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Offline kp  
#1 Posted : Wednesday, December 3, 2008 7:37:11 AM(UTC)
kp
Joined: 6/28/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1,030
Location: Palmyra, VA

Hi, folks. If you're interested, there's a new chapter available in The Owner's Manual, Volume II (What Maimonides Missed)... Chapter 12: "Learning From Experience." This was originally planned to be the final chapter of Volume II, but I've decided to go back through the Torah one more time and look for "Messianic Messages" that may have been skimmed over (or missed entirely). Enjoy.

kp
Offline Swalchy  
#2 Posted : Wednesday, December 3, 2008 8:56:57 AM(UTC)
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Direct Link for those too lazy to click three more links :)
Offline Matthew  
#3 Posted : Wednesday, December 3, 2008 9:05:25 AM(UTC)
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I'm in chapter 3, moving my way through quickly. Not long to go before I get there. Can't wait ;) Then I'll be re-reading the first TOM and FH again.
Offline Theophilus  
#4 Posted : Thursday, December 4, 2008 9:48:50 AM(UTC)
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Thanks: 4 times
Thank you Ken. I'm currently going through FH again now that the audio is up. While I've read TOM-1 more than once I have yet to read through TOM2 WMM in detail. I look forward to pouring through both volumes soon.

I very much appreicated the openning of chapter 12 "Learning From Experience" which addresses the role of choice in loving relationships. The subject has come up in some recent discussions and has consequently been much on my mind.



Offline Matthew  
#5 Posted : Thursday, December 4, 2008 12:27:28 PM(UTC)
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I just read the intro to the new chapter and I can't wait until I read it all. But I have one question: in Pslam 142 it mentions a number of times "my spirit grows faint," and "my spirit fails," so if we have a nephesh, a neshamah and the Ruach (with a capital R), what is the ruach with a small letter? We always say we have a soul and a conscience and that we must choose between God's Spirit and the spirit of the Evil One, but this phrase "my spirit" confuses me.
Offline kp  
#6 Posted : Thursday, December 4, 2008 6:32:16 PM(UTC)
kp
Joined: 6/28/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1,030
Location: Palmyra, VA

Ruach isn't only a technical term describing Yahweh's Spirit. It (as happens so often) is an ordinary Hebrew word that has been pressed into service to express an extraordinary concept. Strong's defines it like this: "1 wind, breath, mind, spirit. 1a breath. 1b wind. 1b1 of heaven. 1b2 quarter (of wind), side. 1b3 breath of air. 1b4 air, gas. 1b5 vain, empty thing. 1c spirit (as that which breathes quickly in animation or agitation). 1c1 spirit, animation, vivacity, vigour. 1c2 courage. 1c3 temper, anger. 1c4 impatience, patience. 1c5 spirit, disposition (as troubled, bitter, discontented). 1c6 disposition (of various kinds), unaccountable or uncontrollable impulse. 1c7 prophetic spirit. 1d spirit (of the living, breathing being in man and animals). 1d1 as gift, preserved by God, God’s spirit, departing at death, disembodied being. 1e spirit (as seat of emotion). 1e1 desire. 1e2 sorrow, trouble. 1f spirit. 1f1 as seat or organ of mental acts. 1f2 rarely of the will. 1f3 as seat especially of moral character. 1g spirit of God. 1g1 as inspiring ecstatic state of prophecy. 1g2 as impelling prophet to utter instruction or warning. 1g3 imparting warlike energy and executive and administrative power. 1g4 as endowing men with various gifts. 1g5 as energy of life. 1g6 ancient angel and later Shekinah."

The Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains defines it thus: "1. Spirit, i.e., the divine Power of God, which can be grieved, closely identified with the Lord himself (Ps 106:33; Isa 63:10); 2. spirit, mind, heart, i.e., the psychological faculty which can respond to God (2Ch 36:22); 3. breath, i.e., unit of air that comes from the lungs, as a normal sign of animate life, with an associative meaning of causation of an event (Ge 6:17); 4. wind, i.e., air in rapid movement, as a normal weather condition (Ge 8:1), note: in some contexts “wind” has an associative meaning of not having substance and so a vanity or emptiness; 5. side, i.e., an area at the side of an object (1Ch 9:24; Jer 52:23; Eze 42:16, 17, 18, 19, 20); 6. courage, i.e., a state of confidence in the face of danger or trouble (Jos 2:11; 5:1); 7. resentment, anger, i.e., a state of moderate displeasure over a situation or person (Jdg 8:3).

