Origin 16th century
Jewish mystical tradition divides the soul into parts (most commonly nefesh, ruach and neshamah, with chayah and yechidah added in Kabbalistic sources to make five), each corresponding to a level of the Tree of Life. Other traditions divide differently: Egyptian thought distinguishes the ka, the ba, the akh and others. Each entry holds the part with the level and function its tradition assigns it.
Facts
Origins
Origin Period16th century 3Tradition: Lurianic Kabbalah: chayah and yechidah added above the three Origin Periodlate 13th century 1Tradition: Zoharic Kabbalah: nefesh, ruach and neshamah Place of OriginCastile for the Zoharic scheme; Safed in Ottoman Palestine for the five-fold elaboration. 3 Whose Classification This IsThe division of the soul into nefesh, ruach and neshamah, with chayah and yechidah added above them, is Jewish and Kabbalistic. The category also holds divisions made by other traditions, which are not versions of this one. 1Tradition: Jewish Kabbalah Contested Use
Contested or Appropriated Modern UseThe nefesh-ruach-neshamah scheme is Jewish. Where the category holds divisions from other traditions they are that tradition's own analysis of the person and are not to be read as local names for these parts. 2 Overview
Size of the Traditional SetFive parts: nefesh, ruach and neshamah, with chayah and yechidah added above them 1Tradition: Later Kabbalistic elaboration Size of the Traditional SetThree parts: nefesh, ruach and neshamah 1Tradition: The common Jewish three-fold division Learn More
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.
Souls Across Traditions
Other traditions divide the person differently, Egyptian thought distinguished the ka, ba and akh among several parts; Chinese tradition speaks of the hun and po souls, and the atlas notes these parallels while treating the Jewish and Kabbalistic scheme as the primary reference of the category. Each division reflects a tradition's psychology and eschatology.
The atlas gives each part of the soul its nature, its level on the Tree, and its role. The soul-parts connect to the sephiroth and four worlds they are correlated with, under Kabbalah & the Tree of Life, and to the wider maps of the self under The Body & Its Centres.
All Parts of the Soul
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Sources
1. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism
Gershom Scholem, Schocken Books, 1961lecture 6, on the Zohar's psychologyView the Source 2. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. SoulView the Source 3. Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and His Kabbalistic Fellowship
Lawrence Fine, Stanford University Press, 2003on the Lurianic doctrine of the soulView the Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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