Rav SR Hirsh (Bereishis (02:07) living soul—the soul of the animal was formed from the earth, just as its body was; whereas in man, only the body was taken from the earth, while it was the Lord who breathed into him the breath of life. This is man’s distinction—the source of his freedom. It is not merely his rational spirit, but also his vital soul that surpasses that of the beast.
Chizkuni (Bereishis 02:07) “He blew into his nostrils a living soul.” G-d personally blew the breath of life into the human being, something He had not done for any of His other creatures. Why was all this necessary? This was in order to enable man to have the wisdom, i.e. holy spirit, to enable him when viewing all the animals to name them correctly after having discerned how each was different from the other.
Kli Yakar (Bereishis 02:07) And He blew into his nostrils the soul of life, and man became a living being. Rashi explains that although animals also have a living soul, man is the most alive of them all, as knowledge and speech were added to him. However, his interpretation is forced since the verse doesn’t specify that this being is more alive than all others. The Akeidat Yitzchak explains that this “soul of life” refers to the vital spirit that exists in humans fundamentally and primarily, and through this, man becomes a living being when the second and third levels of perfection are added, following the pattern of nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. The rabbi thought that Rashi agreed with him, but this interpretation is also not appropriate to accept, as it refers to “living being” as the final level of perfection, when this term is also used for animals and beasts of the field. Therefore, my heart imagines differently, rather interpreting the opposite of their words entirely. The “soul of life” is the eternal intellectual soul — go and learn who is the One who breathes, and you will find this speaks of the divine portion from above. The verse is saying that although God breathed into man an intellectual soul of life, nevertheless man was initially in his creation just a simple living being like other animals, for man is born a wild donkey’s colt. The main perfection depends on his diligent effort and good choices when he opens his eyes of intellect as he matures. But at the beginning of his creation, even though the soul-breath of life was already blown into him, nevertheless the soul is not within him in actuality, only in potential. If he does not gird his loins with zeal to go out at the head of the vanguard to fight God’s war, he remains in his animal nature and is comparable to a beast. However, when an ox or sheep or goat is born, on that same day it is created with all its perfection and has no additional perfection to attain. The verse reveals this to us so that man should not err about himself, saying that without effort and toil he will achieve his perfection which was already created with him, relying on this advantage found in his creation. For this is not so — rather, everything depends on the work of his hands, as he always has the ability to exchange and convert nature to intellect and intellect to nature. For this reason, it does not say in man’s creation and God saw that it was good, because at his creation it was not yet apparent what his goodness and beauty would be.
Ramban (Bereishis (01:26) AND G-D SAID: ‘LET US MAKE MAN. G-d said, Let us make, that is, I and the aforementioned earth, let us make man, the earth to bring forth the body from its elements as it did with cattle and beasts, as it is written, And the Eternal G-d formed man of the dust of the ground, and G-d gave the spirit from His mouth, the Supreme One, as it is written, And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And He said, In our image, and after our likeness, as man will then be similar to both. In the capacity of his body, he will be similar to the earth from which he was taken, and in spirit he will be similar to the higher beings, because spirit is not a body and will not die. In the second verse, He says, In the image of G-d He created him, in order to relate the distinction by which man is distinguished from the rest of created beings.
Ramban (Bereishis 02:07) And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. This alludes to the superiority of the soul, its foundation and secret, since it mentions in connection with it the full Divine Name. And the verse says that He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life in order to inform us that the soul did not come to man from the elements, as He intimated concerning the soul of moving things, nor was it an evolvement from the Separate Intelligences. Rather, it was the spirit of the Great G-d: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and discernment. For he who breathes into the nostrils of another person gives into him something from his own soul. It is this which Scripture says, And the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding, since the soul is from the foundation of understanding by way of truth and faith.
Redak (Bereishis 02:07) G-d blew into man some of the spirit prevailing in the highest regions on earth. Whereas the life force of the animals is described as, something abstract but originating in physical earth, man’s life force is called here soul, to alert us to the fact that the origin of this life force is not physical, has not been supplied by earth, in fact could not have been supplied by earth. Our verse illustrates what G-d had meant when He had announced that man would be, “in Our image, Our likeness.”. This is so in spite of the fact that sometimes man is equipped additionally with ruach and nefesh . The expression soul is reserved exclusively for describing man, whereas the other two expressions, describing non-tangible animalistic forms of energy called “life-force,” are shared by man and beast
