Ruach (Kabbalah)

Part of a series on
Kabbalah
Concepts Ein Sof Tzimtzum Ohr Ayin and Yesh Sephirot Four Worlds Seder hishtalshelut Tree of Life Merkavah Jewish angelic hierarchy Shekhinah Partzufim Qliphoth Tohu and Tikun Sparks of holiness Messianic rectification Gilgul Kabbalistic astrology Gematria Notarikon Temurah Names of God in Judaism Shemhamphorasch Tzadik Tzadikim Nistarim Anthropomorphism in Kabbalah Panentheism
History Pre-Kabbalistic Jewish mysticism Tannaim Heichalot Sefer Yetzirah Chassidei Ashkenaz Medieval Bahir Toledano tradition Prophetic Kabbalah Zohar Kabbalistic commentaries on the Bible Mainstream displacement of rationalism with Kabbalah Renaissance Selective influence on Western thought Mysticism after Spanish expulsion Mystics of 16th-century Safed Cordoveran Kabbalah Lurianic Kabbalah Maharal's thought Popular Kabbalistic Mussar Early modern Baal Shem-Nistarim Sabbatean mystical heresies Emden–Eybeschutz controversy Immigration to the Land of Israel Traditional Oriental Kabbalists Beit El Synagogue Eastern European Judaism Hasidic Judaism / philosophy Lithuanian Jews Hasidic-Mitnagdic schism Modern Hasidic dynasties Mysticism in religious Zionism Academic interest in Jewish mysticism Non-Orthodox interest in Jewish mysticism
Practices Torah study Mystical exegesis Mitzvot Minhag Customary immersion in mikveh Meditation Kavanot Teshuvah Deveikut Prayer Nusach Tikkun Chatzot Tikkun Leil Shavuot Pilgrimage to Tzadik Pilgrimage to holy grave Lag BaOmer at Meron Asceticism Practical Kabbalah
People 100s Four Who Entered the Pardes Simeon bar Yochai 1100s Isaac the Blind Azriel 1200s Nahmanides Abraham Abulafia Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla Moses de Leon Menahem Recanati 1300s Bahya ben Asher 1400s 1500s Meir ibn Gabbai Joseph Karo Shlomo Alkabetz Moshe Alshich Moshe Cordovero Isaac Luria Chaim Vital Judah Loew ben Bezalel 1600s Isaiah Horowitz Abraham Azulai 1700s Chaim ibn Attar Baal Shem Tov Dov Ber of Mezeritch Moshe Chaim Luzzatto Shalom Sharabi Vilna Gaon Chaim Joseph David Azulai Nathan Adler Schneur Zalman of Liadi Chaim Volozhin 1800s Nachman of Breslov Ben Ish Chai Shlomo Eliyashiv 1900s Abraham Isaac Kook Yehuda Ashlag Baba Sali Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Role History Torah Tanakh Prophecy Ruach HaKodesh Pardes exegesis Talmudical hermeneutics Midrash Jewish commentaries on the Bible Oral Torah Eras of Rabbinic Judaism Generational descent in Halacha Generational ascent in Kabbalah Rabbinic literature Talmudic theology Halakha Aggadah Hakira Classic Mussar literature Ashkenazi Judaism Sephardi Judaism Modern Jewish philosophies Jewish studies Topics God in Judaism Divine transcendence Divine immanence Free will Divine providence Kabbalistic reasons for the 613 Mitzvot Jewish principles of faith Jewish eschatology Primary texts

