Ruach (Kabbalah)

At the time when the Holy One, blessed be He, sends the neshamah from its Holy place, He blesses it... As it is written: "Hashem said to Abram" - [Abraham] is the Neshamah. What does God say to the Neshamah? "Go for yourself from your land, from your birthplace and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you" ... the question asked of the Neshamah by the body's limbs: "What is your land? ...and from where do you come? ...and of what people are you? ...What is your trade?" He (God) meant that He would show what to do[2]

— Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Zohar

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.

And there is no wisdom without growing wise, consideration and great negotiation in the thought of the learning Nefesh. If so, when the kabbalists do not think with their wisdom the thought of their Neshamah, they do not grow wiser... Behold, the heart understands! There is brain: wisdom; there is heart: intellect; liver: knowledge. These three have souls in them... All of them: behold, these are the three source of the body[3]

A common way of explaining the three parts of the soul[4] is as follows:

• Nefesh (נפש): the lower part, or "animal part", of the soul. It is linked to instincts and bodily cravings. This part of the soul is provided at birth. (primary place: liver) The Chassidut teaches that it is possible to make holy even daily habits, such as eating and working.
• Ruach (רוח): the middle soul, the "spirit". It contains the moral virtues and the ability to distinguish between good and evil. (primary place: heart) “Knowing heart”— a heart that knows that whatever happens in the world comes from God.[5]
• Neshamah (נשמה): the higher soul, or "super-soul". This separates man from all other life-forms. It is related to the intellect and allows man to enjoy and benefit from the afterlife. It allows one to have some awareness of the existence and presence of God. (primary place: brain) The initiation for the Kohen Gadol Aaron occurred in fact starting from the head.[6]

There are three "Neshamot" in them: Nefesh in NHY (Netzach, Hod, Yessod), Ruach in HGT (Hessed, Ghevurah, Tiferet), and Neshamah in HBD (Hokhmah, Binah, Da'at)[7]

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.

With all your heart and with all your soul[8] Only with the knowledge that one possesses, and according to that knowledge God will be love: if it is little, love will be scarce; if it is much, it will be abundant

— Rambam, Mishneh Torah

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:

But I chose your soul, not because of what it was, but because of what it could become. It possessed all that you need to fulfill your holy mission in this world

— Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov

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":

Consider that a person, and corrispondingly the world, has three domains: guf (body, materiality), nephesh and shechel hanivdal (life of spiritual stage); Hashem ceded guf to Esav and shechel hanivdal to Yaakov... The answer is that both Brothers wanted both Worlds[9]

Ruach HaKodesh is one of levels of prophecy; the Way of Middot[10] 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:

This is the best Way: at first the abundance is scarce but later it increases, rises and bestows the Ruach HaKodesh upon the man. It bestows upon him a better abundance and as it increases it bestows upon him the Ruach of Prophecy[11]

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.

David will reverse that and lend support to Israel through his Ruach haKodesh, Divine inspiration.... “God supports all that fall (Nofelim)”[12]

— Rabbi Yaakov Ibn Chaviv

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.

For, as is known from the sacred Zohar37 the Shekhinah is called nefesh (“Soul”), because it is our life and our soul,

וכתיב: כי שחה לעפר נפשנו

as in the phrase,38 “Our Soul is stooped to the dust,” which alludes to the descent of the Shekhinah into exile.

ולכן אמרו רז״ל: גדולה צדקה שמקרבת את הגאולה

And that is why our Sages, of blessed memory, said,39 “Great is charity, for it brings the Redemption near,”

להקימה מעפר מעט מעט

by raising [the Shekhinah] from the dust by gradual stages with every act of tzedakah

עד כי יבא שילה

“until40 Shiloh will come”41 — i.e., until Mashiach comes,42 at which time the Shekhinah will be reinstated to its pristine height[13]

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.

Each person sorry for the transgressions of the past and to be inscribed in the Book of Life during a year of health, and work for them and their families

— Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov

In the Tefillot of Rosh Hashanah[19] and Yom Kippur[20] the Book of Life is often mentioned, as part of it. The Jewish tradition, already in the Deuteronomy, "I put before you life and death, blessing and curse...", instructs each Jew to maintain the precepts and vigilance necessary to avoid errors and evil. This "root" is promoted by consciousness in faith and holy, spiritual life as much as pragmactically.

One of the first roles that Baal Teshuvah perceives, as absolutely necessary and in itself, precisely for the jewish-identity, is that in the study of the Torah is an integral part of existence, which is that it is his own life: that in addition to source one of blessing in the study of the Torah is every moment, every encounter, every situation lived where faith in the consciousness of the Shekhinah makes it a continuous support.

The Maharal of Prague explained that the Tzadik can be with "living water": the water of a spring continues to flow as the spiritual life of a Tzadik is continuous; Maharal says Avraham executes the Teshuvah and is the term of passage between the 2000 years of Caos and 2000 years of Torah; also, called "source of living water" and so for the first time mainly by Avraham... Then followed the 2000 are years of redemption.

Life is obviously the Torah and the precepts of faith in God, pureness and truth are recognized in an inescapable way. The Jewish people this linked to spiritual life also through Jewish prayer indeed in Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: by the seal in the Book of Life:

David (King of Israel): did you really think he was pious? He did not say, "I would not have believed that you will once see God's good reward in the World of the Living"?[21]... David said to God, Holy and Blessed, "Master of the universe, I am sure you will pay with a good reward for the Tzadikim of [the world] but I do not know if I will have a role." The answer: "You really have a good pious man..." "...but I fear that a small sin will make him lost his reward." (R.Yaakov b.Idi) A verse: "I'm with you." "You protected wherever you go!"

— Talmud

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