Kabbalah Centre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since October 2006. (help, talk)

The Kabbalah Centre is a worldwide educational organization with headquarters in Los Angeles, California that offers a number of beginning, intermediate, and advanced courses on Kabbalah, both online and through its locally established centres. To its proponents, the Kabbalah Centre is a spiritual organization which teaches the principles of the Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) in a unique and user-friendly system accessible to anyone, regardless of religion, race or gender. ^[1] This contemporary presentation of Kabbalah was developed by its current leader, Philip Berg and his wife, Karen Berg, with significant opposition from the traditional religious establishment.^[2] To its detractors, the Kabbalah Centre has been described as an "opportunistic offshoot of the faith, with charismatic leaders who try to attract the rich and the vulnerable with the promise of health, wealth, and happiness." ^[3]

The Kabbalah Centre was founded in Israel in 1922 by Rav Yehuda Ashlag. In the United States, Philip Berg (born Feivel Gruberger) and wife Karen Berg established the first U.S. Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles in 1984. Karen and their sons Yehuda and Michael act as Directors and Spiritual Leaders of the organization. The organization is a registered non-profit with over 50 branches worldwide, including major ones in Los Angeles, New York City, London and Toronto.

The Kabbalah Centre comprises Jewish and non-Jewish teachers and students.^[4] Usually, Jewish organizations distinguish it as non-Jewish and often consider participation by Jews in it a problem since classical Judaism forbids Jews from participating with non-Jews in religious rituals.^[5]

1 Teachings
2 Celebrity followers
3 Controversy
4 References
5 External Links

[edit] Teachings

Kabbalah Centre teaches Kabbalah in a practical way that makes sense to the average person. While some critics claim much of what it disseminates today has no connection with the Zohar or other Kabbalistic texts, the Kabbalah Centres in fact teach weekly Zohar classes, both at the center and with free telephone conferences. The Kabbalah Centre notes that the resemblance between their teachings and new age teachings is simply because Kabbalah is a four-thousand-year old universal wisdom that has influenced new age ideas as well as traditional religions. Traditionally Kabbalah can be studied once the scholar has a firm knowledge of the Tanakh and associated Midrashic texts. This is because Kabbalistic texts are written in such a way that expects the reader to have good knowledge of Jewish tradition. The revolutionary aspect of the Kabbalah Centre was the teaching of Kabbalistic wisdom to the masses in an easy to understand manner, with a goal of improving others' lives. In fact, the Kabbalah Centre was the first to teach the wisdom to women, for example.

Kabbalah Centre teaches the Kabbalistic concept of Klippot (blockages). The idea is everyone has a direct and clear connection to the upper metaphysical (spiritual) world of the "Light" (Ein Sof, unbounded God), but that this channel is blocked by Klippot, restricting the spiritual energy from entering the physical body. It is through meditation and practice of Kabbalah teachings and Jewish law (which the Kabbalah Centre says is early Rabbistic construction to aid in praticing Kabbalah without revealing the secret of Kabbalah) that one removes Klippot, and it is by violence and negative behaviour that one adds Klippot. It is said that during creation the "Light" used his essence to create all things, and that his essence is still inside all of humanity and all creatures and things. As creations of God, the Centre teaches its students to become "like God". By that they mean removing all doubts and become a creative force in the world. Kabbalah Centre teaches that all humans have the potential to become "like God", through spiritual transformation, and that the ultimate goal of humanity is to imitate their creator.

The Kabbalah Centre has strong belief in astrology, and that astrology, including the Zodiac, has been part of Judaism since its inception. The Centre claims Astrology was lost in Jewish tradition (the Talmud loosely prohibits it), as part of the suppression of Kabbalah by Jewish rabbis nearly 2000 years ago (evidence of this includes ancient synagoges with zodiac rings). As such, there is a strong belief that cosmic forces affect everything, and knowing how to understand them can prove to be valuable to the aspiring Kabbalist.

The Kabbalah Centre also teaches that Jesus was a Kabbalist, and that his claims of "being God" were actually Kabbalistic teachings. The Centre points to the New Testament and its relations to ideas found in early Kabbalistic works. In the opinion of the Kabbalah Centre, all religions have their spiritual roots in Kabbalah.

[edit] Celebrity followers

Main article: List of celebrities involved in the Kabbalah Centre

The media has paid much attention to celebrity devotee Madonna who, joined by her husband Guy Ritchie, studies regularly with a personal Kabbalah Center rabbi, no longer gives concerts on Friday night (which is the onset of the Jewish Sabbath), wears the red string around her left wrist for protection and to ward off the "Evil Eye" (Ayin Hara), has introduced Jewish ritual objects such as tefilin ("phylacteries") into her videos and tithes regularly to the Kabbalah Centre.^[6] Madonna was raised as a Catholic. In July, 2006 the media reported an unfounded rumour that Madonna was leaving the Kabbalah Centre.^[7] One media columnist speculated that one of reasons was due to alleged financial irregularities of donations to the centre.^[6] When Madonna tried to partner "Raising Malawi" with UNICEF, due to this project's close association with the Kabbalah Centre, UNICEF demurred.^[8] Lindsay Lohan has also recently been associated with the faith, wearing red string on her wrist. She is said to have formed a friendship with Madonna and reportedly has taken the name of Rose following her conversion from Catholicism.^[9]

Other celebrities that have been associated with the Centre include Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Lindsay Lohan, Donna Karan, Anthony Kiedis, and David Beckham.^[5]

[edit] Controversy

The Kabbalah Centre has been criticized for its sale of Kabbalah Mountain Spring Water, purportedly infused with positive energy, which members feel has a beneficial effect spiritually and physically. As a result of this controversey, staff and volunteers of the Kabbalah Centre no longer advertize or mention these attributes to new students, even though internally among the Kabbalah Centre volunteers and staff, the positive attributes of Kabbalah Water are considered to be a fact.^{[citation needed]}

There was also media controversy in 2005 related to a recorded comment by a Kabbalah Centre leader regarding the Holocaust. According to a BBC news article, Eliyahu Yardeni, a senior figure in the London Kabbalah Centre has been quoted as saying, "Just to tell you another thing about the six million Jews that were killed in the Holocaust: the question was that the Light was blocked. They didn't use Kabbalah." This claim caused international outrage, with one scholar calling the statement "obscene".^[3]

In the United States, the Kabbalah Centre is registered as a non-profit organization. The organization also maintains a scholarship fund, accessed through its website, for students who cannot afford the cost of materials.^[10] The Kabbalah Centre asserts tithing as a spiritual value, and encourages both rich and poor alike to tithe.

In Israel, authorities have refused to give the organization a certificate of proper management for three years running (as of 2005) because of accounting inadequacies. In Britain, the Charity Commissioners have criticised the centre's accounts for "significant shortcomings in transparency."