You are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

22093698? ago

Part 51 >

http://old.freedomofmind.com/Info/TheTruthAbouttheKabbalahCentre.php

The Truth about

The Kabbalah Centre

Published by Task Force on Cults and Missionaries

Los Angeles, CA 1995

Who is "Dr. Philip S. Berg"?

Philip S. Berg is the charismatic founder and leader of a quasi-Jewish cult functioning under the name of "Research Centre for Kabbalah." It has branches in New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, a few other cities. Berg portrays himself as an orthodox rabbi and proclaims his "Kabbalah Centre" to be a Jewish orthodox institution. IN his youth he did study at an orthodox Yeshiva in Brooklyn NY, and it seems that he was ordained. Berg claims to have a doctorate (all his books go under the name "Dr. Philip S. Berg"). In some of his books he alleges to have a doctorate in "comparative religion," while another source claims his doctorate to be in "jurisprudence in biblical law." When personally confronted about the discrepancies, and questioned about his alleged doctorate, he admitted (in a published interview) that in fact -he has no academic degree at all - and that his alleged "doctorate" is "part of his smichah (ordination)". Everyone knows, of course, that there is no such thing. For his public lectures Berg advertises himself invariably as "the greatest Kabbalist in the world;" "the world's foremost authority on the Kabbalah;" "a living Kabbalist and the rarest of teachers;" or other such flamboyant terms of self-aggrandizement. Outside of his own Centre and circle of followers, neither the academic nor the Jewish religious worlds know anything about him except for the anomalies of his centers. They have absolutely no regard for him, his teachings, writings or activities. In fact, he is universally condemned by both the orthodox rabbinate and contemporary schools of Jewish mysticism in Israel, the USA and elsewhere, as a charlatan.

What is the "Kabbalah Centre"?

One of the most extensive articles about Berg and the Kabbalah Centre was published in a national Canadian Jewish weekly, the Canadian Jewish News, dated March 18, 1993, pp. 2, 6-7 and 9. It exposed, with names, some of the Kabbalah Centre's anomalies, such as:

In the autumn of 1990, a Marilyn McLeod was dying of cancer. She was visited by a "Rabbi" Yardeni of the Kabbalah Centre who persuaded her to purchase a complete hard cover set of the Zohar, as well as a few other books about Jewish mysticism, for hundreds of dollars. Marilyn was also told to change a mezuzah and her Hebrew name. For $250, they changed her mezuzah, gave her about a dozen audio tapes from the centre, and changed her name altogether. Though Marilyn couldn't read any Hebrew, she was told to simply scan the Zohar for its healing properties. Shortly thereafter (January 1991) she dies.

Other cases are cited of people unable to read Hebrew (let alone Aramaic - the language of most of the Zohar), and who could ill afford the high prices charged, who were persuaded to purchase the Zohar and other works, who were told that mere scanning of the books would help them in their quest for spiritual fulfillment.

Young people drawn into the centre were persuaded to help with maintenance of the building and other jobs.

When thoroughly questioned, Berg "readily concedes that 'most' of the students as well as the teachers at the centre would likely not be able to read or interpret a page from the Hebrew Zohar." Nonetheless, he maintains, in an alleged "paraphrase of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai" that :you can learn from someone who doesn't know".

Both in the interview as well as in their promotions, Berg calls his centre "Yeshiva Kol Yehuda," alleging affiliation and association with (as the continuation or successor to) the Yeshivah Kol Yehuda in Jerusalem, originally founded in 1922 by the late Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag and later headed by the late Rabbi Yehudah Tzvi Brandwien. Berg calls himself as "Rabbi Brandwein's chief student." [Note: see further on, chapter X, about this false allegation!]

The Kabbalah Centre offers its classes and publications to an indiscriminate mixture of "man, woman, child, non-Jew," religious or secular.

Berg condemns rabbis who criticize and censure him and his organization as "jealous; they are simply jealous of how we are teaching people."

A former student who spent 18 months studying at the centre and "thousands of dollars on books and tapes," decided to investigate orthodox Judaism and realized how far removed the centre is from traditional Judaism. He said that at first "everything was very impressive. Everything made sense to me. They were in synch with what I knew about spirituality. But then I did a little outside reading and I started to realize that to know Kabbalah you need to be at a level of personal development. They never mention that. They don't talk about kashrut, mitzvot or tefilah (prayer). They never mention G-d. They talk about a light, about power. They offer instant gratification and instant answers."

All the above is extracted from the Canadian Jewish News article. None of these matters was ever questioned or denied by Berg or the Centre.

Berg's Use of "Libel Chill"

Berg has literally millions of dollars at his disposal. The net assets of his New York branch in 1990, according to IRS-returns, are close to 10 million dollars. Using the principle of "libel chill," he scares detractors who will speak out openly against him with expensive libel and slander suits. That is why rabbinic condemnations of him and his centre are usually couched in very careful and often veiled wordings. One rabbi was not that careful: Canadian rabbi Emanuel Schochet, a rabbinic scholar and authority on Jewish mysticism well-known throughout the world, author and editor of numerous primary texts, dared to speak out against Berg and the Kabbalah Centre in a lecture delivered in 1993 in South Africa. On his return to Canada, Berg hired one of Canada's top-paid lawyers in libel to sue Rabbi Schochet for $4.5 million dollars for "libel and slander." Rabbi Schochet condemned the Jewishly unacceptable practices of Berg and his centers of

a) using horoscopes and astrology in general in counseling their victims,

b) the indiscriminate use and teaching of sacred and complex teachings of the Kabbalah to people totally illiterate in anything Jewish and devoid of Jewish observances as well as to gentiles,

c) the exorbitant prices they charge for the sale of the Zohar and other writings pressed upon their victims at mark-ups of over 500% of the fair market-price,

d) acts of extortion by scaring naïve people with all kinds of evil and curses that will come upon them if they refuse to offer money for the Kabbalah Centre, and ludicrous promises of physical health and wealth if they will purchase their publications; and other such flagrant violations of Jewish law and tradition, as well as other samples of immoral behavior.

See Part 52 >