Ruach

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This article is about a fictional island. For the Hebrew word, please see ruah.

In Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel, Ruach is the Isle of Winds. The people of Ruach eat and drink nothing but wind, and live inside weathercocks. The island is an allegory of the insubstantial promises and flatteries that people must subsist on to survive in this world.

The word "Ruach" comes from the Hebrew meaning "spirit", "wind", "breath", or "air". The Greek equivalent is "pneuma" and the Latin is "spiritus".

It is the word used to refer to what sustains the life in a nephesh.