וייצר ה' אלוהים את האדם עפר מן האדמה. "G-d formed Adam from the dust of the earth.⁠" After the Torah mentioned the creation of Adam already in its report of what was created on the sixth day, it now returns to the subject and fill in details about how he was created. The Torah detailed the first stage of Adam's creation when it wrote in Genesis 1,27 "G-d created Adam in His image.⁠" That first stage of man's creation consisted of using dust from the earth. Now the Torah describes a further stage in Adam's coming into being by describing this process as וייצר, "He formed him,⁠" i.e. He made him into a Golem, a man-like form lacking vital statistics G-d blew a soul of life into Adam's nostrils from His own Holy Spirit.
The reason that the Torah had not mentioned this detail in its narrative of events of the sixth day is because the Torah did not want to interrupt the report of the creation of physical matter by introducing the creation of spiritual and therefore abstract matter at that time.⁠"Basically, the entire narrative concerned itself with matters of a physical nature. Even the blessings bestowed on the creatures including man referred to matters that are physical such as procreation, populating the earth, and the blessing that man was to exercise dominion over the other creatures in nature and to conquer the hidden treasures of nature concerned matters material, not matters which are of a spiritual character. The soul, נפש, i.e. man's lowest abstract life-force, is involved in all these matters only inasmuch as it has been provided by G-d with a natural urge to accomplish certain things. This urge, by itself, is not something spiritual. It dies when man's body dies. It is the life-force which man shares with the animals. It would have been inappropriate to mention an eternal soul side by side with phenomena which are destined to die, as was anything created during the six days. These six days could be described as the days destined to end in death. Only the Sabbath elevated man to the level of נצחיות, "infinity.⁠" The soul which distinguishes man from all the other creatures in the terrestrial universe was not mentioned until after the Sabbath was mentioned as it was the Sabbath which infused man with this potential of "infinity.⁠" This is why the Sabbath is also known as "the day of life. (we pointed this out in connection with our discussion of the seventh millennium on verse 3)

A kabbalistic view of our verse couples the words וייצר ה' אלוהים את האדם and ויטע ה' אלוהים גן בעדן in the next verse together It would be similar to Chronicles I 4,23 המה היוצרים ויושבי נטעים, "they were the potters, who dwelt at Netaim, etc.⁠" The word היוצרים in that verse corresponds to the word וייצר in our verse, whereas the word נטעים corresponds to the word ויטע.

You need to do a little research to understand what was meant in Chronicles where the verse concluded with the statement עם המלך במלאכתו ישבו שם "with the king to help him with his work they dwelt there.⁠" Consider that in chapter one the Torah had written in connection with man's creation "let Us make a human being in Our image,⁠" and had continued: "G-d created man in His image.⁠" At that time the word עפר, "dust,⁠" had not been mentioned at all. G-d had never said: "let Us make man out of dust. or out of the soil.⁠" The reason was that everything connected with the creation of man contains both revealed and hidden aspects. That which impacts on the creatures in the "lower" world has been revealed. That which impacts only on the beings in the "higher" worlds has remained hidden. This is why we are forced to arrive at our knowledge of what the text has seen fit to conceal by careful study of what the text has seen fit to reveal. When we are told in our chapter ויטע ה' אלוהים followed by the statement that man was placed in the garden the Torah speaks of, this means that man has a residence in celestial regions also. Obviously, in that connection we do not expect the Torah to mention things which exist only on earth such as soil and dust. In chapter five, however, where the Torah again reports the creation of man and even says that he was created to resemble G-d, בדמות אלוהים עשה אותו, this refers to the word ויצמח in verse 9 of our chapter here where the Torah speaks of earth and dust, i.e. refers to man's terrestrial habitat. It is quite easy to understand then that the verse which speaks of planting man in his celestial habitat mentions neither trees nor garden. This is reserved for verse 9 where the expression used by the Torah is ויצמח.
What we learn from all this is that the whole of the story of creation is one that played on two levels, so that what have been described as the products of heaven and earth at the beginning of our chapter are inseparably interwoven with one another.

