Soc.Culture.Jewish Newsgroups Frequently Asked Questions and Answers URL: www.scjfaq.org/faq/04-11.html

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Question 4.11:
Who is allowed to study Kabbalah?

The Kabbalah deals with sensitive topics and the knowledge it offers has been warped, even within the Jewish community. This resulted in severe disruption of the Eastern European Jewish community (for example, the false messiah Shabbtai Tzvi and the Frankists). As a result, the non-Chassidic sages placed a ban on the study of three basic texts until the age of 30, until the age of 40 for general study, and in all cases until one has studied the more basic Jewish sources (Tanakh, Talmud, Halacha) in depth. However, in Sephardic and Chassidic communities, some basic texts are studied even by young folks.

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