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Do you remember ever seeing, in the old encyclopedias, the group of transparencies that show all the parts of the body? One page has the skeletal structure, the next has the muscle groups, the next has the blood vessels, etc..
You could look at each page, individually, to see just certain parts, or you could put all of the pages together and see the entire body.
Layers, in Photoshop, work in a very similar fashion. Like those pages of painted cellophane, the transparent areas allow what's behind that page to show through.
What layers allow you to do is to combine pictures into a new image without having to make the changes permanent. By keeping each element on it's own layer, you can continue to make changes to the individual parts without affecting the whole thing.
Say you want to put your head on someone else's body (for whatever reason) but the colors don't quite match. Well, if you'd have simply pasted it onto the same layer, you'd have a hard time adjusting the colors of the head without making those same adjustments to the rest of the image. Keeping it on it's own layer let's you adjust the levels, colors, etc. of the head so that it matches the rest (or the rest to match the head).
Layers, in combination with Styles, Blending Modes, etc., allow for some very special effects that aren't possible any other way.
Like enigmatic says, if the tutorial you're trying to follow suggests doing something on a new layer, do it. And keep trying new tutorials. With each one, you'll gain a better understanding of some aspect of Photoshop and it won't be long before you're back here trying to explain it to some other "noob" (and, hopefully, you'll do a better job than this).
good luck
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