, or by means of one's senses. Perception by intellect is divided into two categories. A) Things or beings that cannot be other than they are. B) Things or beings which are subject to change. We will call the perception of the first type the ability to "know," whereas we will call the perception of the second type, the ability to "calculate." There is a constant relationship between him who endeavours to know, and between the object that is being defined. If the object of one's perception undergoes a fundamental change, the faculty enabling us to perceive such object also undergoes some transformation. We observe a parallel phenomenon concerning perception with our senses. The sense of sight, vision, is affected by the object being perceived. Yet that same sense of sight remains completely unaffected by objects that are perceived merely by the sense of touch, for instance. Should an object that had been perceived as incapable of undergoing change be found to have changed nonetheless, the powers of perception applied to it will no longer be speculative reason, but practical reason. To determine the common denominator between man and bird for instance, we employ "wit," speculative reason. It tells us that both species are living entities, react to stimuli, breathe and move. To determine the difference between man and bird, we employ "sagacity," practical reason. The latter tells us of the ability of the birds to fly, their having wings etc. On the other hand, it tells us that man has the power of speech, the ability to express thoughts coherently etc. At any rate, we employ two branches of what may also be described as "soul power," when we engage in these perceptions. The reason "sagacity" is also known as "practical reason" is, that without it, almost no voluntary activity is possible. Being able to understand and analyse phenomena does not by itself lead to action. Therefore, the practical “reason” is an essential part of the cognitive process. Since speculative reason concerns itself with phenomena that are abstract, or at any rate immutable, everlasting, it too is constant. Practical reason, since it concerns itself with transient phenomena, is itself transient in nature. When departing this life and becoming a purely spiritual being, we will no longer possess this practical reason, since in the world of abstract beings there is nothing it could be applied to. This is in line with the statement in the Talmud that "the departed is aware of his own pain, but not of the pain of others." (Rosh Hashanah 18) Since all bodies die, he is aware of his own demise, since apart from this fact, each person's fate varies, he is unaware of other facts which would require practical reason in order to be appreciated. The term "life" is a constant, even though each individual living creature is bound to die at some point or other. Since the prophet perceives beings that cannot be perceived by other human beings with his soul, it follows that his soul's faculties are somewhat different from other people's faculties in this respect. According to Aristotele, the relationship between pure speculative reason and pure practical reason is similar to the relationship between Divine intellect and human intellect respectively. When G'd, at the time of creation, said that man was to be made in His image, He meant man in his ideal state. Picture for yourself the spiritual state of the people of Israel at the time they received the ten commandments at Mount Sinai. Our opening Midrash discusses a similar state of affairs. Since all the forces active in the universe are represented in man in some form, and he is therefore sometimes referred to as a microcosm, he had dominion over all the other creatures on earth, just as G'd had dominion over all things and spirits in the entire universe. Therefore, prophets, on occasion use the term "Adam" when referring to G'd, to describe Him in His capacity as the Omnipotent. See Daniel, 8,16, "I heard the voice of "Adam," or Ezekiel 1,2, "and on the likeness of the throne, a likeness such as "Adam " above." These terms are used only in order to facilitate understanding by human ears of all the anthropomorphical terms used for that purpose. Since it is permissible to employ the term "Adam" in this fashion, it is not surprising to find references to "perfect man" as "Adam" also. Chochmat adam ta-ir panav, "the wisdom of perfect man lights up his face." (Kohelet 8,1) It is this that is meant by Rabbi Yudan, when he stated that the descriptive powers of the prophets are very great indeed, since they can employ the form to describe its original Creator. When one considers that Moses gave of his spirit to the newly appointed elders, then one can understand the relationship between them and Moses as parallel to the relationship between G'd and His most superior creatures, i.e. the angels. According to Rabbi Akiva in Avot 3, 14, man is beloved since he was created in The image. The meaning is that since this image had been bestowed on him at the very beginning of the creative process, i.e. nivra, he has the potential to emulate Divine powers. However, not one in ten million reaches this lofty goal. Rabbi Akiva continues to single out the Jewish nation, which due to the gift of Torah, can hope to achieve the human ideal more easily than any other nation. The Jewish people are called banim, children, to show that they possess more of the traits of the "father," i.e. their Creator. Maimonides in the first section of his "Moreh," chapter 45, is at pains to explain that Ezekiel's visions describe his own image of G'ds throne, which image, though Divinely inspired, is not to be confused with the objectively true state of affairs. The greatness of Ezekiel lies in his describing the function of this image as being equivalent to the function of G'd Himself. Moses, being extremely humble, had his stature attested to by G'd Himself, who explains to Aaron and Miriam that his status is incomparably higher than theirs. When our sages say of Moses, that his face was like the sun, they mean that though the sun is only one of the planets, its stature is such that it is always mentioned separately, never lumped together with the other planets. Similarly, the prophetic powers of Moses cannot be lumped together with that of other prophets, as it is far too superior.

As regards the first of these verbs this is well known, e.g., And he looked (va-yar) and behold a well in the field” (Gen. 29:2) here it signifies ocular perception: “yea, my heart has seen (raah) much of wisdom and of knowledge” (Eccles. 1:16); in this passage it refers to the intellectual perception.