We all know about the water cycle – the endless loop of water descending and ascending, powered by sunlight. Along the way, that water enables and sustains life of all kind – plants and animals alike. The water cycle makes our world habitable.
I’d like to suggest that the Torah describes a parallel cycle that enables spiritual life on earth just as surely as the water cycle enables physical life. Let’s call it, “The Reiach Cycle.”
Here’s how it is described in the text:
G-d invests his soul, his divine energy, into mankind, through ensouling Adam with the breath of life. (G. 2:7). Later He continues to place a divine spark into every person born, though he limits our lifespan: God says, “My spirit (ruach) shall not abide in man forever…” (Gen. 6:3).
For the first ten generations there is only downward movement Ruach downward from G-d, but no active return.
But then, ten generations later, the Reiach Cycle starts, after the Flood, when Noach offers “elevation” offerings (G. 8:20). “G-d smelled the pleasing aroma” (vayarach Hashem et reiach hanichoach — Gen. 8:21). The root word appears three times in this verse.
Noah’s act somehow flips a switch, closing the circuit (or even creating) an upward return that had been dormant. God responds with 19 verses that reset the rules of human existence, all triggered by Noach’s offering, sending spiritual energy heavenward. Noach starts the Reiach Cycle by completing the circuit, sending Reiach back up to heaven.
From Noah onward, mankind demonstrates that we can participate in the Reiach Cycle — through offerings, prayer, words of connection, and all the symbolic commandments. When our divinely gifted breath / ruach is used to praise or connect with God, we send something back upward.
Throughout Genesis, whenever our forefathers connect with G-d, they provide impetus to the Reiach Cycle.
It is in the Exodus when the Cycle starts to flow in earnest. When we choose to mark our homes with the grass and blood, we are using our actions to bring an awareness of our mission (to elevate nature toward heaven) into this world. The Passover Offering is quite similar, using the lamb as a proxy for our own souls, the smoke as the medium for spiritual connection back to G-d.
And then, at Sinai, Moses starts to institutionalize the process. He sets up 12 altars (one for each tribe), each bringing smoke, reiach upward. The people commit with the fateful words, “we will do and we will hear.” (Ex. 24:7). Moses connects the people to the altar with those words by sprinkling the blood of the offering on the people themselves (this is the only time in the Torah where sacrificial blood is sprinkled/dashed on the offeror), and the Reiach Cycle is solidified, for the Children of Israel as a nation, at this point.
The sacrifices that are subsequently commanded in the Torah are thus the Reiach Cycle committed to process and ritual. The same phrases used with Noach, the “sweet savor” or reiach nichoach appears no fewer than 39 times in the Torah. The first of these expressions after Noach’s offering is for the investiture of the Cohanim, the priests (Ex. 29:18) – the group whose job it is to sustain the Reaich Cycle for all the people going forward!
The Reiach Cycle is also linked in the text much more explicitly to the water cycle! Noach, who offered the first elevation offering was first subjected to the Flood: All the fountains of the great deep burst apart,
And the floodgates of the sky broke open. (G. 7:11). When the Water Cycle is short-circuited, life is in peril.
Later in the text, the Torah is very involved in how water is connected to closing the Reiach circuit. Before we reach upward (or after having been exposed to our animal limitations, rendering us unable to elevate), a person must first immerse in water (E. 19:10, L. 11:32, 36, 14:8-9, L. 15, L. 17, 15-16) The priests were inaugurated using water (E. 29:4, L: 8:6) and in daily operations, they washed their hands and feet before serving in the Mikdash (tabernacle) (E. 30:17:21, 40:30-32, L. 16:4, 24)). A captured article could be made kosher, suitable for use by a Jew, using water (N. 31:23)
The elevation offerings (again, connecting to Noach, who offered the first one), also had to be washed in water (L 1:9, 13). The Red Heifer (para adumah) was made with mayim chayim, “living water,” and that was an essential ingredient in overcoming contact with the dead.
The Torah is thus making the connection between these two somewhat-parallel cycles: the water cycle in nature, and the Reiach Cycle in preserving and sustaining our spiritual life and purpose.
Today we do not actively sustain the Reiach Cycle in all the ways we are commanded in the Torah, as we lack the tabernacle. The body of the commandments are also ways to help the upward flow of our spiritual energies – from acts of loving-kindness to others (since each person has a soul, so holy connections to each other are analogous to connections with G-d), to the way we slaughter, bless, and consume our food.
Prayer has been a core element of the Reiach Cycle for the Jewish people for thousands of years. Prayer started with our ancestors, who engaged more spontaneously. And then prayer was increasingly ritualized and institutionalized over time, especially after the destruction of the Temples.
Just as Noach was the first to complete the Reiach Cycle, G-d expects mankind to emulate Noach’s actions. Sending reaich back upward is mankind’s responsibility to fulfill. In the Torah, the only things that are called “most holy” kodesh kodashim, are the things that mankind, using our own souls, our own reiach, invests in with the goal of connecting with each other and/or with G-d.
P.S. This understanding also helps us understand the precise laws of the sacrifices. Leavened bread cannot be offered: leavening is a natural process, reducing the percentage of human content. And the Reiach Cycle depends on the investment of each person’s spiritual energies, ruach. It is mankind, not nature, that must elevate the spiritual back upward. That is why honey and fruit, which are both gifts from nature, are forbidden to be offered on the altar. The things we offer must be primarily produced through human effort, not passive natural processes.
The Torah (L: 2:13) says that salt must be present at every offering. Salt is, of course, extracted from sea water, the major component of the ocean that does not evaporate upward! So salt reminds us of the waters below, and the elevation of the waters in the water cycle itself. The addition of salt to every sacrifice is thus a reminder of the connection between the water cycle and the Reiach Cycle.