Kabbalah’s mystifying formulas become nothing more than intoxicating mantras to those who mindlessly repeat them.
This is like trying to cure an illness by chanting the chemical formula of the remedy.
This is not to say that Kabbalah should not be studied and learned.
In fact, it is incumbent upon Jewish scholars to understand the whole map of Torah from beginning to end, the Hidden Law no less than the Revealed Law.
Throughout history, there have been those who, very quietly, achieved extensive knowledge of the Hidden Law.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz