It may be only theoretical to speak of the Divine soul of man.
In practice, man is an inferior creature, quite dependent on the rest of existence.
The grass can get along quite well without man, but man needs the grass to cultivate it and transform it into bread.
Man is human because he has a task in life to relate to the world, to raise it up and give it meaning and purpose.
Otherwise the universe is an endless repetition, a question without an answer, a movement without a goal.
When man makes bread out of the grass, the bread rises up through man and “prays and studies Torah.”
That is, it is lifted up out of the earth; its hidden sparks of holiness are released and it becomes a part of a higher level of reality.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz