soul

Distinctions

nefesh (נפש)

Root נ-פ-ש; over 750 occurrences. Rambam (Moreh 1:41): many senses, all circling the soul: blood (Bamidbar 19:13, Devarim 12:23); a corpse, one who has lost his nefesh (Vayikra 19:28, 21:1); death as the nefesh departing (Bereishis 35:18; Chazal speak instead of the neshamah leaving); will and wants (Rashi to Bereishis 23:8, Shemos 15:9, Mishlei 13:2); the self (Rashi to Yechezkel 32:10). Pappenheim: from פ-ש, expansion, the soul that never atrophies. The verb vayinafash (Shemos 31:17) is the nefesh catching its breath (Rashi). Function: the bodily lifeline (Bereishis Rabbah 14:9); the natural (Maharsha) or survival instinct (Vilna Gaon); man's deeds (Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, Nefesh HaChaim 1:14); the liver and bodily appetite (Ibn Ezra, Rabbeinu Yonah, the Gaon); food, of a husband's three duties (Rabbi Yosef Karo). Radak (Sefer HaShorashim): the seat of desire, so the Torah charges sin to it (Vayikra 5:1, 22:6); nefesh rechavah (Avos 5:19) is lust. In Nefesh HaChaim's glassblower (1:15) the nefesh is the molten glass, last stop of the Divine breath, hence its verb means rest.

ruach (רוח)

Root ר-ו-ח; some 390 occurrences. Rambam (Moreh 1:40): first air (Bereishis 1:2), then wind, direction, the life-spirit (Bereishis 7:15) that survives death (Koheles 12:7), prophecy (Bamidbar 11:17; Shmuel II 23:2), and wants or temperament (Mishlei 29:11; anger in Iyov 15:13). Raavad (to Sefer Yetzirah): not the air one breathes but a spiritual engine Hashem powers directly, hence Moshe's אלקי הרוחות לכל בשר (Bamidbar 16:22, 27:16). Pappenheim: ר-ח is air, the soul as light and imperceptible. Function: the part that flies up in sleep (Bereishis Rabbah 14:9); the spiritual (Maharsha) or emotional (Gaon) tier, the drive for gain; man's speech (Nefesh HaChaim 1:14); the heart and its hunger for honor and wealth (Ibn Ezra, Rabbeinu Yonah, Gaon); clothing (Rabbi Yosef Karo). Ruach gevohah (Avos 5:19) is haughtiness.

neshamah (נשמה)

Root נ-ש-ם; only 25 occurrences, because it means the soul and nothing else, and never of an animal (Ibn Ezra to Bereishis 7:21, Koheles 3:21; Radak to Yeshayahu 42:5). Tied to neshimah, breathing (Bereishis Rabbah 14:9 on Tehillim 150:6; Rashi to Yoma 85a), and by the sages Ibn Ezra cites to shamayim; Pappenheim grounds both in ש-ם, the abstract (sham, shem); Mecklenburg calls it the geist. Function: the sum of a man's personhood (Bereishis Rabbah 14:9); the intellectual tier (Maharsha, Gaon); man's thought (Nefesh HaChaim 1:14); the brain and its yearning for Hashem; intimacy, the most private sustenance (Rabbi Yosef Karo). Rabbeinu Yonah: animals share nefesh and ruach; the neshamah sets man apart. Radak (to Bereishis 2:7): nefesh and ruach belong properly to the lower creatures and are said of man only by extension. Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin (1:15): not respiration but Hashem "blowing" life into man, the tier closest to Him.

chayah (חיה) and yechidah (יחידה)

Chayah enters at Bereishis 2:7 (nishmas chaim, nefesh chayah; Onkelos: ruach memalela, a speaking spirit); Nefesh HaChaim 2:17 calls it "the neshamah of the neshamah." Pappenheim: ח-י, life, a state of harmony among the body's parts. Bereishis Rabbah 14:9: the soul that goes on living when the body dies; the Gaon (Aderes Eliyahu to Bereishis 2:7): the holistic life-force. Yechidah never means soul in Tanach (Shoftim 11:34 is an only daughter); Pappenheim's ח-ד is singularity (echad, yachad), and the Midrash calls it the one limb with no counterpart. Who has them is disputed: the Gaon, no yechidah until Mashiach; Shelah, only bnei aliyah; Rabbi Alexander Sender Shor, only a prophet, while a sinner loses neshamah, then ruach, and keeps an animal's nefesh; Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua Falk, chayah through mitzvos after maturity, yechidah in life to Moshe alone.

Rendering guidance

• In Tanach let the sense govern nefesh: "life" (Bereishis 19:17), "person" or "soul" in counts, "self" as a reflexive, "appetite" where Rashi reads will. In a mussar text the word is "soul."
• The triad נפש רוח ונשמה: "soul, spirit, and higher soul," or transliterate all three with a one-time gloss; never let two of them share a word.
• Nishmas chaim (Bereishis 2:7): "breath of life"; nefesh chayah in the same verse: "living soul." Chayah and yechidah elsewhere: transliterate, glossed once as "the life-force" and "the singular soul."
• Trap: "soul" absorbs nefesh and neshamah; "spirit" (Mecklenburg's geist) and "breath" can each absorb ruach and neshamah. Where the passage ranks the soul's parts, one English word per Hebrew word.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach: "Take a Breather (Part 1)," 5 Tammuz 5780 (2020-06-27), raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8759-take-a-breather-part-1.md; "Anatomy of a Soul (Part 2 of 3)," 12 Tammuz 5780 (2020-07-04), raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8768-anatomy-of-a-soul-part-2-of-3.md; "The Chayah and Yechidah (Part 3 of 3)," 19 Tammuz 5780 (2020-07-11), raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8779-the-chayah-and-yechidah-part-3-of-3.md. Primary loci: Bereishis Rabbah 14:9; Rambam, Moreh Nevuchim 1:40-41; Nefesh HaChaim 1:14, 1:15, 2:17; Ibn Ezra and Radak to Bereishis 2:7; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim s.v. נפש; Avos 5:19; Vilna Gaon, Aderes Eliyahu to Bereishis 2:7; Shoftim 11:34; Pappenheim, Cheshek Shlomo and Yerios Shlomo.