Ruach (Kabbalah)


The Kabbalah posits that the human soul has three elements, the nefesh, ru'ach, and neshamah.

Meaning: the souls and the body

The nefesh is found in all humans, and enters the physical body at birth. It is the source of one's physical and psychological nature. The next two parts of the soul are not implanted at birth, but can be developed over time; their development depends on the actions and beliefs of the individual. They are said to only fully exist in people awakened spiritually.
A common way of explaining the three parts of the soul is as follows:
According to Ramchal and Arizal, God is the "First Cause" for life of the souls: the spiritual force or quantity and quality of the souls are performed by divine grace and light.

Mode and quality: good and peace

One of the ways of the soul is the good. Just as the goodness of human beings derives from the good, we can also say that love is the decisive consequence. In fact, Maimonides affirms that God supports with the good the one who loves the Torah and the Mitzvot with faith for the Tzaddikim and therefore for God. From this we deduce therefore that the good, the goodness and the love are different levels of same source: the peace.
The Zohar admits, however, that all souls are in any case spread throughout the body, so it is easy to deduce their main faculties are the good, the life and the other modalities of Sefirot:
The Hebrew Bible tells of the pact of peace between God and the Jewish people, this is possible with the messianic era already prophecy for Elijah: "goodness has arrived in the world, peace has arrived in the world, redemption has come to the world". As is already known in Jewish philosophy but not only, peace is both a "cosmic condition" and an inner and collective way, it is therefore the quality of the soul; considering therefore that the soul and the body are close in a bond of life, the principle of the perception of peace is acceptable. This theory allows us to believe and have faith also in the Gemilut Hasidim and in the theological process of "reward in Olam Haba":

Ruach haKodesh: the holy spirit

is one of levels of prophecy; the Way of Middot can direct to Ruach HaKodesh with the Sefirot of Khokhmah, Binah and Da'at. Ruach HaKodesh is also the misure of peace, meditation and speaking:
Having established the bond of the soul-body foundation, Kabbalah goes further: the four mineral, vegetable, animal and human realms exist; Jewish theology teaches that when the body presents an imbalance between these, it has negative consequences as much as the soul. On the other hand, when the soul does not adhere to the supernal realms, for example through faith in God then through prayer and the study of the Torah, it is lacking in vigor thus causing deficiencies in the body as well. In the same way this can be compared in concordance with the theory of Four elements. Therefore there are many temperaments, including equally numerous even among balanced ones.
A decrease in the strength of the soul and its presence or not in the same individual at different times other than death, is absolutely not foreign to Jewish mysticism; in addition to the super-soul of the Shabbat, to the spiritual elevation with the other Jewish festival or with wedding and in the course of existence in this world, it is a concept also present in the scriptures: for example in the Tehillim 51,12 King David reports the request to God so that he can create in him "a pure heart by renewing a permanent Ruach". In addition to indicating the various vicissitudes or difficulties of spiritual existence - Jewish theology on the seven falls of Tzadik is well known - this reveals the importance of transforming itself better and better by increasing in wisdom and in the bond with God, the Torah and the rest of the Jewish people.

Kabbalah

Shekhnah could have been seen by all persons in Jewish people but Moses and Aaron had had this merit also for other Jewish brothers: a cause of revelation of Shiloh the Mashiach, all people will see the Glory of God.

Chassidut

The Tzaddik is precisely the Mashiach: he, thanks to the revelation of the divine presence, allows all the Jewish people to approach spiritual experience with greater ease; therefore the soul of the Jews "dresses" in Mitzvot and Torah, of which the Tzaddik is the undisputed guide. Any Jew who wants to rise by strengthening his soul, if he feels the need, will be able to establish a bond with Tzaddik and therefore will be able to strengthen faith in God.
The soul can therefore ennoble and elevate the body, even during existence in this world. Without reaching high levels of faith and devotion, the body would remain "ignorant" about the soul's faculties; what does this mean? Thanks to true faith, devout persons can reach the perception of their own soul, through the knowledge of good, mercy, goodness and peace precisely within themselves. These values of the soul can "auto-reveal" by growing and increasing in quantity and quality only in a life dedicated to Avodah for God.
In the Kabbalah of the Chassidut the soul is compared to oil: the oil in the water is not confused with it, so is the spiritual nature with excellent essence cannot and must not be degraded, instead of maintaining its own Kedushah.

Jewish philosophy

As can be found in Gabirol, finally God created the different creatures of the world in addition to the different species and the various elements present here, with "pre-ordered" specificities: this means that the most "internal" peculiar nature of everything is revealed also externally, as can therefore be verified through the senses; so also human beings have different characteristics besides the nature of their bodies, we would even say of the "substance of their bodies" was determined with reference to their essence precisely: that is the soul.

"Eternal soul"

In Jewish Kabbalah there is the theory according to which God only existed before creation: God subsequently formed the light, 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".
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 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 YOD, the simplest in shape, resembles a soul and often the Hebrew letter VAV is compared to the body, in fact it stands tall; on the other hand, since these are two letters of the Divine Tetragrammaton, the other letters are also almost built on these two and can thus be included in the aforementioned teaching.