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Ask the Rabbi: answers from Project Genesis rabbis
Do animals have souls?
Animals and humans have many similarities, but they also have many differences; in particular, we believe that animals have no souls. This belief is derived from sources such as scriptural passages, not from logical arguments. The ancient and medieval philosophers also believed that animals are spiritually "inferior" to humans, but they too had no "proofs" of this that would be convincing nowadays.
What about in Genisis 1:30 where it says:
“and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul, I have given every green herb for food’ And it was so.”
To gain an insight into this subject, one needs to understand the difference between the Hebrew words, “nefesh,” and “neshama.” Have you ever had a remote controlled car? Turn the wheel to the right, and it goes right, speed up, speed down, honk the horn, and so forth. Let’s get more complex and talk about a state of the art computer. What can that computer do, or better yet, what CAN’T it do? Now let’s get even more complex and talk about G-d’s creation of a nefesh. One could look at a nefesh as a vitalizing computer program, responsible for functions and many desires of the body. Feeling hunger is from the nefesh. Walking around is from the nefesh. Most translations call the nefesh a soul, but really it is better translated as the vitalizing force of a body.
The real “soul” is the neshama, which G-d placed into Adam, in Bereishis (Genesis) 2:7. Only man received a neshama, no animal, and nothing else in the Universe. A neshama has the ability to “choose,” between right and wrong. Animals don’t get that choice. Animal compulsiveness is programmed into them, and animals can therefore do no wrong. Only man can do wrong. Only man has the choice.
By the way, man has BOTH a nefesh and a neshama. If you want to know the difference watch the animals. Anything man does which animals do not, is of the neshama. Eating to satisfy physical hunger is of the nefesh. Saying a prayer of thanks, and acknowledging the Creator, prior to eating that food, that is of the neshama.