עפר מן האדמה, "dust from the earth.⁠" During the first hour of the sixth day the earth and dust from the various parts of the world were assembled. During the second hour this earth was made into some form of dough, kneaded. During the third hour the various parts of the body were structured and textured. During the fourth hour a living soul was breathed into Adam. During the fifth hour he stood on his legs. During the sixth hour he named the various animals. During the seventh hour he was presented with his wife Chavah. During the eighth hour Adam and Chavah performed marital intercourse on a bed and when they had completed this act of procreation four of them got up from the bed. [Chavah had given birth to Cain and Hevel. Ed.] During the ninth hour Adam was commanded not to eat from the tree of knowledge. During the tenth hour, both Chavah and Adam sinned by eating from that tree. During the eleventh hour they were judged (they were told their punishment). During the twelfth hour he was expelled and left Gan Eden. This is what is meant by Psalms 49,13: אדם ביקר בל ילין, נמשל כבהמות נדמו, "man did not spend a night in honour; he is like the beasts that perish.⁠" This is how the verse was interpreted in Sanhedrin 38, and also in Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer chapter 11. What we are to learn from this paragraph in the Talmud is that the hours of the day allocated to the creation of and progress of Adam, the first human being, corresponded to the progress of the creation of the universe during the six days. When the Midrash speaks about the raw material of man, dust, being assembled during the first hour of the sixth day, this corresponded to G-d's directive on the first day "let there be light.⁠" At that time, abstract concepts, אצילות, had not yet been separated from matters material. There had not been any kind of separation of any of the potential forces of energy in the universe from one another.
During the second hour, when some limits had been imposed and some separation had been decreed, man's body was separated through "kneading" his raw material into where his head, his legs, his arms, etc. were to be. [Interestingly enough the Hebrew word for kneading has the same root as the Hebrew word for "limit,⁠" "frontier,⁠" etc, i.e. גבל. Ed.] This corresponded to G-d's directive on the second day "let there be a firmament in the sky so that it separates one kind of water from another kind of water.⁠" The third hour, when Adam was assigned different organs corresponded to the third day on which different parts of earth became visible. The fourth hour when Adam was given his soul corresponded to the fourth day of creation when the luminaries became operational After all, what the sun is to earth, the soul is to the human body. The fifth hour, the hour when man was finally able to stand on his feet, corresponded to the fifth day, the day the angels were created. We have it on the authority of the prophet Zachariah (Zachariah 3,7) that angels are considered as "merely standing.⁠" [they cannot progress spiritually. Ed.] The sixth hour when Adam named the animals corresponded to the sixth day when he came into being. The seventh hour when Adam was given his mate, Chavah, corresponded to the Sabbath who is Man's "queen" in a spiritual sense.

Bereshit Rabbah 14,7 addresses the repetitive wording עפר מן האדמה by saying that this is to tell us that earth is composed of male and female matter. The male matter is known as עפר, the female matter as אדמה. Not only earth, but all phenomena on earth, be they inert vegetable matter or animals, are composed of male and female parts. Another reason cited by the Midrash for the repetition of the word עפר, i.e. the addition of the word אדמה, is that this word refers to a special earth, the earth from the site of the Holy Temple. This is important as it reminds us that G-d created us from the source of our eventual atonement, the Temple being the source of our atonement. The Torah in Deut. 32,43 specifically mentions that the earth of that site brings atonement, וכפר אדמתו עמו, "its earth will bring atonement for His people.⁠" Another allusion to this atonement is the fact that the Jewish people were commanded in Exodus 20,20 to construct their altar out of earth, אדמה, to drive home the point that the altar which is the instrument of our atonement was capable of doing this thanks to it being constructed out of אדמה.

