This week we again read a double parsha of Achrei Mot-Kedoshim. Hidden in these portions filled with rules for the High Priest, sacrifices, and atonement is the line repeated in several different ways, "For the Nefesh (life) of the flesh is in the blood, and I have assigned it to you for making expiation for your Nefashim (lives) upon the altar; it is the blood, as Nefesh, that effects expiation." (17:10) and then "For the Nefesh of all flesh—its blood is its Nefesh." (17:14)
What does it mean that blood is the Nefesh, the JPS translation says it is life, but it is also often translated as soul. It is interesting to me because often breathe is associated with the soul, because our words and our thoughts are on our breathe. It is what makes us special.
Blood is blood, certainly needed to live, but also transfusable, replaceable.
But commentator Ibn Ezra words struck me, "The blood is coupled with the life thereof, for it is known that the threads that go out from the left side of the heart are divided, half for blood and half for the breath, like the olive oil and the light thereof." The arteries are what connect our breath to the heart.
The blood is as necessary for life/soul as oil is to create light. Inside these vessels there are cells that carry our oxygen, that fight our infections, that fix our bodies.
May all of our organs function as they should. May our blood carry around our thoughts and our prayers as it should.