DEUT1633 "Therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed."--[this verse] It is the religious duty of every individual to keep fit and to refrain from practices which endanger health and shorten life. This obligation is a corollary of the general prohibition of waste and needless destruction of living creatures or inanimate useful articles. The instruction to safeguard one's health and life is additionally based on several theological rationales. In view of the biblical declaration that man was created in the image of God, any injury to one's body can constitutes an assault upon its divine aspect and hence an affront to the Almighty. The belief that parents create the body of their offspring but that it is God who implants the soul (Berachot 60b) further contributed to the tenet that life must be preserved and that suicide is a crime against God. Man owns his body, but he is merely the custodian of the soul which resides within him. Only God can decide when the soul is to depart the body. ... The philosophic explanation of the interaction between the soul and the body provided another basis for the principle of the preservation of life. The soul which is implanted in a human body is pure, without any blemish. That is the gist of the morning prayer recited upon waking: "My God, the soul which thou hast planted in me is pure.… thou preservest it in me, and thou shalt someday take it from me" (Berachot 60b). According to the teachings of Kabbalah, the soul is tainted by the corruption of the body. Biblical references to sin and impurity are frequently addressed to the soul: "If a soul sin through error" (Leviticus 4:2), "If a soul sin and commit trespass against the Lord" (Leviticus 5:21). ...When the body atones for its sins, the purity of the soul is restored. The willful destruction of one's body precludes an eventual purging of the soul of its acquired flaws, forcing it to return to heaven in a state of impurity. Aside from doctrinaire considerations, there is a universal consensus that life is man's most precious gift. (Continued at [[DEUT88]] Deuteronomy 4:9 watch BLOCH 242-3)