Part of a series on
Judaism
Movements Orthodox Haredi Hasidic Modern Conservative Reform Karaite Reconstructionist Renewal Humanistic Haymanot
Philosophy Principles of faith Kabbalah Messiah Ethics Chosenness God Names Musar movement
Texts Tanakh Torah Nevi'im Ketuvim Ḥumash Siddur Piyutim Zohar Rabbinic Mishnah Talmud Midrash Tosefta
Law Mishneh Torah Tur Shulchan Aruch Mishnah Berurah Aruch HaShulchan Kashrut Tzniut Tzedakah Niddah Noahide laws
Holy cities / places Jerusalem Safed Hebron Tiberias Synagogue Beth midrash Mikveh Sukkah Chevra kadisha Holy Temple Tabernacle
Important figures Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses Aaron David Solomon Sarah Rebecca Rachel Leah Rabbinic sages Chazal Tannaim Amoraim Savoraim Geonim Rishonim Acharonim
Religious roles Rabbi Rebbe Posek Hazzan Dayan Rosh yeshiva Mohel Kohen
Culture and education Brit Pidyon haben Bar and Bat Mitzvah Marriage Bereavement Yeshiva Kolel Cheder
Ritual objects Sefer Torah Tallit Tefillin Tzitzit Kippah Mezuzah Menorah Shofar Four species Etrog Lulav Hadass Arava Kittel Gartel
Prayers Shema (Sh'ma) Amidah Aleinu Kaddish Minyan Birkat Hamazon Shehecheyanu Hallel Havdalah Tachanun Kol Nidre Selichot (S'lichot)
Major holidays Rosh Hashana Yom Kippur Sukkot Pesach Shavuot Purim Hanukkah
Other religions Judaism and Christianity Hinduism Islam Mormonism Samaritanism Abrahamic religions Judeo-Christian Pluralism
Related topics Jews Zionism Israel Criticism Antisemitism Anti-Judaism Holocaust theology Music Jesus Muhammad

Kabbalism posits that the human soul has three elements, the nephesh, ru'ach, and neshamah.

Definitions

Kabbalah

Joseph Dan says the definition of Kabbalah varies with time and place. Generally it means "that which has been received", and refers to the oral tradition received from Moses which has been passed on and received by subsequent generations. Dan asserts Kabbalah does not refer to a particular kind of content or individual experience, but instead describes the origin of the tradition and the manner of its transmission. Psychologist and mystic Gabriella Samuel, on the other hand, asserts that Kabbalah is individual and experiential, and that its content is Jewish mysticism. The meticulous secular twentieth century historian Gershom Scholem revolutionized the perception of Judaism by showing that kabbalic mysticism is not only what originally created Jewish tradition, but also that it still "lies at the heart" of mainstream Judaism.

Scholem identified three streams within Kabbalah. The first is the theosophical school sometimes referred to as Kabbalah iyunit or speculative Kabbalah where practitioners emphasise the study of text and theurgical operations. The second current is the meditative group sometimes credited as ecstatic or prophetic Kabbalah. This trend is championed by Abraham Abulafia (1239-ca.1291), the founder of ecstatic Kabbalah, who emphasised the use of shemot or divine names in his intense mind-altering meditations. The third category is the school of kabbalistic magic, also known as Kabbalah ma’asit or practical Kabbalah, where practitioners utilised objects, texts and incantations in order to produce magical effects...these three classifications are by no means mutually exclusive.

According to Joseph Dan, the Kabbalah has two themes: the first includes both "the secret of Genesis" (concerning God's withdrawal from the universe to make it different and independent) and the "secret of merkavah" (the detailed description of the sefirot) that Dan calls "a dynamic myth, unifying theogony, cosmogony, and cosmology into one myth." The second theme takes this view of the divine and unifies it with traditional Jewish practices, rituals and ethical norms. The worldview of the Kabbalism of Zohar sees everything as a reflection of everything else, and the physical world as paralleling the divine world.

Ruach

Ruach literally means 'spirit' or 'wind'," and in the kabbalistic view, Ruach is what provides the animation of life itself. It is used when talking about God's creative activity and is also used when referring to the animation of any living creature. Often, when the Torah (Hebrew Bible) talks about the “Spirit of the Lord” or the “Spirit of God,” the word for “Spirit” is Ruach. "Its first use in the Bible is in Genesis 1:2: “The Spirit of God [Ruach Elohim] was hovering over the waters”. In Genesis 6:17 ruach is translated “breath of life.” Genesis 8:1 uses ruach to describe the “wind” God sent over the earth to recede the Flood waters". Altogether, the word ruach is found almost 400 times in the Torah. Ruach is commonly used in passages referring to the Holy Spirit. Ruach Elohim or Ruach-El refer to the spirit of God which is God Himself; Ruach Adonai means spirit of the Lord; Ruach Hakodesh refers to the Holy Spirit, or the "spirit of holiness" (רוח הקודש) that makes embracing the divine, and prophecy, possible.

