Neshamah (נְשָׁמָה): Soul or Breath

The divine soul in a human being; the spiritual core that connects a person to God.

In Kabbalistic writings, often there are three primary innate soul levels: Nefesh (נֶפֶשׁ) instinct/bodily life force, Ruach (רוּחַ) morality/emotions, and Neshamah (נְשָׁמָה): intellect/divine consciousness. The other levels are potentially attained later. See our Soul Levels diagram.

The Neshamah, understood as the divine soul constituting the spiritual core of human existence and humanity’s direct connection to God, underwent substantial development and refinement throughout the Kabbalistic tradition.

The Zohar establishes the Neshamah as a cosmological entity with an elaborate inner life—journeying between worlds during sleep, protesting its divine descent into embodiment, and traversing the supernal realms after bodily death.

These Zoharic passages elaborate the soul’s multi-dimensional nature, distinguishing it from lower spiritual faculties while rooting it in transcendent divine origins. The Zohar’s treatment, marked by extensive explanation and application across numerous passages, sets the conceptual and theological framework that subsequent authors would either develop or challenge.