"Then Hashem G-d formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.(JPS)" Any essence or entity including a soul consists of "light" or "spirit," which sustains that entity's existence. "Light" or "spirit" distinguishes between a living person and a corpse. Aside from the technical meaning in the hierarchy of the five levels, "soul" is also the generic term for the "inner part " or "light" or "heart" of any entity.
The "Soul of Man" is the candle of G-d. Spiritual quality is only found in man. G-d placed within Man the spiritual potential to develop himself and his will beyond his given nature. Man has the ability to reason and the ability to communicate in words. This is the essential difference between him and all other lower creatures. Animals only possess a Nefesh Bahamit, an animal soul, which involves no extra moral or spiritual evolution.
Man can elevate himself higher and higher to the point where his Will (Ratzon) to do good receives a higher value and importance. It rises up from the level of Nefesh to the level of Ruach, and then Neshamah. A "speaking spirit" refers to the ability to contemplate and speak about that which is spiritual, and to elevate himself to the level of receiving spiritual knowledge, at this point the Nefesh grows and receives the higher quality of Neshamah.
The soul is the fundamental model of individual religious experience in Judaism and Christianity. ”The Soul is the inner essence of the sefirot and correspond to the four/five worlds. Following is a brief description of the five levels and their correspondence. All of these name represent the various stages of growth and spiritual development that the Nefesh must pass through on its way to perfection.
1. Nefesh - Physical Body - Primal or Animal Soul - Lower Part of Soul - Face of Malkuth - at its most primary level, animates existence in terms of life force, movement and propagation of the species; and then on another level it acts as the source of man's capacity to think, to imagine, to dream to contemplate. Nefesh is the foundation of man's existence. With it's complexity of the mind and emotion, this level is called the animal soul and belongs to the world of action, Assiyah.
2. Ruach - Emotion - The Middle Soul - Face of Ze'er Anpin - every human being is directly connected to divine essence. This level of the soul of human kind corresponds in its inner essence, to the level of an angel in the world of formation, Yetzirah.
3. Neshamah - Intellect - The Higher Soul - Face of Binah - has to do with Quality, or the value of something and corresponds to a level of being in the world of creation, Briyah. It is the same Nefesh we started with only now it is more evolved and has acquired a higher value. For now its Will and Desire is only for the spiritual and Godly.
The following two levels, Chayah and Yechidah surround us and illuminate us from above. They are unlike Nefesh, Ruach and Neshamah which are internalized while Chayah and Yechidah are so exalted that we cannot internalize them and they therefore remain outside of us.
To understand this a little better we can add that the Nefesh, Ruach and the Neshamah correspond to three major centers in the body. Nefesh corresponds to the Liver (Kaved), or the Liver is the main dwelling place of the Nefesh. The main dwelling place of the of the Ruach is the Heart (Lev), and the main dwelling place of the Neshamah is the Brain (Moach).
It is the liver where new blood cells are generated. It is the will and desire of every living creature to grow and develop and preserve its life and life of its species. This is the level of Nefesh in the Liver.
Next is the Ruach in the Heart. Here the heart stimulates the blood to circulate to every part of the body. The heart also is a powerful expression of will. The residing place of the Ruach is in the Heart.
Above the Liver and the Heart we have the Brain, or the power of thought. It is with the mind that we must oversee and regulate our various desires. The brain is the residing place of the Neshamah.
4. Chayah/Hayyah/Chayyah - Pure Being - Face of Hohkmah - the action of the force in the world of emanation, Atzilut.
5. Yechidah/Yekidah/Yehidah - Divine - Face of Keter - the point of contact between the soul and the very essence of the Divine, corresponding to the world of Primordial Humanity, Adam Kadmon.
To summarize briefly, when the body dies, if the person merits it, a small portion of the soul remains with it to keep it connected with the soul's source, anticipating the general revival of the dead at the time that G-d decrees. Different parts of the remainder of the soul may go to different places. One might be reincarnated into a new body in an attempt to rectify another of its spiritual aspects, or for other purposes. One part might go to a level of Paradise. Another might go to Gehinnom for a period, to remove the sins of that life and prepare it for a future one. Another part might join temporarily with an already living person, to assist it with its rectification and in the process gather more merit. The reassignments of the soul continues until the time that G-d decrees.
*She'ol is often referred to as Gehinnom.
The Nefesh temporarily remains with the body in the grave, undergoing the Hibbut Ha-Kever, the suffering of the grave. Simultaneously, the Ruach experiences Gehinnom for 12 months. "Gehinnom is conceived of as a purification process in which the psychic remnants from the previous life are purged and transformed. This purgation process lasts only twelve months and is tormentingly painful in direct proportion to each individual's lived life experience. [Simcha Paull-Rapahel] After leaving Gehinnom, the Ruach then permanently enters the Lower Gan Eden.
For Christians, hell is an abode of eternal torment where sinners go, and is for anyone who does not accept Jesus as their messiah and god. For Jews, gehinnom - while certainly a terribly unpleasant place -is not hell. The majority of rabbinic thought maintains that people are not tortured in hell forever; the longest that one can be there is said to be 12 months. It is a spiritual forge where the soul is purified for its eventual ascent to Gan Eden [Heaven], and where all imperfections are purged.
After death the Neshamah, since it not subject to being tainted by sin, goes to Gan Eden Elyon, the Upper Gan Eden, where it experiences divine reward and bliss. The Chayah and Yechidah also return to Upper Gan Eden immediately after death, and become as one with God as is possible. "Those who have awakened these dimensions of their being are able to perceive the infinite grandeur of the divine realms, to enter the overflowing celestial stream - described by the Zohar as the "bundle of life". [Paull-Rapahel]
At various points in the afterlife journey, the soul is said to encounter:
Nothing new can be gained in heaven. The quantity of mitzvot (deeds or blessings) and Torah acquired by the time of death is what remains with a person after death. In heaven, one can gain only a deeper and richer understanding of his life on earth. It is for this reason that souls, once they have absorbed all that heaven has to offer, apply for reincarnation, i.e. in order to attain further perfection. Reincarnation is also granted to allow the soul to bring about a restitution of the wrongs it has committed.
Some souls are so filled with the light of knowledge and the warmth of compassion. However, the heavenly court, heavenly family, will engage in all kinds of ruses in order to re-involve it in the work of saving and helping other souls still on the earthly plane. Reincarnation is an option at any point--after Gehinnom, after the lower paradise, or even after the upper paradise. The process repeats until a soul has built its spiritual body.
Belief in reincarnation is commonly held by many sects, as well as some other mystically-inclined. The following books can be found in many major bookstores.
Adin Steinsaltz's The Thirteen Petalled Rose (Hardcover) or (Paperback) is a complete mystical cosmology written by one of the greatest Jewish scholars alive today. It discusses the various levels of existence, the angels and demons that are created by our actions, the concept of reincarnation, and many other subjects of interest.
For an outline of Jewish thought on the afterlife, see The Death of Death : Resurrection and Immortality in Jewish Thought, by Neil Gillman. Gillman is a Conservative rabbi and a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary (a most important school for Conservative rabbis).
For information about the wide variety of Jewish views on what happens after death, see Simcha Paull Raphael's book, Jewish Views of the Afterlife (Hardcover) or (Paperback). Raphael, a Reconstructionist rabbi, takes a historical approach to life-after-death theories, exploring the views that predominated in each era of Jewish history.