The Parts of the Soul

Jewish mystical tradition divides the soul into parts, most commonly three (nefesh, the vital soul tied to the body; ruach, the spirit or emotional and moral self; and neshamah, the higher, divine soul), with two further levels, chayah and yechidah, added in Kabbalistic sources to make five, each corresponding to a level of the Tree of Life and to one of the four worlds.

The scheme is a map of the self from the animating life-force shared with all living things up to the spark of the divine, and it frames the Kabbalistic understanding of consciousness, growth and the soul's origin and destiny.