The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament gives us way more information that we really wanted: "
2131 *רִיַח (rı̂aḥ) smell, scent, accept. Literally “breathe an odor.” This denominative verb occurs only in the Hiphil.
Parent Noun
2131a רוַּח (rûaḥ) wind, breath, mind.
2131b רֵיַח (rêaḥ) scent, fragrance, aroma.
רוַּח (rûaḥ). Wind, breath, mind, spirit. This noun occurs 387 times in the ot, usually feminine. Although some derive it from rāwaḥ, “be spacious, be refreshed” (I Sam 16:23; Job 32:20; Hiphil, hērı̂aḥ “perceive by breathing an aeriform thing,” KB, p. 877, see below), it is best considered a primitive noun, related to an ayin-vowel root rûḥ, “to breathe” (BDB, p. 924); cf. rêaḥ “odor”; Ugaritic rḥ.
The basic idea of rûaḥ (Gr. pnema) is “air in motion,” from air which cannot come between a crocodile’s scales (Job 41:16 [H 8]) to the blast of a storm (Isa 25:4; Hab 1:11 ASV, RSV). The “four winds,” rûḥôt, describe the four quarters or four directions of the world (Jer 49:36; Ezk 37:9). In living beings the rûaḥ is their breath, whether of animals (Gen 7:15; Ps 104:25, 29), men (Isa 42:5; Ezk 37:5), or both (Gen 7:22–23); whether inhaled (Jer 2:24) or on the lips (Isa 11:4; cf. Job 9:18; contrast dead idols, Jer 10:14; 51:17). God creates it “The rûaḥ “spirit” [s] of God (from God) is in my nostrils” (Job 27:3).
The connotations of breath include power (I Kgs 10:5, where the Queen of Sheba had “no more” rûaḥ, i.e. she was “breathless,” overwhelmed), courage (Josh 2:11; 5:1, where the “spirit” of Israel’s enemies failed them), or value (Lam 4:20, where the Davidic king was “the breath of our nostrils,” or prized hope—a phrase borrowed from the common Egyptian tiĕn ndsn “the breath of their nose”). Yet false prophets become rûaḥ “wind” because they lack the word (Jer 5:13), the connotation being emptiness, the futility of “mere breath” (Job 7:7; Isa 41:29). As a rush of air, a snort through one’s nose, rûaḥ depicts emotions of aggressiveness (Isa 25:4) or anger (Jud 8:3; Prov 29:11, ASV, RSV). Ultimately breath signifies activity and life. One’s “spirit” is consumed when he is sick or faint (Job 17:1), but it comes back as a “second wind” and he “revives” (Jud 15:19; I Sam 30:12; cf. Gen 45:27). In God’s hand is the breath, rûaḥ, of all mankind (Job 12:10; Isa 42:5). So Genesis 6:3 is best rendered, with the RSV, as “my spirit (the breath of life, from God) shall not abide [following LXX] in man forever, for he is flesh (mortal), but his days (until the deluge) shall be a hundred and twenty years” (cf. Job 34:14–15). Yet the word rûḥı̂ elsewhere, when spoken by God, means “my spirit,” and the word rendered “abide” is much debated. E. Speiser argues for “shall not answer for man” or “shall not protect man” JBL 75:126–29.
The unique feature of human life is not, however, the physical but the spiritual, i.e. the mental and personal. The “breath” of man was bestowed by a special creative act of God (Gen 2:7; contrast the beasts in 1:24). But it is his inner being that reflects the image of God, formed by the counsel of the Trinity (“us,” 1:26) and sovereign over all other living things (2:20). Biblical Hebrew therefore speaks of things that come into your mind, i.e. rûaḥ (Ezk 11:5; 20:32). Daniel’s Aramaic refers likewise to Nebuchadrezzar’s mind (ASV, spirit) being hardened (Dan 5:20). Even the physically oriented verb rı̂aḥ “to smell” (Gen 27:27), assumes figurative con notations. A thread is consumed when it “touches” (ASV, smelleth, Jud 16:9) the fire. It may also assume connotations of mental awareness, i.e. God will “accept” (ASV marg., smell, I Sam 26:19) a sacrifice. The goal, indeed, of ot sacrifice, to be a rêaḥ han-nı̂ḥōah “sweet savor,” a soothing aroma to God (Gen 8:21 NASB), points by symbol and type to the idea of the propitiating atonement through Christ. The noun rûaḥ, further, depicts disposition of mind or attitude’. Caleb’s spirit was different from that of his faithless colleagues (Num 14:24; cf. Sennacherib’s spirit, i.e. resolve in II Kgs 19:7 ASV). A person’s rûaḥ may be sad (I Kgs 21:5), overwhelmed (Ps 77:3 [H 4]), or contrite (Isa 57:15). It can be “cool” (restrained, Prov 17:27), jealous (Num 5:14), and either patient or proud (Eccl 7:8). People may be marked by a spirit of wisdom (Deut 34:9) or whoredom (Hos 4:12).
