Ruach (רוח) — Spirit

Core definition

Ruach (literally "spirit," "wind") is the second of the soul's levels, seated in the heart: "in the neshamah are three levels — נפש, רוח, נשמה — nefesh is the lower aspect, ruach is the middos, neshamah is the intellect" [15911/maamar_021 :: summary]. Ruach is the seat of the emotional attributes — love and fear of Havayah — the "speaking spirit" (ruach memalela) by which the heart's inner vitality moves outward into expression [15962/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 39].

How the Rebbeim develop it

The three revealed levels of the soul are mapped onto three general limbs of the body: the head, the body, and the leg. Neshamah is clothed in the brain — "the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding" (נשמת שדי תבינם, Iyov 32:8); ruach in the heart — "this is the matter of the middos — as in the teaching 'לרוח ממללא' (the spirit that speaks); speech is revealed from the heart, which is the heart's hevel (vapor)"; nefesh in the liver — the level of action, the blood drawn in the body's limbs [15962/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 39]. Above these revealed levels stand chayah and yechidah, which are makifim (encompassing), having no vessels at all [15962/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 39].

The connection between ruach and nefesh is intimate: the soul's vitality flows from above downward — the ruach chayim (spirit of life) is drawn from the brain into the right chamber of the heart, full of ruach chayim, and from there unites with the blood, where nefesh dwells [58837/maamar_028 :: עב׳ 361–362]. "Only the nefesh is in the aspect of a receiver, which receives from the ruach chayim" [58837/maamar_028 :: עב׳ 356]. The Zohar (Sava of Mishpatim) teaches that ruach and nefesh are dakar v'nukva — male and female: ruach bestows, nefesh receives [58837/maamar_028 :: עב׳ 357]. There are two kinds of sinews: the sinews of the blood, whose source is in the heart, and the sinews of the ruach chayim, whose source is in the brain, entering the heart's right chamber [58837/maamar_028 :: עב׳ 362–364].

The maamarim stress that the intellect is only called neshamah but is not the soul's essence — intellect changes with the vessel (child vs. adult, tired vs. rested), while essence is unchanging and indivisible; a fortiori this applies to ruach: the middos are a level, not the essence itself [15962/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 6].

In avodah, each level of the soul draws its counterpart above: through the avodah of the three levels nefesh–ruach–neshamah, one draws the Ohr Ein Sof that is clothed in vessels, measure for measure [15962/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 40].

Ruach is also used in the looser sense of spirit or disposition. The Mishnah "כל שרוח הבריות נוחה הימנו רוח המקום נוחה הימנו" (whoever the spirit of the creatures is at ease with, the Spirit of the Place is at ease with him — Avos 3:10) is expounded as the purpose of creation: that through good conduct, Torah, mitzvos, and good middos, man cause nachas ruach — a spirit of satisfaction — above [58834/maamar_041 :: summary]. Here ruach is the inner contentment or displeasure, both of man and, as it were, above.

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Nefesh, Neshamah, Chayah, Yechidah, Middos (love and fear), the heart, nachas ruach, ruach ha-briyos.

Sources