Question:
Does the Tanakh tell us anything about where thoughts come from
Answer:
Hello,
Yes, the Torah does tell us where thoughts come from. It comes from a person’s soul. In fact, it isn’t in Tanach rather in Genesis (2-7). When Hashem created man, it says “And Hashem formed man from the earth, and He blew into him a soul of life”. This term is different than the creation of the animals, fish etc., that it merely says that they were created. If one looks in the Targum Unkelos, (who lived in the times of the Gemora, and his commentary is considered to be handed down as part of the oral torah from Moshe Rabeinu) he explains this, that “Hashem blew into man, a soul, and man became capable of speaking”. It is known that speech is the expression of the thoughts one is thinking. Therefore, our thoughts are a function of our soul, which is lodged in our brain.
As a side point, it is important for us to know that we can indeed contact (a least a certain part of) our soul, and feel it! (This is a little deep, but worthwhile.) If one were to wonder, what is the “real Me”, meaning what is my real essence, me real being? What would we answer? Understandibly, we identify with our bodies as “us”, but are our bodies our real essence? When I look at my nails, and my hand, is this really “me”, or is this “my hand”? Is my hand the real, deep me, or it is merely my hand? My foot? My eyes? So what is “me”?
Another question. When a person sees a picture, what sees the picture, the person’s eyeball, or the person’s brain? Can a fleshy eyeball see? Can a fleshy ear hear? No, it can’t. The proof is that the second the person’s soul departs from the body the eyeball ceases to see and the fleshy ear ceases to hear. So, what is really seeing and hearing is our soul, (which is lodged in our mind) looking at the world through the eyes and hearing via the ears, but they are not the actual thing that is seeing. What is hearing and seeing is our soul.
Another question. When someone insults us, what is insulted, is it our heart that is insulted, our eyes, ears? No. It is our feelings. Where are our feelings? Are they merely physical nerve ending, in our brain? That would be physical pain, emotional pain however is felt by our soul, the real “me”. It is the same with joy. When a person wins 10 million dollars, what feels good, the nerves in his brain? It is his soul, that feels joy, sorry, and all of our emotional feelings.
Where is this soul located? Inside our physical body, but it is not our actual body. It is this soul that thinks, and it uses the body to express itself with language. And it is this soul, that will eventually separate from the physical body, when the physical boy dies, the soul however does not die, and it continues to have its properties, feelings and all. It is also the soul that will have the exhilarating feelings in the spiritual world, the same way it has feelings when it is inside our physical body.
Getting back to your question. Our thought processes are a part of our soul, that was given to us from Hashem, as part of what makes man, different than the animal kingdom.
Best wishes