When ruach is used to mean spirit, but not the spirit of God, it is most often referring to the human spirit or soul. Gabriella Samuel traces the meaning of the religious term using the biblical sources. She asserts that the Book of Genesis has five Hebrew terms for the English word soul, and that Ruach is one of those terms; according to Samuel, Ruach means "the breath of life that God breathed into Adam" that animated his life; it thereafter refers to the emotional and aesthetic aspects of human nature. In Kabbalah, the Ruach imparts the divine image to man indicating that people possess reason, will, and conscience.

Leonora Leet writes that the Kabbalah of Jewish mysticism and psychological healing intersect in the medieval writings of Zohar who presents a theory of three levels of the soul, with the mid-level called Ruach.

En Sof

The En Sof is a Kabbalistic view of God as the Endless or Boundless One. This concept of God indicates God cannot be assigned attributes because he is by nature undeterminable.

Sefirot

The Kabbalah explains that being boundless means God cannot make himself known directly to finite beings, so he has revealed himself through the sephirot: the 10 emanations of God (En Sof). These are not to be confused with attributes.

Parts of the soul

Further information: Soul § Judaism

Lurianic writings, taking concepts from the medieval Zohar, describe the soul as having three parts. This tripartite division is similar to the ancient Greek philosophies of Plato and Aristotle.

• Nephesh (נפש): In Kabbalah, the nephesh is the lower part, or "animal part", of the soul that is connected at birth to the body. It is seen as the source of one's basic physical and psychological nature, and is linked to the bodily and psychological functions associated with survival, such as "the autonomic nervous system, reflexes, and reactive patterns". Contemporary psychologists and Kabbalah scholars compare this aspect of the soul with the id in Freudian theory and the instinctive unconscious and the Jungian shadow in Jungian theory.

• Ruach (רוח): the middle soul, is generally considered to be the human faculty of self-awareness or self-consciousness. In Jungian terms, it is associated with the Self, rather than the persona, or personality. "Ruach, or the "heart" in this Kabbalistic concept, is the power of the will". It functions as a bridge between the other parts of the soul, providing higher values to the lower nature and ground for the higher. It contains the moral virtues and the emotive and aesthetic aspects of human nature and is also sometimes further subdivided into the various components of self-awareness, such as desire, imagination, and intellect.

• Neshamah (נשמה): the higher soul, or "super-soul", is said to be the highest part of the soul and is even sometimes considered to be the soul itself. It is said to be that which allows human awareness of God. In Jungian terms it is similar to the aspect of the psyche Jung describes as a spiritual or intuitive consciousness that guides humans to seek the divine. The Jungian collective unconscious is also sometimes associated with the highest aspects of the neshamah.

These concepts can be seen as images and symbols representing the psycho-spiritual constitution of human beings.

Sefirot and the Tree of life

Main article: Tree of life (Kabbalah)

See also: Tzimtzum § Inherent paradox

A pattern inspired by the tree of life in a window in the Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam

The tree of life based on the depiction by Robert Fludd in the Deutsche Fotothek

Kabbalistic tradition holds that the world was created and is sustained by 10 emanations from God called the sefirot. The sefirot are represented in a diagram known as the Tree of life, with ten nodes descending in a linear progression, in three columns, and lines connecting them that symbolize their interactions. The Tree of Life symbolizes the nature of God and his relationship to the created world, seeing each individual human as a microcosm of that relationship. The right side of the tree corresponds to God’s masculine side, and the left to God's feminine side. The three parts of the human soul are attributed to different sefirot, though there is controversy concerning these attributions: different kabbalistic texts offer different and often contradictory interpretations.

