28. Bereshit — Abarbanel on the Torah, Section 28

On Direction, Presence, and the Meaning of Ruach

Previous section → Darkness as Privation, Not Substance

“Turn toward me and be gracious to me”; “From before You my judgment shall go forth”; “other gods before Me”; “he is fleeing from before the Lord”; “the face of the Lord is against them”—all these expressions denote providence or attentive regard. Likewise, when applied to a human being in the sense of attending to his affairs, as in: “I have cleared out the house,” and “prepare the way of the Lord,”¹ all these are expressions of attention or directed concern, which is designated by the term panim, since a person directs his face and attention toward what he wishes to consider.

According to the second extension, the term panim is used to denote priority or precedence, just as the face is foremost in the body. Thus: “of old You laid the foundations of the earth”; “for the day of the Lord has come”—that is, prior to it. Likewise: “because the Lord descended upon it in fire,”² meaning: on account of what had occurred previously, namely that the Lord had descended upon it in fire.

According to the third extension, the term panim is used to designate the most distinguished or noble part, just as the face is the most distinguished of a person’s limbs. In this sense it is said: “the inner house and its inner chambers,” “the king’s daughter is all glorious within.” In my view, this is also the meaning of “the Temple before the Lord,” “you cannot see My face,” and “My face shall not be seen.”³

We need not say, as the author of the Kuzari did, that the term panim is a designation of the Divine Name itself. He was led to this by the verse “My face shall not be seen,” but this is not correct. For the Divine Name is not applied metaphorically to anything else. Rather, “My face shall not be seen” should be understood according to this third extension: it refers to the most exalted aspects of the Divine, which a human being cannot apprehend—whether this be the Divine essence, as held by the author of the Guide, or His essential attributes, as held by Rabbi Chasdai.

According to the fourth extension, the term panim denotes the most exposed or visible part of a thing. Thus: “upon the face of the earth,” “upon the face of the firmament of the heavens,” “toward the face of the menorah,” “before the sun his name shall endure”—that is, before what is openly visible of the sun. Similarly: “they are crushed before the worms,” which refers to the visible constellation (‘Ash, as in ‘Oseh ‘Ash, Kesil ve-Kimah)⁴.

From this same usage it is said in the Scroll: “it was written on the front and on the back,” and “it is better to sit on the corner of a roof,”⁵ for the “face” of the scroll or of the roof refers to its exposed surface.

In this sense also Scripture says: “upon the face of the deep,” “upon the face of the waters,” meaning the most visible and upper surface of them.

This, then, is the true meaning of the term panim, in its primary sense and in its extended usages.

Explanation of the word ruach (“spirit” / “wind”)

With regard to the term ruach (Genesis 1:2), the author of the Guide also expounded at length on its various meanings in Part I, chapter 40, where he enumerated six distinct usages.

First, he states that it is used to denote the element of air, as in: “and the spirit of God hovered” (Genesis 1:2).
Second, it refers to a moving wind, as in: “and the east wind carried the locusts” (Exodus 10:13–14).
Third, it denotes the vital spirit, as in: “a wind that passes and does not return” (Psalms 78:39).
Fourth, it refers to the human soul that remains after death, as in: “and the spirit shall return to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
Fifth, it denotes the divine influx that comes upon the prophets, as in: “and the spirit rested upon them” (Numbers 11:25).
And sixth, it signifies will or intention, as in: “a fool vents all his spirit,” and: “who has measured the spirit of the Lord?” (Isaiah 40:13).

Such is, in general, his view and his classification of the term.

However, after asking forgiveness and permission—as a student speaking before his master—it seems to me that he has here transgressed the principle of “you shall not add to it nor diminish from it.”⁶ For he has included meanings that are not supported by the true sense of the verses, while omitting others that are indeed valid.

To explain: the first meaning he assigns to ruach, namely that it refers to the element of air, is neither correct nor sound. For the simple element of air is nowhere in Scripture called ruach, as I have already explained above.

Moreover, the sages of the nations⁷ have taught that the Torah does not speak about the natural world in terms that would depend on debated or uncertain theories. Thus, it does not explicitly mention the simple element of fire, since many of the ancients considered it merely a part of air. Likewise, the Torah does not mention the simple element of air at all. Even when speaking of birds in flight, it says “upon the face of the firmament of the heavens,” (Genesis 1:20) and not “in the air,” because air is not perceptible, and many of the ancients held that it did not exist but was mere emptiness. The divine Torah did not come to decide such philosophical disputes.

If, therefore, Scripture nowhere explicitly mentions the simple element of air, how can we interpret “and the spirit of God hovered” as referring to air?

Furthermore, according to his own view, the “waters” mentioned in that verse include both the upper and the lower waters, since the firmament had not yet been made to separate between them. As he himself explains in Part II, chapter 30, the waters in this verse are not the same as those later gathered into the seas, but include the upper waters as well.

If we were to interpret ruach Elohim as air, it would follow that the element of air was positioned above the celestial bodies—which he calls “waters”—and this is false.

All this demonstrates that the first meaning he assigned to ruach has no foundation.

Next section →