Adam was to remember where exactly he originated from and to where he would return to if he became sinful and would be expelled from Gan Eden. This is the meaning of 3,29 "to work the earth that he had been taken from.⁠" Here the Torah already previewed man's descendants and their habitat when it wrote quoting Cain in Genesis 4,14 הן גרשת אותי היום מעל פני האדמה, "here You have expelled me this day from the face of the earth.⁠" Cain added ומפניך אסתר, "and I have to hide from Your benevolent presence.⁠" He was referring to G-d's presence, the שכינה. We find similar expressions for that meaning of "G-d's presence [as opposed to "hiding" from G-d, something already Adam had found to be impossible. Ed.] in Psalms 24,6 מבקשי פניך, "the ones who seek out Your benevolent presence.⁠" Another similar construction is found in Psalms 27,8 את פניך אבקש, "I will seek out Your benevolent presence.⁠" This is also what is meant in Genesis 4,16 ויצא קין מלפני ה', "Cain left the benevolent presence of G-d.⁠" We find another verse telling us something similar when the prophet Jonah with whom G-d had communicated tried to escape this closeness to G-d. The Book of Jonah 1,3 describes his behaviour in these words ויקם יונה לברוח תרשישה מלפני ה', "Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the benevolent presence of G-d.⁠" It was Jonah's intent to escape the very part of the land of Israel where G-d's benevolent presence is manifest. Once he would accomplish this he was confident that G-d would not communicate with him further and he could abort the mission G-d wanted him to undertake.

ויפח באפיו נשמת רוח חיים, "He blew in his nostrils a living soul.⁠" You should know that the nose is an instrument of the soul. The soul enters man by way of his nose and it leaves him by the same route. This is why the sages in Yoma 85 have stated that if someone takes a fall that one has to examine him including his nose. This is based on Genesis 7,22 כל אשר נשמת חיים באפיו ....מתו "all who had the spirit of a living soul in their nose...died.⁠" It is one of the wondrous phenomena of the creation of man that you find the letter ש associated with this instrument (organ) [the fact that the nose is divided makes it appear like a letter ש.] This is an allusion to the name of G-d שדי which in this manner is engraved on the body of every human being who has been circumcised. This is the mystical meaning of Job 32,8 ונשמת שדי תבינם "the breath of Shaddai that gives them understanding.⁠"
We know that the nose is the organ by means of which we smell and that the soul derives pleasure from certain fragrances. This is the reason the Talmud Berachot 51 prohibits us from even smelling incense or other fragrances intended for idolatrous purposes. The smell of any fragrance leaves behind a memory. We have it on the authority of the Torah in connection with the sacrificial offerings Leviticus 6,8 that smell acts as a reminder. ריח ניחוח אזכרתה לה', "its pleasant fragrance is a memorial (portion) unto G-d.⁠" [The person in whose name this frankincense has been offered will be remembered by G-d as having accumulated a merit. Ed.]

You should so be aware that the scientists are divided in their views about the nature of the soul. They have written innumerable volumes about this subject. Some of them [Maimonides in his introduction to Pirke Avot, chapter 1] claim that the soul is a single force which however has three sub-categories. 1) the category which houses our desires, something we have in common with all the animals. 2) the source of growth, something possessed both by animals and all manner of plants. 3) the ability to think coherently, the soul of wisdom. All these functions are part of a single soul. Other scientists-philosophers [Avraham Ibn Ezra in his commentary on Kohelet 7,3] claim that there are three distinct souls operating within man all of which are distinct from one another. The intelligent soul is an entity of its own, the potential to grow is an independent force. The animal kind of soul, which is the seat of all desires, i.e. the desire to eat, drink, procreate or simply indulge in sex, as well as the desire to sleep, are all part of the animalistic soul in man and constitute a separate soul. They are a part of what man has in common with the animal kingdom. The seat of that particular soul is the liver. This "soul" is called on occasion נפש, and on occasion רוח Its seat is in the liver. In Deut. 12,20 it is called נפש when the Torah writes כי תאוה נפשך לאכול בשר, "when your "soul" desires to eat meat, etc.⁠" On the other hand, we find that Solomon writes in Kohelet 7,9 אל תבהל ברוחך לכעוס, "do not let your spirit be eager to become angry.⁠" He also wrote in Proverbs 29,11 כל רוחו יוציא כסיל, "a fool vents all his feelings.⁠"
The נפש הצומחת is the force that enables man to grow physically. He shares such a force with all the trees, etc. Just as trees possess such built-in powers, man too possesses such a growth potential. As distinct from the seat of all desire which is presumed to be in the liver, this force does not have a specific location but is present in all parts of man's body. It remains active until a certain point in is life. The soul of intelligence is something exclusive to man, something he shares with beings in the higher worlds, beings which live forever in their sacred domains The seat of this soul is in man's brain, and it is generally referred to as נשמה. This is what the Torah described in our verse as the נשמת חיים which G-d "blew" into Adam's nostrils. We also have a verse in Isaiah 42,5 נותן נשמה לעם עליה, "He gives a soul to the people on it (earth).⁠" There are numerous similar verses throughout the Bible.
