Can Anyone Learn Kabbalah?

Up until a decade ago, the word "Kabbalah" referred to Jewish mysticism, deep layers understood only by those familiar with the subject. Today, however, anyone who wishes teaches or learns Kabbalah, with various institutes opening like mushrooms after rain. Celebrities from Israel and around the world (from Arkadi Duchin to Madonna) engage in promoting the topic, and as with any good thing that is in demand, there are also many confused, muddled, or simply fraudulent elements. Can anyone learn and teach Kabbalah? What is the difference between Kabbalah institutes like those by Berg, Laitman, and others compared to traditional Kabbalah studies meant solely for Torah-observant individuals who have already deeply studied the basics? Is there value in teaching anyone - even non-Jews - the secrets of Judaism, or should this be left to experts only?

"Kabbalah is the heart of Judaism," explains Rabbi Yitzchak Fanger. "It is the full power, the lights in their intensity, things best left unsaid. Everyone understands that you cannot expose the core to someone just beginning. Similarly, someone who wants to become a heart surgeon won’t immediately perform surgeries; they must first learn the background, the basic rules of medicine, and so on. The same goes for Kabbalah: you cannot learn before you understand what Judaism is."

So where does this need for Kabbalah studies come from?

"There is a great thirst for spirituality, especially Jewish spirituality. A person hears there is something powerful in Judaism on a global scale. He might say that Judaism doesn’t interest him right now, but he wants to learn its secrets."

If so, why not?

"Teaching Kabbalah to people without spiritual tools to comprehend such depth isn’t just disrespectful but also dangerous. If I don’t have enough tools, I can get hurt, literally. It’s like looking at the sun for an extended time. Kabbalah should be learned as part of a whole, as part of the entire Judaism - Halacha, Gemara, Torah, the system of observing commandments."

And where do the various Kabbalah institutes, like Laitman's, stand in all this?

"Anyone familiar with Judaism understands it's a sect."

If a Kabbalah institute makes someone happy and they connect specifically to this path, why not?

"But who said what feels good to you is truly good for you? A thirsty person could also drink bleach, which would quench their thirst initially but soon after they'd feel the consequences."

And what about someone who is just interested in watching the Kabbalah channel?

"If they didn’t distort things, it wouldn't be a problem. But there are severely distorted things there. The sages say that a counterfeiter is worse than a thief, because everyone stays away from a thief, but a counterfeiter warps the truth, which is not revealed to those who understand less. These Kabbalah institutes are more of a forgery than a revelation of the truth."

Rabbi Yitzchak Betser, son of the head of the Kabbalists Yeshiva Shalom, also does not express fondness for popularizing Kabbalah study. "Learning Kabbalah requires many boundaries," he reveals. "Foremost, practical Kabbalah must not be used. The Arizal wrote that a person must fill themselves with Shas and Posekim, and according to him, one learning Kabbalah must refrain from eating meat and getting intoxicated during the week. Clearly, teaching Kabbalah to the masses is a desecration of the sacred. The Arizal insisted this should not be done, including not teaching non-Jews. All these institutes certainly do not follow the true way of learning Kabbalah. If we wish to judge them favorably, we might say they don’t teach true Kabbalah but merely introductions to various concepts, workshops inspired by Kabbalah. In yeshivas, they take worthy students who fast for 84 days, live in holiness and purity, have studied Shas and Posekim, are experts in all parts of the Torah, and they are eligible to learn the secrets."

Is it absolutely forbidden to study in Kabbalah institutes, or is it simply not recommended?

"Even though they are not truly learning Kabbalah, it is prohibited. In Kabbalah, there are all the codes of creation - how to split the sea, revive the dead, create creatures. If they knew how, they would already have done it. Just knowing Hashem's names enables one to operate in all worlds. The Maharal of Prague created a golem by the power of Kabbalah."

These institutes claim one doesn't need to physically observe the commandments, just understanding the reasons behind them is enough.

"That’s nonsense. Clearly, all commandments must be observed. One cannot just learn about laying tefillin - they must actually lay them. Their claim is like saying one must only understand the meaning of the red traffic light, but need not actually stop at it. What rational person could accept such absurd arguments?"