The book "Anatomy of the Soul" (Kramer) is written about the Kabbalistic beliefs Rebbe Nachman of Breslov had regarding the relationship between the body and the soul. He saw a correlation between the body, the soul and sicknesses that could occur if they were not in harmony with the Jewish God. This is similar to the Oriental view of illness. Oriental medicine also looks for a physical manifestation of an imbalance. However, rather than harmony with the God of the Kabbalists, Oriental medicine believes a person's energy needs to be in balance with the Life Force of the universe which they refer to as the Qi. The different aspects of Qi are what the Chinese practitioner examines then if a person is sick (Oriental Medicine). These are two different cultures, Hebrew and Chinese, but there seem to be comparable viewpoints with regards to the body, illness and a higher power or energy that requires interrelationship balance.
             The Jewish premise is that man is connected to God, the earth is connected to heaven, and the matter is permeated by spirit and energy. (Kramer 3) Rabbi Nachman bases his teachings on the Kabbalah which are mystical interpretations of this spirit/energy relationship. The basic belief of Kabbalah is that the physical world corresponds to the spiritual dimension and these deep interrelationships affect each other. (Kramer 15) Therefore, if a person's spirit is what would be considered "unhealthy" it could cause an ailment in a particular area of the body that corresponds to the spiritual malady. This concept can be simply illustrated. When a person dies, his body is still present here on earth. What has left? According to Judaism what has left the body to cause it not to have "energy" is the spirit or soul.
             Often, the terms spirit and soul are interchangeable terms in Judaism and denote the unseen life force. Since this energy gives life, it only makes sense then that if there is something hindering the ene...