Ruach HaKodesh: What It Is and How the Sages Described Attaining It

The Hebrew phrase Ruach HaKodesh means “the Holy Spirit,” and it names a level of Divine inspiration that the Sages described as real, rare, and conditional. The tradition does not treat it as a mood or a talent. It treats it as a gift that follows a particular kind of life.

What it is

Ruach HaKodesh is distinct from nevuah (prophecy). Prophecy, in the classic account, is a direct and full revelation. Ruach HaKodesh is a lower level in which a person is given insight, understanding of hidden matters, or the ability to speak words that carry a deeper truth than he knows. The Torah’s writings, such as the books of Tehillim (Psalms), are said to have been composed with Ruach HaKodesh.

The Talmud teaches that after the death of the last prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel, and the Sages continued to use a bat kol (a heavenly voice) in its place (Sanhedrin 11a). This does not mean that the experience disappeared entirely. Many Sages are described as having had it in some measure, but the tradition treats it as unusual.

The ladder of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair

The clearest map of the path is a teaching in the Mishnah, at the close of Sotah (9:15), repeated in Avodah Zarah 20b. Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair teaches that Torah leads to zehirut (carefulness), carefulness to zerizut (eagerness), eagerness to nekiyut (cleanness), cleanness to perishut (separation from excess), separation to taharah (purity), purity to chasidut (piety), piety to anavah (humility), humility to yirat chet (fear of sin), fear of sin to kedushah (holiness), and holiness to Ruach HaKodesh. The ladder continues to the revival of the dead.

The order matters. Ruach HaKodesh is not the first step, and no technique replaces the steps below it. It is the result of a life that has been refined, step by step.

Joy as a condition

The Talmud adds a condition that is often forgotten: the Shechinah does not rest on a person through sadness or laziness, but through the joy of a mitzvah (Shabbat 30b, Pesachim 117a). The prophet Elisha, when he needed to prophesy, called for a musician, and when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him (Melachim II 3:15). The Sages used this to teach that the right state of mind is a precondition.

The Kabbalists on the subject

Rabbi Chaim Vital, the Arizal’s main student, preserved the Arizal’s teachings on the matter in Sha’ar Ruach HaKodesh (the Gate of the Holy Spirit), a collection of practices of repentance, concentration, and meditation aimed at preparing the soul. The Arizal himself is described by his students as having this level, and the text conveys that the emphasis is on purification, and on the effort to avoid sin and to live in joy.

A necessary caution

Claims to Ruach HaKodesh today should be weighed carefully. The tradition says that it is rare, and that a person who has it does not usually announce it. A teacher who says that he receives messages from Heaven should be examined by his conduct, his humility, and his loyalty to the Torah. Our article on how to recognize a real Mekubal covers this in more detail.

The lesson

The ladder is a practical guide even for someone who never reaches the top. It begins with Torah and carefulness and runs through purity, humility and fear of sin. The caution about preparation is also the subject of the article on the Four Who Entered the Pardes. See also The Spiritual Lives of Tzadikim and The Kabbalah of Psychic Power and Miracles.