rûaḥ comes finally to denote the entire immaterial consciousness of man: “With my spirit within me I will seek you earnestly” (Isa ’26:9); a wise man “rules his spirit” (Prov 16:32; cf. Dan 5:20), and “in his spirit there is no guile” (Ps 32:2). While the ot generally treats man as a whole (see nepeš “soul,” often rendered simply as “self”), it also recognizes his essential dualism (A. B. Davidson, The Theology of the OT, p. 202). Flesh and spirit combine to form the “self,” so that while man may be said to have a rûaḥ. he is a nepeš (yet he is sometimes said to possess a nepeš, which departs from his body at death). The rûaḥ is contained with its bodily nidneh “sheath” (Dan 7:15, Aramaic; cf. Zech 12:1). At death the body returns to dust, but the immortal spirit returns to God who gave it (Gen 3:19; Eccl 12:7). In this regard rûaḥ and nepeš, here meaning distinctly “soul,” tend to overlap (Job 7:1 l; Isa 26:9; cf. Ex 6:9 with Num 21:4; RTWB, p. 234). This differs from liberal theology, which tends to limit rûaḥ to an impersonal vital power that becomes individualized only in the nepeš. Thus it claims that the soul cannot exist independently of the body, i.e. that when the rûaḥ or “power” departs (Eccl 12:7), the person ceases to exist (L. Kohler, Old Testament Theology, p. 145, opposed by Davidson, op.cit., pp. 200–201). Yet both nepeš and rûaḥ may leave the body at death and exist in a state separate from it (Gen 35:18; Ps 86:13; cf. I Kgs 17:22 on the rare case of a soul’s return to its body).
On a higher plane, rûaḥ may then designate a supernatural, angelic being, “a spirit from God” (I Sam 16:23, NASB). The function may be revelatory (Job 4:16[?]; cf. Zech 1:9, 19 [H 1:9; 2:2], mal˒āk, q.v). Or, appropriately, God might have his angels serve as rûḥôt “winds” (Ps 104:4, not “spirits”; Heb 1:7) or fire (cf. I Kgs 19:11–12). Satan is “the great, accusing spirit” (I Kgs 22:21). Other evil spirits could fall upon men, as decreed by God (I Sam 16:14; 18:10; 19:9).
The preeminent example of spiritual personality is God (Isa 31:3). rûaḥ can exhibit a range of meaning. The “breath” of God may be a strong wind (Isa 40:7; 59:19; cf. Num 11:31). His “spirit” may indicate no more than active power or mood (Isa 40:13, “Who hath directed the spirit [intention] of the Lord’?” or, “who has known the mind [intention] of the Lord,” so LXX and I Cor 2:16). At most points, however, context approves and the analogy of the nt strongly suggests that the rûaḥ YHWH is the Holy Spirit, “in the fullest Christian sense” (A. F. Kirkpat-rick, Cambridge Bible, Psalms, II, p. 293). From the outset God’s rûaḥ moves upon the primeval waters (Gen 1:2), “like a hypostasis or person” (H. Schultz, Old Testament, II, p. 184); cf. his guiding presence, separate from that of both Yahweh and Moses, which the Lord “placed” upon the elders in the wilderness (Num 11:17, 25). David first designated him “Holy Spirit” (Ps 51:11 [H 13]; cf. Isa 63:10–11), and Isaiah, whether thinking of him as his own inspirer or as a fellow speaker, assumes his distinct personality when he says, quoting the Messiah, “The Lord hath sent me and his Spirit” (48:16).
The work of God’s Spirit may be cosmic, whether in creation (Job 26:13) or in continuing providence (Job 33:4; Ps 104:30); redemptive, in regeneration (Ezk 11:19; 36:26–27); indwelling, to uphold and guide the believer (Neh 9:20; Ps 143:10; Hag 2:5); or infilling, for leadership (Num 11:25; Jud 6:34; I Sam 16:13), service (Num 11:17; Mic 3:8; Zech 7:12), or future empowering of the Messiah (Isa 11:2; 42:1; 61:1) and his people (Joel 2:28 [H 3:1]; Isa 32:15).

So basically, "ruach" is all of that stuff as defined above, but capitalized, "Ruach," it is a particular divine expression or manifestation of the word---the Spirit of God.

kp
Offline bitnet  
#7 Posted : Thursday, December 4, 2008 11:19:00 PM(UTC)
bitnet
Joined: 7/3/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1,120

Shalom,

Thanks for the new chapter, KP! I'll wait for the audio versions as well so that I can download it for my friend whose eyesight has worsened since he met with the eye surgeon. :-p
The reverence of Yahweh is the beginning of Wisdom.
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