Question

1. What is the Rabbi’s general attitude toward Kabbalah and the Zohar? I have a strong feeling that on the one hand it’s clear to many people that the hidden dimension is fully part of the Torah, just like the plain meaning, and I understand that the Vilna Gaon, Nachmanides, and the Shulchan Arukh dealt with Kabbalah; but on the other hand, it’s clear that they don’t study it in Lithuanian yeshivas, and they aren’t tested on it in rabbinical ordination exams, and I don’t feel that people have any less respect for a rabbi who doesn’t study Kabbalah than for a rabbi who does—(not that this proves anything, but still, I would have expected that if I understand it to be a whole part of the Torah), and sometimes the situation is even the opposite.
2. Unlike the Talmud and Jewish law, which are built on the verses through reasoning and trying to understand the word of God, it’s not at all clear to me where in the Torah it emerges that there are things like the ten sefirot at all. Are there sources in the Torah for the things written in Sifra DeTzniuta (which I have no idea what they even are…)? [Let’s say that in most things I try to be rational and act according to my understanding of the Torah and do what I think God wants from me, but here I’m tied (against my will?) to a kind of mysticism that it’s not at all clear to me how it is connected to the Holy One, blessed be He…]. On the other hand, the Talmud mentions the Account of the Chariot and the Account of Creation, etc…. [True, Maimonides understood this differently, but many understood it as Kabbalah. A side question—how can it really be that Maimonides, who serves as a foundation stone in thought and Jewish law, ignored (from what I understand…) and did not include Kabbalah in his spiritual world—even though I understand that he knew kabbalists? Did he dispute the truth of Kabbalah?]
3. What is the Rabbi’s attitude toward kabbalistic arguments in halakhic discussion? The feeling is that, unlike “regular” halakhic arguments, which you can sometimes look at in a logical way, here it is as though something is imposed on you from above and you do things based on arguments that you have no way to critique or even understand at all… (Just in general, in this context, is there importance to acting according to a view that you understand and agree with—does that have implications for your service of God and for your relationship to Jewish law in my life?)