Can a live person be soulless?

Goyim.

Rambam (Guide 1:7) says that this is the definition of a שד. According to Psychology this would seem to be the definition of a psychopath. Rav Ephraim Sprecher quoted Rav Soloveichik as saying that if you see someone who has no human feelings, like a Hitler or Stalin ym”s, you can be sure that he is one of them.

What is a “soul”? The word “soul” does not exist in the Torah. Are you talking about the nefesh? The nefesh is what keeps a living thing alive, so no. The ruach? When you go to sleep you give up your ruach, so yes. The neshama? I don’t know but I guess that’s what people mean about demons. I don’t know if this is in the Torah though.

“[O]ne who does not feel any holiness within himself at all
can be sure that he does not possess even* a neshama;
he has no contact with the neshama, for it has completely
left him. It will return only if and when he does teshuva.”
-Strive for Truth, vol. 1, page 211. Rav Dessler says this in the name of
his rebbi – I think he was Rav Tzvi Hirsch Braude (son of the Alter of Kelm).

*An earlier part of the paragraph was about the neshama yeseira of Shabbos.

Obama

A golem.

We know multiple golems have existed.

Lb I know of a baal Shem Tov story where this woman passed away and no one guarded her body because her husband had to get the chevra kadisha and she opened the door when he came back…. Because her body was taken over by either a shed or forces of klipah aka lilis…. Anyhow they had more kids together who were also shedim/Offsprings of lilis and had no neshama….

CS: Why’d the husband stay and have children with a sheid?

@solaro a Baal Shem Tov story is a story about the Baal Shem Tov. I know it didn’t finish the story where the Baal Shem Tov killed the shedim because I didn’t see that point as relevant.

@joseph because he thought it was his wife who came bask to life.

@avik that could be. You remind me of a saying I heard about Baal Shem Tov stories : if you believed every one certainly happened, you’re a fool. If you believe any story could not have happened you’re an apikorus.

CS: I believe your BST story about him killing the wife and children who were sheidim fits in the first of the two categories of BST stories that you described to Avi.

OK maybe I should finish the story.

The beginning is as above. The family lived in an inn located between two cities atop a mountain. When the wife sickened and died, the husband had to leave her body alive to climb down the mountain and fetch the chevra kadisha.

When they returned, she opened the door and asked where her husband had been. He was completely weirded out and asked the CK members to sleep over. The next day they said they need to tend to dead people, not live ones, so they left.

Years passed and the couple had kids.

One day the BST stopped at the inn with his talmidim. They made a Minyan to daven mincha but as soon as they started davening, a huge storm started and shook the house. The students were thrown to the ground.

As soon as the BST finished davening, the storm ceased. It had been so strong that the mountain had split in half. The wife and kids were dead on the floor. That’s when the BST explained that his wife’s body had been taken over by forces of tumah and they had used her body to birth children who were also forces of tumah.

The BST with his mincha accomplished that they should leave and never mix with humans again.

If I’m not mistaken, they were taken over by shedim. But I could be wrong.

It is notable to mention that in r’ yoel Baal Shem times the is a documented story of shedim taking over the apartment is an dead couple and scaring the wits out of the other tenants.

Nowadays we don’t hear such stories anymore.

Dybuk stories are less common as well although Rabbi kaplan from Toronto had an experience with excorcising one it seems

If such forces taking over dead bodies was a thing, I would
think that we’d hear of it in more than a single story.

(“Shedim taking over the apartment is an dead couple” is gibberish.)

Chabadshluch,
1. We don’t here of such things today? You never heard of the Amityville Horror?
2. There are stories of “tzaddikim” giving all their money to some needy person and leaving their own families high and dry.

Random, here is Rambam’s statement at the end of Chelek 1 Chapter 7 according to the translation of Smuel ibn Tibbon:

“ויחי אדם שלושים ומאת שנה ויולד בדמותו כצלמו” (בראשית ה, ג), וכבר קדם לך (בפרק א) עניין צלם ודמות מה הוא. וכל מי שקדמו לו מן הבנים לא הגיע עליהם הצורה האנושית באמת, אשר היא צלם ודמותו הנאמר עליה בצלם אלוהים ובדמותו. אמנם שת כאשר למדהו והבינהו, ונמצא שלם השלימות האנושי, אמר בו “ויולד בדמותו כצלמו” (שם).

וכבר ידעת כי כל מי שלא הגיע לו זאת הצורה אשר ביארנו עניינה, הוא אינו איש אבל בהמה על צורת איש ותבניתו, אבל יש לו יכולת על מיני ההיזק וחלוש הדעות, מה שאין כן לשאר בעלי חיים, כי השכל והמחשבה שהיו מוכנים לו להגעת השלמות אשר לא הגיע, ישתמש בהם במיני התחבולות המביאות לרע, והוליד הנזקים כאילו הוא דבר ידמה לאדם או יזיקהו. וכן היו בני אדם הקודמים לשת. ואמרו במדרש: “כל אותן ק”ל שנה שהיה אדם נזוף בהם היה מוליד רוחות”, ר”ל שדים, וכאשר רצהו השם, הוליד בדמותו כצלמו.
והוא אמרו: “ויחי אדם שלושים ומאת שנה ויולד בדמותו כצלמו” (שם).

You can see for yourself at
http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=11580&st=%d7%a6%d7%9c%d7%9d&pgnum=47

In fact, in American cities there are many stories of such people taking over apartments. This has prompted the Manhattan District. Attorney’s office to institute a Narcotics Eviction Program.

“1. We don’t here of such things today? You never heard of the Amityville Horror?”

No I didn’t

“2. There are stories of “tzaddikim” giving all their money to some needy person and leaving their own families high and dry”

They were expected to give everything they had whether spiritually or physically for the klal. Notice they didn’t keep any money for themselves either yet they all survived and thrived. Hashem provides for us day by day, just as He did with the mon, but it takes real bitachon to live that way.
But it works!

I heard a pshat on what becomes of a rasha merusha or a serial poshe’a. He is likened to a shofar or lulav from an ir nidachas. The item can be seen and held, it is fully physical, but its spiritual value is zero due to “ketutei mictas shiurei”

On galus: Soul is not mentioned in the Torah?! What about, “Vayipach be’apav NISHMAS chaim”???