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Indeed, differing opinions are found concerning this question. In his Epitome of On the Soul, [Averroes] sometimes states that the Agent Intellect is the giver of forms to all beings possessing a soul. Elsewhere, in his work On Animals, he says that the agent which generates these beings is not an intellect but a vital power borne in the seed, while the separate agent is that which brings this vital power into being. And in the seventh treatise of his work on natural science he writes that the generative power resides in the seed and is produced jointly by the parent from which the seed comes and by the celestial bodies, and that this power is not separate1. Thus Averroes was so perplexed by this question that he turned from one position to another, wavering between two opinions without firmly adhering to either. Yet on one point his mind remained settled throughout his writings: the rational soul proceeds from a separate agent and is not potentially contained in the seed.
When I saw that the opinions of the philosophers were beset by numerous difficulties, I adopted a different approach, following what the sacred writings—the Torah and the Prophets—have taught me. The forms belonging to the first two degrees of composite beings—namely, the formation of vapors and exhalations and of the things generated from them in the air, and the formation of inanimate substances and metals generated within the depths of the earth—arise from the power of matter and from the blending of the elements. This is why their degree is deficient and low, remaining close to the nature of earth and water and requiring no separate external agent.
Scripture itself bears witness to this when it says, “A mist rose from the earth” (Genesis 2:6), attributing the rising and formation of vapors to the earth. Concerning metals and other inanimate substances, Job likewise says: “For silver has a mine, and there is a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from stone.” (Job 28:1–2).
In other words, all metals partake of the nature of earth, and their forms derive from it. The form of plants, however, because of the multiplicity of their powers and activities, does not arise from the power of matter but from the motions of the celestial spheres and the influence of the stars. It is for this reason that our Sages said, “There is no herb below that does not have a constellation in the firmament that strikes it and says to it, Grow!”2 They did not make a similar statement concerning sentient living creatures, because it is specifically the vegetative form that derives from the celestial spheres. Indeed, our Sages went so far as to say that the number of species of plants corresponds to the number of individual stars, as the author of the Guide has mentioned3. For this reason Scripture says concerning Joseph, “His land shall be blessed by the Lord, with the sweetness of the heavens with dew, and with the deep that lies below, and with the sweetness of the produce of the sun, and with the sweetness of the moon’s yield.” (Deuteronomy 33:13–14).
For it was Hashem who created the souls at the beginning of Creation, during the work of Genesis, according to the true opinion, bringing them into being from absolute nonexistence, just as the spiritual angels were created, since souls share their intellectual nature.
The forms of living creatures, however, arise neither from the power of matter nor from the motions of the celestial spheres, but from the agency of the separate intellect that they called the Agent Intellect4. This is why animals possess sensory and imaginative apprehension, and why we find among them forms of cunning and contrivance, all of which are effects of thought.
The rational soul, by contrast, just as it does not arise from the power of matter, neither proceeds from the influence of the celestial spheres nor is it bestowed by the Agent Intellect. Rather, it comes from God, blessed be He, Himself. This is the opinion of the Chaver in the Kuzari5. For it was Hashem who created the souls at the beginning of Creation, during the work of Genesis, according to the true opinion, bringing them into being from absolute nonexistence, just as the spiritual angels were created, since souls share their intellectual nature. Thus the Torah says, “He breathed into his nostrils the soul of life”6 (Genesis 2:7).
The prophet Isaiah likewise explained this when he said, “When a spirit from before Me humbles itself, and souls [which] I have made”7 (Isaiah 57:16). His meaning is that the vital spirit, which is specifically called ruach—as in the expression, “the spirit of all flesh”8 (Numbers 16:22)—proceeds from the separate intellect that is before God. Onkelos likewise understood the expression “My face shall not be seen”9 (Exodus 33:23) as referring to the separate intellects, translating it, “Those who are before Me shall not be seen”, as the author of the Guide has explained10. The intellectual souls, however—these, Hashem says, “I Myself have made”.
Parashat Bereshit — Genesis 1:11-13, The Soul Beyond the Stars in the Commentary of Don Isaac Abarbanel)
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