Q: Is it true that there are souls that are connected to the “wisdom of the hidden” and souls that are connected to the “revealed wisdom?” Does each soul have its own spiritual root, by which it can fulfill itself?
A: You are quoting from the words of Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, who speaks of a corrected aim of man’s desires, “for the Creator,” meaning those who are already in the process of climbing the ladder from our world to the infinite. To such people there are two types of soul: one that is named “The Revealed Torah,” which stems from the term, Simple Light (One of the appellations of the revealed Torah uses a word that has the same root as the word simple in Hebrew - C.R.), and the “Wisdom of the Hidden,” which is revealed on certain conditions.
There is indeed a meaning to the words of Rashbi (Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai) that relates to our world as well: one who is drawn to the revealed Torah should study only that, and one who takes after Kabbalah can study Kabbalah. I always stress the words of our sages: “One’s soul shall teach one,” which means that the soul shows us where to find the origin of fulfillment.
Kabbalists think that people should develop freely. Freedom in the Torah means a simple observance of the commandments and laws, as long as one is not ready for something else. But if one has a desire to reach for the Creator, a desire for spirituality, that individual should be provided with all the conditions for spiritual growth, and should not be stopped or scared off.
Kabbalah states that a person must freely choose that part of the Torah– revealed or secret–according to the ripeness of his soul. There was a great rabbi by the name of Noam Elimelech who said: “Kabbalah alone kept me in Judaism.” That is because his soul has reached beyond the phase of the revealed Torah, and if he had not received that fulfillment he could not have truly existed.
One should find oneself. That is the only thing that Kabbalists encourage, whereas those who follow ideas and beliefs blindly, purposely forbid it.