The Connection Between Breathing and The Soul
Not only in Hebrew, but in latin we see the words Spirit and Breath are connected through the word, Spīro (to breathe), also Spiritus. We can clearly see the etymological root to the word respiratory.
In Hebrew, the word Ruach (רוּחַ) means wind, spirit, or even breath. In the opening passages of Genesis, we read:
והארץ היתה תהו ובהו וחשך על־פני תהום ורוח אלהים מרחפת על־פני המים
the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from G_D sweeping over the water— Genesis 1:2
An academic translation renders the word as 'wind', though Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhak (Rashi) tells us, here, Ruach is a reference to the Spirit of G_D.
Not only in Hebrew, but in latin we see the words Spirit and Breath are connected through the word, Spīro (to breathe), also Spiritus. We can clearly see the etymological root to the word respiratory.
If you have read the article about the levels of the soul, you'll remember that the Ruach is also the level of the human soul that corresponds to our emotional center, aka, the heart.
Genesis tells us that human life was given through the breathe of the Creator. Elaborating upon this imagery, the Zohar depicts the Ruach as the breath that is blown through a glassblower's tube, into a body¹. Therefore, the Ruach is a kind of dynamic and active conduit, bridging the lower level of our soul to the higher.
This reveals a deep and ancient connection between spirituality and breathing. Perhaps this is why meditation is one of the most-common, and oldest practices to enter altered states of consciousness.