According to the view of the philosophers who believe that each person has three separate souls, we find support for our sages in Sanhedrin 65 who report that the famous teacher Rava created a human being. When he brought this creature before Rabbi Zeyra, Rabbi Zeyra spoke to him whereas the creature could not answer back. Thereupon Rabbi Zeyra said to that creature (Golem): "you are man-made; go back to the dust you have been made of.⁠" This passage in the Talmud is proof that man has three distinct souls. Rava, who was familiar with Kabbalah, and had studied the Sefer Yetzirah, had infused this creature with the "soul" which governs motion. He was unable, however, to provide his creature with the power of speech. The power of speech stems from the soul called חכמה.

However, our verse here is proof that there is only one overall soul, but that it contains three different potentials without these different abilities having different origins. The reason is that Adam, as distinct from subsequent human beings, was merely a clod of earth; this is why the Torah went on record in Genesis 2,7 וייצר ה' אלוהים את האדם עפר מן האדמה, "G-d fashioned man dust from the earth;⁠" as soon as Adam's form had materialised G-d "blew" into him this soul of which it is said ויהי האדם לנפש חיה, "man then became a living creature,⁠" i.e. he became able to move. just as the fish and the animals of which the Torah had said that they had become שרץ נפש חיה, "a swarm of living creatures.⁠" This is the meaning of the word חיה, that thanks to this "soul" Adam became a living creature whereas originally he had been inert unable to move, just like a stone.
Regardless of which view one has of the soul, all Jewish sages and philosophers are agreed that the part of the soul which survives physical death is the נפש החכמה, "the soul which is rooted in the emanation חכמה.⁠"

Many philosophers have cited various proofs for this. I will quote only two from a large selection of such proofs.
The first miraculous aspect of that soul is the fact that it is able to know many things which transpire in the universe, be it in the atmosphere, on earth or in the waters, without the benefit of eyesight, a sense of hearing or any other sensory organs to guide it. The five sensory organs or abilities are something which serve only the physical part of creatures such as the animals.or even human beings. They are like tools in the hands of an artisan. Whereas the physical eye perceives that the sun is high in the sky, the "eye" of the נפש החכמה, the spiritual soul, recognizes that the sun is 170 times the size of our globe as the great scholar Rabbi Moses ben Maimon has written at the beginning of the third chapter of his Sefer Hamada. Whereas the physical eye sees many shapes inside the water, the "eye" of the spiritual soul is well aware that the true appearance of these shapes in the water is quite different from how they appear to the physical eye of a beholder. If the five senses had been intended to serve our spiritual soul to perceive and define the phenomena in this world, then whatever is at the periphery of the universe would be devoid of meaning and useless as none of the five senses with which living creatures have been equipped would be able to perceive and evaluate such phenomena (compare Jeremiah 16,19).
