What's in a Name?

Why "Ruach"?

What is it that was there "in the beginning" -- hovering over the abysmal waters of chaos?

What blew from the East to divide the waters so that Moses could lead his people through the sea?

What is it that filled Bezalel to manifest the vision of the Tabernacle in precious stones and wood and every kind of craft?

What fills the nostrils of all humankind?

A term that gets translated

SPIRIT WIND BREATH

and even MIND in some places. It shows up nearly 400 times in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Ruach (elsewhere transliterated as ruah or ruakh).

You have to clear your throat to pronounce the ending consonant sound, which seems fitting.

Why such variety in translation?

I don't think it's much of a stretch to see that these concepts are closely linked.

There seems to be some animating force - unseen, but felt, and observed in its effects - behind everything we experience, including our own individual existence. All day, we engage in a mostly unconscious process that is absolutely essential for life. We can consciously manipulate this process to facilitate cognitive/emotional states. And our speech, which is to say our breath, is an extension of our consciousness - even more so than written communication, for obvious reasons.

(The same nuance and versatility characterizes the Greek pneuma in the Christian "New Testament", which also appears there close to 400 times.)

It is worth noting too that these and other ancient texts were first written using consonants only - symbols which signal the obstruction of air when spoken.

In this way, the written words are in a sense inert until given breath, spoken aloud; which is the primary way the average person would have encountered the works anyway, for much of history. Even those who could read on their own would do so out loud.

I offer my breath-spirit to animate civilization's greatest works, some of which I believe are already inspired by that which brooded over the waters and brought Logos to the chaos.