Q: Judaism or Kabbalah? That is the question!
A: Judaism is a collection of religious rules that dictate how to conduct ourselves in our world. Other than what we must know, such as how to provide for our livelihood, how to behave, dress, or how to raise a family, Kabbalah teaches something more. The Kabbalah tells what we must do besides providing for the natural needs on the corporeal-human level. A person must observe 613 laws.
Why? There is no rational answer. These laws are not even rational. From a scientific or physiological perspective there is no justification to the prohibition against eating pig’s meat, or not driving on Shabbat (Saturday).
The wisdom of Kabbalah does not relate to these laws or to anything else that concerns corporeal life. It teaches what is beyond this world, and how to get there. When one begins to inquire into the Upper World and enters it, one discovers that it is comprised of 613 spiritual particles. Their consequences in this world are called the “613 Mitzvot,” the laws of the Torah.
Q: So if they do not change anything here, why do we still have to keep them?
A: If we observe them in the flesh, we do it unconsciously, and by that we somehow equalize with the 613 Upper Laws, and for that reason we get a certain amount of Light from above. That spiritual Light does not develop us, but guards us, which is why it belongs to the degree of the still, which does not change.
A Kabbalist who attains the Upper World also attains the inner meaning of the 613 laws of the Upper World. Who gave us those laws? Moses. Where did he get them? Not from our world, but from the attainment of the Upper World.
There has always been tension between those who observe the laws solely at the level of this world, and those who want to observe them in the true spiritual form. Those who observe them only at the level of this world assume that mere observance is enough, and regard themselves as dismissed from the upper layer, simply because they do everything “right.”
However, those who want to observe them in the Upper World feel that the orthodox way of life does not satisfy them or give them a sense of fulfillment.