(א) אֱלֹהַי נְשָׁמָה שֶׁנָּתַֽתָּ בִּי טְהוֹרָה הִיא אַתָּה בְרָאתָהּ אַתָּה יְצַרְתָּהּ אַתָּה נְפַחְתָּהּ בִּי וְאַתָּה מְשַׁמְּ֒רָהּ בְּקִרְבִּי וְאַתָּה עָתִיד לִטְּ֒לָהּ מִמֶּֽנִּי וּלְהַחֲזִירָהּ בִּי לֶעָתִיד לָבֹא, כָּל זְמַן שֶׁהַנְּ֒שָׁמָה בְקִרְבִּי מוֹדֶה אֲנִי לְפָנֶֽיךָ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהַי וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתַי רִבּוֹן כָּל הַמַּעֲשִׂים אֲדוֹן כָּל הַנְּ֒שָׁמוֹת: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה הַמַּחֲזִיר נְשָׁמוֹת לִפְגָרִים מֵתִים:
(1) My God! the soul which You bestowed in me is pure; You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me and You preserve it within me. You will eventually take it from me, and restore it in me in the time to come. So long as the soul is within me I give thanks to You, Adonoy my God, and God of my fathers, Lord of all creatures, Master of all souls. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Who restores souls to dead bodies.
(1) Hallelujah.
Praise the Eternal, O my soul! (2) I will praise the Eternal all my life,
sing hymns to my God while I exist.
(3) Put not your trust in the great,
in mortal man who cannot save. (4) The breath departs;
[the person] returns to the dust;
on that day their plans come to nothing.
(5) Happy is the one who has the God of Jacob for their help,
whose hope is in the Eternal their God, (6) maker of heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever; (7) who secures justice for those who are wronged,
gives food to the hungry.
The Eternal sets prisoners free; (8) The Eternal restores sight to the blind;
the Eternal makes those who are bent stand straight;
the Eternal loves the righteous; (9) The Eternal watches over the stranger;
[The Eternal] gives courage to the orphan and widow,
but makes the path of the wicked tortuous.
(10) The Eternal shall reign forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Hallelujah.
(7) God יהוה formed the Human* from the soil’s humus,** blowing into his nostrils the breath of life: the Human became a living being.
*the Human I.e., the progenitor of the species and the point of origin for human society. Heb. ha-’adam; trad. “man.” In the eyes of ancient Israel, the typical initiator of a lineage was male, and so the first human being would also have been imagined as male. See further the Dictionary under ’adam.
**soil’s humus Heb. ‘afar min ha-’adamah, rendered to emulate the wordplay with Heb. ha-’adam “the Human”; more precisely, “loose dirt from the soil.” NJPS “dust of the earth.”
JPS "Contemporary Torah: A Gender Sensitive Translation"
What does it mean that the soul is pure? That the soul lives forever?
What is the relationship between the speaker and God?
Does that speak to me at all? In what ways?