FLESH

FLESH (Heb. ???????, basar), a word used both in the Bible and Talmud for mortal man and for the flesh of animals (for the latter aspect, see *Meat). Eve is called by Adam "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (Gen. 2:23), i.e., "my close relative" (cf. Gen. 29:4). In Genesis 6:3: The basar of humans is contrasted with ru'a? of God, which animates them. "My breath shall not abide (?) in the human forever, for that he is also flesh; therefore shall his days be a hundred and twenty years." Whereas God's breath is eternal, flesh is mortal. At death the flesh returns to the dust whence it came while the eternal breath returns to God (Gen 2:7; Eccl.. 12:7.) In Psalms 84:3 – "my heart and my flesh sing for joy unto the living God" – it designates the whole physical part of man. In Isaiah 66:16 "all flesh" is used as a synonym for mankind as a whole, while in the Alenu prayer "the sons of flesh" is used with the same connotation. In Talmud and Midrash the more comprehensive phrase basar va-dam ("flesh and blood") is used, largely to indicate the mortality of man as against the eternity of God, particularly in the contrast between the frailty and ephemerality of a mortal king compared with the "supreme King of kings, the Holy One blessed be He."

The corruptibility of flesh in the grave is constantly referred to. "The more flesh, the more worms" (Avot 2:7); "Know … whither thou art going, to a place of dust, worms and maggot" (ibid. 3:1); and the word basar is regarded as an acronym of bushah ("shame"), seru?ah ("putrefaction") or she'ol ("the grave"), and rimmah ("worm"; Sot. 5a). At the same time, it is regarded metaphorically as the symbol of softness and pliancy in contrast with the hardness of bone (ibid.).

[Louis Isaac Rabinowitz /

S. David Sperling (2^nd ed.)]