The spiritual soul of man as a tool of perception does not deceive him, neither is it limited in its ability to deliver a true picture of things as they are. The function of the spiritual soul within man's body is simlilar to that of the sailor (or captain) on board of a ship. When such a captain leaves the boat, he does not cease to be a captain. Similarly, when the spiritual soul departs from man's body when the body dies, it lives on. On the other hand, the so-called soul which is merely נפש חיה in the language of the Torah, is unable to exist on its own once the body it has inhabited has died. One of the reasons for this is that the five sensory organs contain elements of physical matter and it is impossible for such phenomena to be active unless they are within their "habitat,⁠" i.e. a body made up of similar matter. The spiritual soul, on the other hand, is not subject to such limitations as it originates in an abstract world, a world in which physical matter is not needed. It possesses insights both into celestial matters as well as into matters which are earthly in nature. It is able to do all this only because it is of a purely spiritual character. When this spiritual soul is interested in acquiring knowledge about earthly matters, it uses man's five senses in order to acquire such knowledge. When the same soul is desirous of expanding its knowledge about supra-terrestrial matters it employs its intelligence and its wisdom. Once this spiritual soul leaves the body it has inhabited until the death of that body it can no longer use the terrestrial "soul" i.e. its five senses to perceive matters that pertain to the terrestrial universe. seeing that it has lost touch with these senses which have expired together with the body they inhabited. All of this is proof that the spiritual soul of man survives after the death of its body.
The second remarkable phenomenon is this: When a child is small it knows absolutely nothing. As the child grows up it is able to absorb progressively more knowledge and wisdom from its spiritual soul. Whatever such an individual acquires from its spiritual soul will not escape from any of the three parts he is composed of, neither from his body, nor from his נפש חיה, (a combined form of body and primitive life-force) nor from his spiritual soul. He does not have a fourth part. By rights, a person ought to acquire more and more intelligence and knowledge in proportion to his physical growth and good health, seeing that this appeared to have been the process by which he matured for the first 2 decades of his life. By the same token we could reason that a person who has a weak body must necessarily lag behind in intellectual and spiritual achievements. In practice, however, we frequently observe the very reverse to be the case. Frequently we notice that people who suffer physical afflictions do not simultaneously lose their intellectual and spiritual powers. They remain mentally and spiritually at their best until the day the body dies. This proves conclusively that the acquisition of wisdom and knowledge, i.e. abstract forms of values, is quite independent of the body or even the נפש חיה of a person combined with his physical prowess. If this is so, this is proof positive that man's mental and spiritual capacities are due to a higher form of soul, that which we have called the נפש החכמה, the spiritual soul. The body has absolutely no share in the mental and spiritual development of a person except that it serves as the vessel, the container within which such mental and spiritual forces are able to function and to make it the base of their operations.
Dead people do not possess any mental or spiritual energy. The existence of such mental and spiritual energy is exclusively due to the living. It is clear then that what we have called נפש, or נפש חיה, is a phenomenon that lives only within what we call "nature,⁠" for it is certainly true that this "natural soul" is able to absorb חכמות, wisdoms of a variety of degrees. When the body dies it dies as part of "nature,⁠" and "nature" is unable to receive any input from such a dead body (i.e. the wisdoms it used to possess).
We have therefore established two remarkable principles: 1) man is composed of two major components or essences. Part of man's essences lives as an integral part of "nature,⁠" in fact due to the existence of "nature.⁠" Without nature that part of man simply could not exist. 2) The second part of man's essence dies through the very fact that it is bound to "nature.⁠" This second part is the body. The reason both the soul and the body share such experiences is that they have been joined together so that (to a limited degree) each one has to share the experiences of the other. The body gets an inkling of what life's potential is all about because it has become joined to the soul. The soul experiences what death is all about because it has become tied to the mortal body. Death may be considered as a punishment for the soul who has allowed itself to be misled by the body. It follows that essentially the soul is supposed to live forever; its death is incidental. The reverse is true of the body which essentially is mortal but lives temporarily by merit of the soul it hosts.
Once body and soul part company, each one resumes its natural destiny, i.e. the body dies and the soul lives on forever. In both cases this separation means that a temporary, unnatural union or partnership has been broken up, each partner returning to its essential habitat.
