Unlike other monotheistic religions, Judaism does not make much of the pleasures and terrors of the soul after death. Ramban suggests that this is so becasue the World-to-Come is a natural attainment, not something that needs to be earned, but something that can be lost.(Lev. 18:29):
“(They) shall be cut off:” …you must realize that the punishment of cutting off the soul implies a firm assurance of the immortality of the soul and of a Divine reward in the Hereafter. By stating “this soul shall be cut off from before Me,” the Torah teaches us that only the soul of the sinner is cut off, for its iniquity, but other souls, which have not sinned will live eternally and enjoy the Divine splendor. This is so because the human soul is the lamp of the Lord which He breathed into our nostrils…and so it rests in its natural setting and will not die. It is not composite and thus is not subject to generation and dissolution as are compound substances. Indeed, it is intrinsically imperishable as are the immaterial intelligence’s (i.e., angels).
It is therefore unnecessary for the Torah to state that as a reward for a good deed the soul will live forever. It states rather that as a punishment for transgressing, the soul will become tarnished and defiled and thus cut off from its natural life of eternity. Accordingly, the torah chose the term karet, as with a branch cut off from a tree that brought it forth. As already noted, all the rewards and punishments promised by the Torah are supernatural, mysterious miracles…thus it (the Torah) does not hold out eternity (for the soul) which is natural (and therefore, self-evident).”
In his Commentary to Bechukotai (26:12), Ramban states this succinctly:
"And I will walk among you”: The torah does not mention here the eternal life of the soul in the world of the souls and in the Hereafter after the resurrection, for the soul’s endurance is constitutional, as I have explained in the context of karet. It is the punishment which brings about extinction of the guilty souls, whilst the others, by their very nature, live forever.
R. Yehuda Halevy in I:109 similarly argues that and adherent of Torah, gains an ability to be close to G-d while still in this world. This is in essence not different from what happens after death though it may be different in degree. This is why Torah speaks much of the rewards and punishments of this world and does not dwell on the rewards and punishments of the World to come .
[1] This question was an important one and is discussed by many commentators and writers, such as, Sefer HaIkkarim 39,4, Akedat Yithak, Behukotai, Abarvanel to Behukotai 26. Rambam discusses this in the Commentary to Chelek and Hilkhot Teshuvah 9,1
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