Practical Kabbalah transferred techniques from practical to speculative Kabbalah. While this led to the displacement of magical formulas and rites by contemplative exercises, the old forms of practical Kabbalah continued to exert broad appeal. Luria's position as the central teacher of modern Kabbalah, the foundation for later Hasidism, gives his proscription authoritative force. He taught that in our generations, without the Temple in Jerusalem and its ashes of the Red Heifer to purify, the pursuit of the realm of practical Kabbalah by a person with an impure body is very detrimental. The traditional role of the Baal Shem healer involved accepted methods
Kabbalah historical research on Kabbalah in the field of Judaic studies. According to the "Zohar", a foundational text for kabbalistic thought, Torah study can proceed along four levels of interpretation (exegesis). These four levels are called "pardes" from their initial letters (PRDS , orchard). Kabbalah is considered by its followers as a necessary part of the study of Torah – the study of Torah (the "Tanakh" and rabbinic literature) being an inherent duty of observant Jews. Modern academic-historical study of Jewish mysticism reserves the term "kabbalah" to designate the particular, distinctive doctrines that textually emerged fully expressed in the Middle Ages,