Day 33 of 75 · The Beatitude roots
R-W-Ḥ
ruḥa: Ruha
רוחא
ܪܽܘܚܳܐ
The feel
Ruḥa is moving air: breath in your body, wind over water, spirit, one word without a seam. You cannot grasp it, yet you feel it move. In Aramaic it is feminine: divine Ruḥa is she, while an unclean ruḥa remains an unclean spirit, it.
The root family
| Form | Pattern | Transliteration | Script | Standard | Qala rendering |
|---|
| ruḥa | noun | ruḥa | רוחא ܪܽܘܚܳܐ | wind; breath; spirit | wind / breath, and, for the divine, Ruha (untranslated) |
| ruḥa d-qudsha | noun + construct | ruḥa d-qudsha | רוחא דקודשא ܪܘܚܐ ܕܩܘܕܫܐ | the Holy Spirit | the Sacred Ruha |
Paradigm forms are a teaching scaffold from standard Aramaic grammar; corpus-attested words above are drawn from the glossary.
The verb stems
| Stem | Form | Sense |
|---|
| Pʿal (simple) | — | not attested in this corpus: in the Gospels this root lives in the noun ruḥa |
| Ethpʿel (simple passive) | — | not attested |
| Paʿʿel (intensive) | — | not attested |
| Ethpaʿʿal (intensive passive) | — | not attested |
| Aphʿel (causative) | — | "to give room, relieve" in wider Aramaic, not attested in this corpus |
| Ettaphʿal (causative passive) | — | not attested |
| Shaphʿel (rare causative) | — | not attested |
Stem table is a grammar scaffold: how Aramaic bends one root through voice and cause.
In his voice
Matthew 14:32 · interlinear
And when they climbed into the boat, the wind dropped.
ruḥa , here simply the wind over the lake. The everyday end of the word is the anchor for everything else it carries.
Matthew 12:28 · interlinear
But if I drive out the evil spirits by Ruha of God, then the reign of God has come upon you.
b-ruḥa d-alaha , by Ruha of God. The Qala keeps the divine sense bare and untranslated; note that the evil spirits in the same sentence are not called Ruha in English.
Matthew 12:32 · interlinear
Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be released; but whoever speaks against the Sacred Ruha will not be released, not in this age or in the age to come.
ruḥa d-qudsha , the Sacred Ruha: the sacred-separation root of Day 4 joined to today's word.
Practice
Take one slow breath, then open a window. Feel air enter your body and wind touch your skin. Let breath, wind, and spirit remain one movement: unseen, felt, ungraspable.
Say Ruḥa aloud: breath, wind, spirit, one word, one unseen movement you can feel.
Connections
Witness note: the forms above rest on the Peshitta as the primary witness, with Palestinian Aramaic attestation marked where a Western source carries the word.