Answer:
Okay, discard most of these replies. The first was okay, the last was absolutely horrible. Kabbalah in Hebrew means the "received tradItion". Now, EVERYONE must know and understand that EVERY religion on earth has an ESOTERIC AND EXOTERIC TRADITION. An oral and a written. And this certainly applies with Judaism. Prior to the 16th century, kabbalah was kept secret among the elite sages of Judaism. It ALWAYS been apart of Judaism. The oral Torah is likened to the "soul" and the "body" is the Torah.
In deeper terms, the "binah" understanding of the spiritual spheres became comprehensible to man with the production of the Zohar by Rabbi Shimon Ben Yochai in the 1st century CE. Prior to that period, beyond the levels of the basic ten spheres no one knew. However, the mystical basis has always existed. Moses transmitted both the oral and the written. The "oral" refers to the mystical, which of course refers to consciousness.
Now, another very important, nay CRUCIAL piece of information into understanding this is that the "elites" of society, those who call themselves christians, Muslims etc, our supposed "leaders" are nothing more than pagans. They've always controlled society and their worship is merely to the 72 powers beneath the shechina(presence of god). In other words, theyre satanists.
They have always held a vociforous campaign against the Jews. Spreading antisemtism, lies etc.
Its a cosmic battle that's about to reach its frutition in the next hundred years.
As for the dimwitted reply above. If "mysticism", ie; the knowledge of the spiritual worlds is evil, why would it even exist? Surely, if such knowledge existed, G-d wants us to understand such knowledge.
In no way do kabbalists deviate from the Torah or the 613 commandments. Orthodox Jews everywhere study Kabbalah. If you want to understand the rationale behind all alot of tehse things its indispenible. Chassidut(which was a further development of kabbalah) is an absolutely beautiful tradition that will precurse the teachings hat the messiah will reveal.
I can assure you. Kabbalah is 100% true. Only an ignoramus such as that who posted above would make such an audacious claim. One of the great ways to fully grasp this is to study some of the basic texts. Zohar, Sefer Yetzirah by aryeh kaplan, Bahir, and their are a great many resources online for authentic Orthodox kabbalah. Inner.org, Azamra, simpletoremember
Qabalah with a "q" is a hermetic hybrid. THIS deals with practical kabbalah. Jews only study "theosophical" kabbalah, meaning its only the knowledge of the spiritual worlds that one should seek, which enahances ones relationship with G-d. to acheieve higher states of awareness of G-d, its integral. If you choose to be bothered by fear mongering and stupidity, its your loss.
Theres no contacting Angels/Demons, all of that belongs to the pagans and Qabalah, who already worship and adorn these intelligences.
Jews study kabbalah only to amplify the awareness of the one G-d. Whether you like it or not, the world we see has an underlying order behind it, and only kabbalah can teach you that.
Good luck!