Although we have indulged in quoting philosophers and a few of their arguments concerning the nature of the soul, and we have even cited some of their more impressive arguments to prove their theories, the major foundation of our beliefs remains our holy Torah which is the source of our life. All true philosophers derive their wisdom only from the Torah. True wisdom is always the fruit, i.e. the product of profound Torah-study. The matter of the survival of the soul after the death of the body is made plain by the very fact that the soul G-d infused in Adam was called נשמת חיים, "a soul of life.⁠" This means that the soul was "hewn" from the very source of life. The reason is that we know that the soul is derived from the source of wisdom, the emanation חכמה. The word חיים when part of the term נשמת חיים, reminds us of Job 32, 7-8 אמרתי ימים ידברו, ורוב שנים יודיעו חכמה.אכן רוח-היא באנו. "I thought: "let age speak; let advanced years declare wise things. But, truly it is the spirit in men.⁠" We find that in Job the words חכמה and רוח appear side by side. The author is trying to tell us that רוח, "the spirit, the soul,⁠" is the source of חכמה, wisdom. If our verse saw fit to call the soul נשמת חיים, this is an allusion to Kohelet 7,12 והחכמה תחיה בעליה, "and wisdom (the emanation of wisdom) preserves the life of those who possess it.⁠" This is also what G-d assured the prophet of when He told him to promise the High Priest Yehoshua that his soul would be in the company of the angels if he would observe G-d's commandments (Zachariah 3,7) The wording is ונתתי לך מהלכים בין העומדים האלה, "and I shall enable you to be able to walk amongst these who are stationary.⁠" We have explained repeatedly that the angels are spiritually stationary as they do not possess an evil urge the defeat of which would enable them to make spiritual progress.
If you correctly understand the verse in Kohelet which Solomon said in his great wisdom you will also understand the lofty spiritual plateau, its foundation and its mystical significance. Although at first glance the verse ומותר האדם מן הבהמה אין, "man's advantage over the beasts is nil,⁠" in Kohelet 3,19 sounds rather banal, it contains deep insights. What Solomon meant was that the very advantage that man enjoys over the animals is derived from a domain called אין. The advantage of man over the beasts derives from the intelligent soul man possesses which derives from חכמה which symbolises the letter י which combines with the letter א and which in turn symbolises the uniqueness of the Creator, i.e. the רצון, "the Will" of the Creator. The words ויפח באפיו, "He blew into Adam's nostrils,⁠" are to alert us to the fact that this soul was not part of the basic four elements the terrestrial universe is made of [although רוח, "wind or spirit" is one of those four elements. Ed.]. Man's soul shares five characteristics with G-d (compare Berachot 10). It is similar to G-d in all its virtues, at the same time being superior to the soul of the angels. The reason is that the soul of man was created on the first day of creation as compared to the angels who were created only on the second day. It is an accepted rule that phenomena which were created sooner are superior to those which were created later. We have an explicit statement in Sanhedrin 93 that the righteous are superior to the angels.
To sum up: whatever man's mouth can tell about the attributes (virtues) of G-d to the extent that he is the Creator is possible only because the soul of man is a direct creation of this Creator. A famous unnamed scholar has said: "know your souls so that you may gain knowledge about your G-d.⁠"

ויהי האדם לנפש חיה,⁠"man became a living creature.⁠" During the entire report about the creation you will not find that the word ויהי was applied directly to something which had been created, except to light and to man. In both these instances the Torah wrote ויהי אור, or ויהי האדם respectively. The message is that man's soul will endure forever just as the original light will endure forever as both had been created on the first day. This fact inspired the liturgical poet Rabbi Yehudah Halevi in a poem commencing with the words ברכי נפשי את ה' to write תקן נשמות עם האור הראשון תחלת דבר ה' "G-d established the souls together with the original light, the first of G-d's creative activities.⁠" The meaning of the whole verse is: "the main purpose of the existence of human beings is on account of their spiritual soul.⁠"