The Hebrew noun ruacḥ (רוח) can refer to "breath", "wind", or some invisible moving force ("spirit").
The following are some examples of the word ruacḥ (in reference to God's "spirit") in the Hebrew scriptures:[6] The term ruach haqodesh is found frequently in talmudic and midrashic literature.
[1] The rabbinical understanding of the Holy Spirit has a certain degree of personification, but it remains, "a quality belonging to God, one of his attributes".
[11] Though the nature of the Holy Spirit is really nowhere described, the name indicates that it was conceived as a kind of wind that became manifest through noise and light.
As early as Ezekiel 3:12 it is stated, "the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing," the expression "behind me" characterizing the unusual nature of the noise.
[25] Abiathar was deposed from office as High Priest when he was deserted by the Holy Spirit without which the Urim and Thummim could not be consulted.
[27] It was necessary to reiterate frequently that Solomon wrote his three books (Proverbs, Shir haShirim, and Ecclesiastes) under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,[28] because there was a continual opposition not only to the wise king personally, but also to his writings.
[35] The visible results of the activity of the Holy Spirit are the books of the Bible, all of which are believed (in Jewish tradition) to have been composed under its inspiration.
With the death of the last three prophets (Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi), the Holy Spirit ceased to manifest itself in Israel, and only the Bat Kol remained available to the sages.
[36] Although the Holy Spirit was not continually present, and did not rest for any length of time upon any individual, yet there were cases in which it appeared and made knowledge of the past and of the future possible.
[39] On the basis of II Kings 3:13, the statement is made (perhaps as a polemic against Jesus) that the Holy Spirit rests only upon a happy soul,[40] although such a line of reasoning is problematic to explain the cases of Elijah, Jeremiah, among others, who certainly faced difficult circumstances.
Among the pagans Balaam, from being a mere interpreter of dreams, rose to be a magician and then a possessor of the Holy Spirit.
[45] According to Tanna Devei Eliyahu[46] the Holy Spirit will be poured out equally upon Jews and pagans, both men and women, freemen and slaves.
The Shekhinah (Biblical Hebrew: שכינה šekīnah; also Romanized Shekina(h), Schechina(h), Shechina(h)) is the English transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning "dwelling" or "settling" and denotes the dwelling or settling of the divine presence of God.