The poet Avraham Ibn Ezra declares, in one of his piyuttim (liturgical poems), that his soul yearns for God. The words read like a love song but the reader (and singer) might ask - what does does it really mean for a soul to yearn?
צמאה נפשי, אברהם אבן עזרא
צמאה נפשי לאלהים לאל חי
לבי ובשרי ירננו לאל חי
Tsamah Nafshi, Abraham Ibn Ezra
My soul yearns for God, the living God
My heart and flesh sing to the Living God
To answer the question above, we need to break down two keywords that appear in that text:
- צמא, (tsema) translated above as yearning
- נפש, (nefesh) translated above as soul
But there are other possible translations of the word. In fact, the most accurate translation of צמא/tsema isn't just yearning or longing, but thirst.
So let's try it with that definition: understanding yearning as thirst. Suddenly we have a clear working metaphor. Everyone knows what it means to be thirsty.
And in fact this phrasing that introduces the poem, צמאה נפשי (my soul yearns/thirsts) appears twice in Tehillim (Psalms), both in contexts that involve thirst and water:
(ב) כְּאַיָּ֗ל תַּעֲרֹ֥ג עַל־אֲפִֽיקֵי־מָ֑יִם כֵּ֤ן נַפְשִׁ֨י תַעֲרֹ֖ג אֵלֶ֣יךָ אֱלֹהִֽים׃ (ג) צָמְאָ֬ה נַפְשִׁ֨י ׀ לֵאלֹהִים֮ לְאֵ֪ל חָ֥י מָתַ֥י אָב֑וֹא וְ֝אֵרָאֶ֗ה פְּנֵ֣י אֱלֹהִֽים׃
(2) Like a hind crying for water, my soul cries for You, O God; (3) my soul thirsts for God, the living God; O when will I come to appear before God!
אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אֵלִ֥י אַתָּ֗ה אֲֽשַׁחֲ֫רֶ֥ךָּ צָמְאָ֬ה לְךָ֨ ׀ נַפְשִׁ֗י כָּמַ֣הּ לְךָ֣ בְשָׂרִ֑י בְּאֶֽרֶץ־צִיָּ֖ה וְעָיֵ֣ף בְּלִי־מָֽיִם׃
God, You are my God; I search for You, my soul thirsts for You, my body yearns for You, as a parched and thirsty land that has no water.
The metaphor is a powerful one. Human beings (and hinds and land, for that matter) depend on water to live. So too, the poet and psalmist say, do humans depend on God. When they don't feel God's presence, they thirst for it, as they would for water.
But we're still left with the rather nebulous נפש/nefesh or soul. We have a metaphor and a way to approach understanding, but it remains a metaphor.
Is there a way to read this poetry more literally? It turns out, yes.
The word nefesh has several meanings. In Rabbinic and modern Hebrew, it most often means soul, as we've been seeing above. But in Biblical Hebrew, it usually means one's very self or life or breath, as in, my whole me thirsts for you. And more than that, in Biblical and pre-Biblical Hebrew, the word can mean not just breath or life, but the place of breath or life.
That is to say - nefesh also means throat.
We've gone from my soul yearns to my throat is parched. Thirsting the way only a throat can. The yearning described by both Avraham Ibn Ezra and the psalmist is both spiritual and physical.
ילבי ובשרי. My heart and my flesh. Together.