Sanford L. Drob describes the sefirot as corresponding to the Jungian "archetypes of creation". They are described as being divine will at the top of the tree, with wisdom, intuition, and understanding directly below. Across from wisdom is power, which is also seen as justice or law. On down the tree are grace, which is unconditional love, and love which is represented through discipline; harmony, truth and compassion; the will to work; the Victory of overcoming and perseverance; the ability to establish relationships, and the culmination of them all in experience. These qualities are all represented in the sefirot.

The sefirot are also referred to as "Gates". In kabbalist tradition, the gates act as a bridge between the finite and the infinite making the divine knowable to humans. Implied in all the traditions of the Tree of Life is the idea that human beings want to reconnect to the divine and attain eternal life and that this can be accomplished by embodying the qualities of the symbolic Tree. There are five gates to the soul: speech, thought, emotion, intellect, and desire. Kabbalah teaches that connecting with the essence of one's soul connects with the essence of God and that the soul can be known through its ten attributes which mirrors Kabbalist teaching on the ten sefirot of God.

"Eternal soul"

Further information: Hyle

In Jewish Kabbalah there is the theory according to which God only existed before creation: God subsequently formed the light (Ohr), the potentiality for creation and finally forged the souls of living beings, moreover as well as giving existence to angelic creatures; according to this perspective, the eternal nature of the soul is an axiom that holds true as a "paradigm" of its celestial essence.

The "accidents" in the Guide of the perplexed

Maimonides admits that the link between soul and body entails what he calls "accidents": the life of the body in fact entails what is desirable and what is unnecessary; the same impurity of the decomposing body, as described both in the written Torah and in the Talmud, it seems to be due in fact to the previous link with the soul: every body of any deceased individual among human beings is impure... From this we deduce that life in its highest excellence and the physical-spiritual purity coincide perfectly. Obviously "accidents" are not related to impurity in all their cases, however an example among all attests to the truthfulness of what theorized by Maimónides according to sacred texts: "the manna did not produce feces", so transmitted indicates that it was of "celestial origin" and therefore not subject to "corruption".

It would not have sufficed to explain the need for man to die, i.e. return to the folds of the earth merely because that had been his origin. After all he had originated from earth before the sin and was not bound to return to it. Since man is made of dust, i.e. earth...

— Rabbi Chayim ben-Attar

The textual reference is Bereshit Rabbah: the name "Adam", the first man created on Earth, also derives from the Hebrew word Adamà which means precisely "earth", so according to the tradition Adam and Eve [in their bodies] it was also forged from the earth.

The letters of the Torah

The Kabbalah on the Hebrew alphabet suggests that the letters of the Torah are like souls and bodies. For example, the Hebrew letter Yodh, the simplest in shape, resembles a soul and often the Hebrew letter Vav is compared to the body, in fact it stands tall. Since these are two letters of the Tetragrammaton, the other letters are also almost built on these two and can thus be included in the aforementioned teaching.

Tzadikìm and Rashaìm

R.Shmuel ben Nahmani said from R.Yohanan: "These children of the Children of Seir: the Corites, the inhabitants of the World" (Genesis 36:20). Does this mean that all the other people their inhabitants of Heaven?! The people of the "Earth" means that the Corites were experts in science of agriculture and say: "This land is conducive to the planting of olives... and land of fig." And the Chivei? R.Pappa answered: "They will taste the earth..." (Genesis 3:14). R.Acha ben Yaakov said: "Chorì means they are free for their Land"

— Talmud

Midrash Rabba declares that bad-persons 'cringe' i.e. they cannot properly perceive the taste of food, without fully tasting, they do not "prove this"; in addition to the various characteristics that distinguish the Justs (the Tzadik and Tzadikim) and the wicked (the Rashaìm), are freedom and spiritual nature of soul.

