How do you determine who is permitted to study Kabbalah, and who isn’t?
It was Kabbalists who chose to hide the wisdom of Kabbalah for generations. They determined that it was forbidden to teach it except to those who met the strictest conditions and tests. Moreover, throughout history, Kabbalists repelled people who wanted to study Kabbalah. This is why Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai hid The Book of Zohar after he completed writing it. The Holy Ari never wrote a word, but his student Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote in his name. This is how things were until the 20th century. But in the 20th century, the two greatest Kabbalists of the century, Rav Kook and Rav Yehuda Ashlag, a.k.a. Baal HaSulam, declared that concealment-time was over, and anyone who wanted to study was permitted to do so. The reason for the change was that the egoistic evolution of humanity has reached its apex, and our generation is in a state which The Book of Zohar refers to as “all unworthy.” Today, only the disclosure of the Upper Force through the wisdom of Kabbalah can correct us and elevate us t
