Guf

Guf (ガフ), in Neon Genesis Evangelion, encompasses two separate but intimately connected terms: the Chamber of Guf, and the Doors of Guf.

Chamber of Guf

The Chamber of Guf (ガフの部屋, GAFU no heya) is mentioned twice. In Episode 23:

Ritsuko: "Yes, they're human. The Evas do not intrinsically have souls, but they have human souls embedded in them. They were all salvaged. The only vessel that contained a soul was Rei. She was the only one born with a soul. The Chamber of Guf was empty, you see. These things here that look like Rei have no souls. They're just vessels. That's why I'm going to destroy them. Because I hate them."

In Episode 26':

Fuyutsuki: "The Chamber of Guf has been unsealed. Have the doors to the world's beginning and end finally opened?"

Other than these brief mentions, there is no full explanation given. The Chamber of Guf is a term from Kabballah, said to be the place where all souls emanate. (For more information, see here.) However, the Chamber of Guf in Evangelion, rather than having religious connotations, is merely the name for the origin of all souls, which seems to exist within both Adam and Lilith.

Doors of Guf

The Doors of Guf (ガフの扉, GAFU no tobira), are mentioned directly in Episode 21' and heavily alluded to in Episode 26' (see the quote above). In the case of the latter, the actual term "Doors of Guf" appears in the script and designates the vulva-like apertures that open on Lilith's palms to receive souls. Out- and in-doors to Chamber of Guf; Adam; maybe the harpies create "artificial" ones on Eva-01 by skewering her palms, Seele seems to make a big deal out of that after all.

Guf in the Jewish tradition

While Guf (גוף) is the Hebrew word for "body," the Chamber of Guf is not merely a "chamber of bodies," however. The Body's chamber is the place in the celestial Body from which all unborn souls originate. This chamber is said to have existed prior to Creation.

The peculiar idiom of describing the treasury of souls as a "body" may be connected to the Kabbalistic tradition of the primordial man named Adam Kadmon. Adam Kadmon, God's "original intention" for humanity, was a supernal being, androgynous and macro-cosmic (co-equal in size with the universe). When he sinned however, humanity was demoted to flesh and blood, bifurcated and turned to mortals. According to the Kabbalah, every human soul is just a fragment (or fragments) cycling out of the great "world-soul" of Adam Kadmon. Hence, every human soul comes from Adam Kadmon's "Guf (Body)."

We read from the subject of propagation in the Talmud the following:

"R. Assi stated: The Son of David (i.e. the Jewish Messiah) will not come before all the souls in Guf are disposed of; since it is said: For the spirit that enwrappeth itself is from Me, and the souls which I have made ."

In an early Kabbalistic work called the Sefer ha-Bahir (סֵפֶר הַבָּהִיר), it is also said that:

"In its hand is the Treasury of Souls. When Israel is good, these souls are worthy of emerging and coming into this world. But if they are not good, then [these souls] do not emerge. We therefore say, "The Son of David will not come until all the souls in the Guf (Body) are completed." What is the meaning of "all the souls in the Guf"? We say this refers to all the souls in Adam (Kadmon)'s body. [When these are completed] new ones will be worthy of emerging. The Son of David (the Messiah) will then come. He will be able to be born, since his soul will emerge among the other new souls."

In the Gemara (Rabbinical commentaries and analysis) of the twelfth tractate of the second order of the Mishna (משנה), called Hagigah, we may have an allusion to another, separate celestial Body in the Seventh Heaven of Saturn (called Araboth), for we read:

"Araboth is that which are righteousness and judgment and grace, the treasures of life and the treasures of peace and the treasures of blessing, and the souls of the righteous, and the spirits and souls which are about to be born, and dew wherewith the Holy One, blessed be He, will hereafter revive the dead."

This is a very different concept to the Body we find written of in the Talmud: the Body as written of in the Talmud has always existed, but the Body described in the Midrash exists after the act of Creation. The Body described in the Midrash is said to be the source of Cores (קרח), said to be inferior souls that were not created at the beginning of Creation.

The word guf appears in the O.T./Torah only once, in Nehemiah vii:iii: "let the Doors be shut [to Jerusalem] and bar them."

Notes

• The Chamber of Guf is commonly misinterpreted as being the Dummy Plug Plant: this is just because Ritsuko happens to be standing in the Dummy Plug Plant, at the time when she mentions the Chamber of Guf.
• Guf, Guff, Guph, Gof, Goff and Goph are all acceptable English translations of the Hebrew גוף.