Nachman of Breslov

However, David HaMeleh know what the exact moment of midnight was because of the harp hanging over his bed. As it is brought in the teachings of the Rebe Nachman, the harp took its power from the Torah, since David's harp had five strings, parallel to the Five Books of the Torah. And she awoke him from his sleep, so that he knew how to determine the exact time and point of Chatzot. Well, David is representative of Mashiach, who is constantly dedicated to the rectification of Jewish souls, "awakening them from sleep" through the aforementioned concept - through "the good points" he finds in each one. Mashiach also teaches each person how to do this for themselves, illuminating the person's heart so that they are always able to search and find "the good points within themselves". David-Mashiach constantly takes care of this to allow each person to "awaken from spiritual sleep and fall", so that he does not sink completely, has ve-shalom. And for the person who wants to find their good points, the most important thing is to determine when they are on the edge of falling, has ve-shalom. Precisely at that moment, Hashem will enlighten her with His Chesed

— Likutey Halakhot

The spiritual-sleeping is metaphor of not-perception of souls i.e. Nefesh, Ruach and Neshamah: with this Tikkun, the Jewish people can live his spiritual-nature at full-Kedushah of "spiritual-Ego".

The Thirteen Middot

Middot are rules, principles, maxims, or canons of interpretation. The thirteen are listed by Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha (second century C.E.) as an expansion of an earlier list by Hillel They resemble maxims used by US courts for interpreting federal statutes, and some have common law equivalents. There are also parallels between the 13 middot and Islamic law, Greek and Roman law, and Hinduism. "It is the particular glory of Judaism to have recognized the study of the law, in and of itself, as a mode of Divine worship".

Science and the Kabbalah

Boaz Huss sees contemporary interest in the Kabbalah as akin to New Age and other similar pseudo-scientific spiritual and religious revival movements of the modern day. Howard Smith writes that the Kabbalist tradition includes a view of cosmology and that kabbalistic teachings on the soul (Ruach) correlate with contemporary developmental psychology. According to Edward Zerin, "Almost alone in its formulation of a Jewish theology, Kabbalah has concerned itself with an exploration of the human Self... the Kabbalistic teachings [have] psychological implications..." Indeed, Leet references psychologist Carl Jung and his view of synchronicity when discussing the effects of transformative meditation on what she calls "the developmental stages of Ruach consciousness".

Jerome M. Levi demonstrates the presence of kabbalistic similarities with anthropological structuralism. Structuralism, in this use, refers to the type developed by anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss: "the systematic attempt to uncover deep universal mental structures as these manifest themselves in kinship and larger social structures, in literature, philosophy and mathematics, and in the unconscious psychological patterns that motivate human behavior". Kabbalah in this use is defined as "the diverse traditions in their entirety of myth, narrative, ritual, prayer, and study that go under this rubric, extending from antiquity to the present, including, in addition to classical texts, the Kabbalistic interpretations of Hasidim, secular academics, and New Age enthusiasts".

Levi says this particular modern social science and the ancient form of Jewish mysticism "share a number of epistemological and ontological postulates. These include, but are not limited to, the idea that surface diversity conceals an underlying unity, specifically truth is discoverable within a layered model of reality, and that space, time, and matter are characterized by entropy and fragmentation as revealed by similarities among modern physicists' cosmology of the big bang, Rabbi Isaac Luria's theory of creation, and Levi-Strauss's structural analysis of myth". Both Kabbalah and structuralism maintain that the work of interpreting the universe and world around us engages the inner workings of the human mind.

For Gershom Scholem, concepts which transcend language's ability to effectively describe them can still be understood through the kind of symbolism used in Kabbalah. Those ideas which can be represented in speech can convey and make use of those symbols through language. The symbols are important historical antecedents to psychoanalysis and remain a significant source for contemporary psychotherapists seeking to understand the manner in which the divisions within human nature interact.

Kabbalah and Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza read Door of Heaven, a version of Kabbalah based on Zohar, in adolescence, and the best Spinoza scholars link his philosophy with Kabbalah doctrine. Jewish scholar Sigmund Gelbhaus concluded: "What the Kabbalah presents in an allegorical-oriental form, Spinoza's Ethics teaches in a mathematical ontological manner".

See also

• Bittul
• Hasid
• Olam Ha-Ba
• Sefer Yetzirah
• Soul#Judaism
• Soul in the Bible

References

This article "Ruach (Kabbalah)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Ruach (Kabbalah). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

📰 Article(s) of the same category(ies)

• Kabbalah of Information

---