Scattered throughout the large body of Talmudic and later writings, one can construct a comprehensive picture of the Torah's (Bible's) understanding of the hereafter.
Immortality of the soul, Resurrection, and the concept of Heaven are all featured prominently in Jewish tradition, but they are not explicitly stated in the Torah. For this reason, a careful analysis of Jewish texts and commentaries is needed in order to create a clear picture of what happens to the soul after the body has died.
THE SOUL
According to rabbinic material the soul goes on a journey after it departs the body. Along the way it may encounter such things as 'pains of the grave' (Hibbut ha-kever), the 'angel of silence' (Dumah), the 'angel of death' (Satan), 'catapult of the soul' (Kaf ha-Kela), 'purgatory' (Gehinom), and 'paradise' (Gan Eden). These concepts are often expressed via analogies and parables by the Jewish sages, as they felt that these concepts were beyond average human understanding.
According to the Kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism), after a person passes on and sheds the physical form, the soul continues to be quite conscious of the people and the universe it has left behind. But as time goes on, the soul ceases to dwell in the physical universe as we know it and journeys into a non-dimensional reality.
Existence in the afterlife is a continuation of this life, organically flowing from this life into the next, minus one's physical form. A person's individuality, contained as a memory unit, lives on after death. The entire personality, which is the cumulative selfhood of the soul-type, survives, including all life experiences that have been imprinted on the soul.
The measure of survival and immediacy of "soul memory" capable of attaining reintegration with "gan eden" (heaven/paradise) is commensurate with the level of soul actualization manifested during life. If we have lived in complete harmony with our soul, the transition is immediate, while those who have lived a more disharmonious and misaligned existence may need to trek a longer route in order to reach their destination. Eventually all souls get there, completing full circle and returning to their Source.
REINCARNATION
According to the sages, the 'sparks' that were one's soul in this life remain part of the soul in the afterlife, while other sparks reincarnate and gradually become individualized souls for other people. The unifying factor between all these incarnations is that, collectively, they constitute "one soul."
Just as a tree has one root, but also has multiple branches extending in all directions, so too does each individual soul share the same root but unfolds and unravels and becomes apparent throughout many lives as individual spiritual soul energies for different people. Although the soul keeps on dividing and subdividing itself in each incarnation, it retains wholesomeness and a sense of completion.
Even after the first possesssor of the soul passes away and elements of soul that became exclusively that person's remain his or hers, and only the remainder of the soul reincarnates, this "remainder" is also complete.
Contrary to popular belief, souls do not reincarnate to rectify previous misdeeds or to complete someone else's story. Rather, they exist to reach their own actualization and individuation. In each evolving incarnation, the soul articulates another element of its nature.
Reincarnation from one human being to the next is for the purpose of self-elevation, not so much for the correction of past life errors. Errors are amended for and fixed in the afterlife, not on earth. When souls descend for rectification in this world, they mostly do so as other forms of life, not within the human form.
Another, more unique form, of reincarnation is discussed by the Sages: the reincarnation of the perfected soul...or a soul belonging to that of a "tzaddik" (righteous person). Normally a soul will return to attain a deeper, more expansive level of articulation. Yet from time to time, souls settle in this realm of existence, not for themselves per se, but to help those around them attain their own "tikkun" (restoration or repair) and reach their soul destiny.
There are clusters of souls that gravitate toward each other physically as they are spiritually linked, sharing the same soul roots. Occasionally, a "perfected" soul will descend to assist those souls to which it is connected, in order to help them reach their maximum spiritual potential.
Ultimately, the purpose of a soul's descent into various forms of existence is for lessons it can acquire, and once these are achieved the soul re-attains its purity and is able to enter "Gan Eden" (paradise/heaven).
HEAVEN
In Judaism, Heaven and Hell are not physical places - they are better described as 'states' in which the soul can reside. The blissful feeling of heaven or the agonizing dread of hell is based on the choices we make. Throughout life, we can either pick heaven or choose hell. Heaven is inclusive, hell is exclusive. In the heavenly paradigm, it is me and you. In hell there can only be me or you.
To exist in heaven is to live in an embracing condition of openness and transcendence, whereas living in hell is where every person we meet is suspected as an enemy, and every experience we have is potentially threatening.
To live in a heavenly manner is to experience a self devoid of opaque ego, aggression, or resentment. The converse of this state is considered hell. With regard to the afterlife journey, in a manner of speaking, one soul's heaven is another's hell. To some degree, all souls return to the same place: for some souls, merging with the light is a transcendent elation, while other souls - those accustomed to being ego oriented, self centered, and selfish - experience the very same encounter as hell.
Movement into the afterlife is determined by the soul's success in developing in this life. As in this life, what we are when er are older is generally, though not necessarily, a reflection of who we were when we were younger. Similarly, in the afterlife, what is experienced "there" is a reflection of what was accomplished "here." The soul advances from one level of awareness to a higher one in accordance with the life it led. Souls can also be assisted in their afterlife journey by the actions performed in their memory by the living.
Although "Gan Eden" (Heaven or Paradise) is the ultimate destination for souls, infinite levels exist within this destination. Most broadly, higher/deeper gan eden us dedicated to the expansive pleasure of divine contemplation; the less intense level of gan eden is more an emotional form of delight. The level the soul attains immediately following death depends on the measure of spiritual attainment it has reached here on earth.
A soul that finds itself too confused or bewildered to enter higher/deeper dimensions within gan eden may first experience lower grades, until it becomes fully acclimated. The lower levels of gan eden serve as an orientation, allowing the soul to become accustomed to its new bodiless existence, until it becomes able to reintegrate with the infinite light and join with eternal goodness.
Heaven is the spiritual culmination of our work here in this world. While for some people this is the glorious end of life to a mediocrity of life's middle, for others this evolved spiritual condition is attained, partially or even fully, in the present world.
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