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1) I have a book called Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg. The book is based on Midrash, but Rabbi Louis Ginzberg was a conservative.
2) Which Kaballistic books/sites are kosher? Can someone give me suggestions?
Check out Aish.com
For someone on your level, Lost`1970, I’d start off learning Tanakh, more specifically, Chumash with Onkelos. Really, before anything, you should learn Hebrew and dikduk.
Lost1970
The only kabbalistic site that I would vouch for is inner dot org run by Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh. Read his books as well. However I would strongly recommend to first build up a very strong base of knowledge of Halacha and Torah hashkafah before delving into this stuff. Learn plenty mishnayos and Gemarah first. You cant skip the first few floors to jump to the top floor. Theres plenty in nigleh to see before nistar.
Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews is pretty much just an accurate translation of Midrashim. It should be fine to read.
You definitely need to crawl before you can walk
1) Learn how to read Hebrew. Learn the dikduk, grammar, vowels, etc. Study both Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew.
2) Learn how to read Chumash with trope marks. Incorporate Onkelos. Learn Tanach, as well.
3) Learn Mishna.
4) After getting down the ability to read Hebrew and after learning a good command of vocabulary for Chumash and Mishna, find a teacher who will help you with Aramaic for Gemara study.
5) Learn how to learn gemara.
6) Start learning Rashi script and approach Rashi on Shas. After Rashi, incorporate Tosafot.
You should be able to accomplish the above with diligence, hard work, good teachers, and at least 10 years or so of study.
To address your original questions,
1) Sam2 may be right about the book you mentioned, but in general your assumption is correct that one should avoid reading books by non-Orthodox Jews. Even if it is just a translation, there may be heretical material in the introduction.
2) Original kabbalistic sources in general are something to be studied (if at all) when you have more background. However, there’s no harm in learning chassidus on a basic level (some chassidim describe chassidus as kabbalah in a more accessible form), or perusing easy-to-read kabbalistic texts such as Tomer Devorah (which one can access online for free). For example, you could read the commentaries in the (Chabad) Gutnick chumash, peruse the (Chabad) website sichos-in-english, read articles on Chabad.org and study The Essential Rabbi Nachman. Anything by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan would also be good to read, whether we’re talking about his mystically-oriented works or not. R’ Yitzhok Ginsburg’s website inner.org also contains a lot of interesting and accessible articles on kabbalistic topics.
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