aurora, about Kabbala and the Orthodox circles, you should know that kabbala is a very important facet but it is only for the extremely learned. From what I understand, a person has to know all of the rest of the Torah (written and oral) BEFORE he even starts to delve into the depths of Kabbala, which is to learn the Zohar. This is known as the hidden Torah. If someone isn’t properly/sufficiently learned enough, the material he gleans from the Zohar can lead him to totally wrong conclusions. It has been trivialized by people like Madonna and other Hollywood stars who go to “Kabbala centers” and think they are getting something. It is such a shame because I think these people are really looking for something that they are missing in their lives and are unfortunately going about it in a totally wrong way.
I hope this helps and I hope other posters come in to add/fix what I have said above.
Hope all was well and safe with you and your family in the storm.