The latter option is the best, since joining together the wills of several people who are not connected in any other way but the desire to draw near the Creator, is the most effective way for progress nowadays. Studying alone will get you only so far, but after a while you'll begin to lose interest and eventually will probably abandon the whole issue. There is no similarity between Hinduism and Judaism as far as reincarnation goes. Kabbalah is about life while all other religions talk about life after life. In Kabbalah there is no later, only now.
Reincarnation is simply the end of one spiritual state and the beginning of the next.
The gap between each state is so wide that it's considered to be another life. Indeed the person, who had lived yesterday's awe, can hardly remember today what the awe was about. The reason that when things get hectic we feel as though a month has past since morning, is that it has been a month. Only the clock says otherwise, but then the clock can only count.