How the soul enters and leaves our bodies

[alexa]

This is from 2nd chapter in the book 'The legend of the Jews'. Well worth a read.

https://www.sefaria.org/Legends_of_the_Jews.1.2.16?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en

 

THE SOUL OF MAN

 

The soul and body of man are united in this way: When a woman has conceived, the Angel of the Night, Lailah, carries the sperm before God, and God decrees what manner of human being shall become of it--whether it shall be male or female, strong or weak, rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, long or short, fat or thin, and what all its other qualities shall be. Piety and wickedness alone are left to the determination of man himself.

 

• Then God makes a sign to the angel appointed over the souls, saying, "Bring Me the soul of so-and-so
• The soul speaks and pleads: "O Lord of the world! I am well pleased with the world in which I have been living since the day on which Thou didst call me into being. Why dost Thou now desire to have me enter this impure sperm, I who am holy and pure, and a part of Thy glory?
• God consoles her: "The world which I shall cause thee to enter is better than the world in which thou hast lived hitherto, and when I created thee, it was only for this purpose."
• The soul is then forced to enter the sperm against her will, and the angel carries her back to the womb of the mother.

 

 

• Two angels are detailed to watch that she shall not leave it, nor drop out of it, and a light is set above her,
• The Angel then speaks to the soul
• "Dost thou know who these are?" She replies in the negative, and the angel goes on: "These whom thou beholdest here were formed, like unto thee, in the womb of their mother. When they came into the world, they observed God's Torah and His commandments. Therefore they became the partakers of this bliss which thou seest them enjoy. Know, also thou wilt one day depart from the world below, and if thou wilt observe God's Torah, then wilt thou be found worthy of sitting with these pious ones. But if not, thou wilt be doomed to the other place."
• Between morning and evening the angel carries the soul around, and shows her where she will live and where she will die, and the place where she will buried, and he takes her through the whole world, and points out the just and the sinners and all things. In the evening, he replaces her in the womb of the mother, and there she remains for nine months.
• When the time arrives for man to quit this world, the same angel appears and asks him, "Dost thou recognize me?" And man replies, "Yes; but why dost thou come to me to-day, and thou didst come on no other day?" The angel says, "To take thee away from the world, for the time of thy departure has arrived.

 

 

• Then man falls to weeping, and his voice penetrates to all ends of the world, yet no creature hears his voice,Man remonstrates with the angel, "From two worlds thou didst take me, and into this world thou didst bring me."
• But the angel reminds him: "Did I not tell thee that thou wert formed against thy will, and thou wouldst be born against thy will, and against thy will thou wouldst die? And against thy will thou wilt have to give account and reckoning of thyself before the Holy One, blessed be He."