Bnei Baruch

Bnei Baruch
Formation early 1990s
Founder Michael Laitman
Type Kabbalah
Headquarters Petach Tikva,
Israel
Website www.kabbalah.info

Bnei Baruch (also known as Kabbalah Laam, Hebrew: קבלה לעם‎‎) is an universalist kabbalah association founded by Michael Laitman in the early 1990s.[1] It is estimated to have around 50,000 followers in Israel, and some 150,000 around the world.[2]

History

Bnei Baruch is the largest among several groups teaching Kabbalah in the tradition of the Ashlag dynasty. Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag emigrated from Poland to Israel in 1921, having correctly predicted that those Jews who would remain in Poland would perish.[3] He wrote a well-known commentary on the Zohar called the Sulam (Ladder), and came to be known as Baal HaSulam, "Author of the Ladder."[4] He became very popular in Israel, and was consulted on Kabbalah by the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel, David Ben Gurion.[5] Relying on his claim that the statement “Love thy friend as thyself” summarizes the essence of Kabbalah, Yehuda Ashlag proposed a theory of "altruistic communism," a form of socialism based on principles of altruism and different from Soviet-style, materialistic communism, which he harshly criticized.[6] He also "hinted" at the universalistic idea of teaching Kabbalah to non-Jews,[7] although this theme was fully developed only by his successors.[8]

Yehuda Ashlag passed away on Yom Kippur Day in 1954.[9] After his death, his disciples divided. Some followed one of his associates, Yehuda Tzvi Brandwein (1904-1969), who had become Ashlag’s brother-in-law through his second marriage.[10] Brandwein's group is, directly or indirectly, at the origins of several contemporary Ashlagian Kabbalah movements, including the Kabbalah Centre of Philip Berg.[11] Other disciples of Yehuda Ashlag accepted the leadership of two of his four sons: Bejamin Shlomo Ashlag (1907-1991), whose group remained comparatively small, and Baruch Ashlag.[12]

In order to fight an attempt by his brother, Benjamin Shlomo Ashlag, to assert sole copyright on their father’s work in British courts, Baruch Shalom Ashlag, known as Rabash, moved for a while to England[13] and returned to Israel only after the trial had ended in his favor.[14] Upon his return to Israel, Rabash started teaching a group of disciples in Bnei Brak, mostly former students of his father, emphasizing the importance of “work in the group,” i.e. the cultivation of brotherly love among students, a principle described in detail in his writings.[15] Baruch Ashlag died in 1991 and, in turn, his disciples divided into various groups. Although Bnei Brak is a center of ultra-orthodoxy (Haredi Judaism), not all disciples of Baruch Ashlag were originally ultra-orthodox. Most of the disciples of Baruch Ashlag who were not ultra-orthodox had been brought to him by Michael Laitman, whom the Haredi newspaper HaModia called in 1991 “the trusted person of Rabash’ house,” recognizing in him one of the closest disciples of the master.[16] By accepting these students, Baruch Ashlag paved a new path in the Kabbalistic tradition, which was hitherto perceived as forbidden to the non-orthodox world.[17]

Michael Laitman

Some of the ultra-orthodox disciples accepted the leadership of Baruch Ashlag's son, Shmuel Ashlag (1928-1997); others followed various disciples of the master.[18] In the midst of these divisions, Laitman decided to pull from the scene for a while and travel to Toronto, to support his hailing father who was already terminal.[19] After Laitman’s return to Israel, he continued to study on his own and wrote a few books on the basis of the private sessions he had with Baruch Ashlag.[20] Only a few years later did Laitman began to teach, and was recognized by some of Baruch Ashlag’s disciples as his successor,[21] particularly after his claims to the succession were endorsed by the deceased master’s widow, Feiga,[22] who had married Rabash in 1990.[23]

Laitman was born in Vitebsk, present-day Belarus, in 1946. He is referred to by his disciples as Rav or Rabbi as an honorific title, although he is not an ordained rabbi and does not lead religious services.[24] He is also referred to as “Dr. Laitman,” on the basis of a doctorate he received in 2004 from the Institute of Philosophy at the Russian Academy of Sciences.[25] In fact, Laitman's background is not in religion but in science. He developed an interest in traditional Judaism only after he moved to Israel in 1974. He was interested for a while in the Kabbalah Centre but the extent of his association with this organization is disputed. Sources associated with the Kabbalah Center claim he studied there for "one or two years," while Laitman maintains he never studied at the Center. Rather, he attended a few private lessons at the house of Philip Berg, until he was disillusioned. Shortly after, in 1979, he became a disciple of Baruch Ashlag.[26]

In the beginning of the 1990s, Laitman founded Bnei Baruch ("Sons of Baruch") as a modest study group that met in his Bnei Brak apartment.[27] Gradually, the group developed. Its internal sources report that the breakthrough came in 1997, when the group started offering free Kabbalah courses through the Internet and radio (television followed in 2007), and eventually moved its headquarters from Bnei Brak to Petah Tikva.[28] Through the Internet, Bnei Baruch started gathering followers throughout the world. Today, it is present in 107 countries, with some 150,000 regular students, of whom 50,000 are in Israel: the number two million, mentioned by the movement itself, refers to those who access its web sites annually.[29] Conferences are organized yearly in Tel Aviv with some 6,000 attendees, including local cultural and political dignitaries. For example, three cabinet members from the Likud party attended the 2016 conference.[30] In 2011, at a time of internal turmoil in Israel parallel to the Arab Spring, Bnei Baruch established the Arvut ("Mutual Responsibility"), a non-political social movement.[31] Students of Bnei Baruch also established a political party, Beyachad ("Together"), which participated in the 2013 municipal elections in Petah Tikva, where it emerged as the most voted party.[32]

Bnei Baruch has also inspired musical groups, novelists, and visual artists.[33] One famous Israeli musician who has studied with Bnei Baruch, and even produced music containing Kabbalistic ideas, is Arkadi Duchin.[34] Additionally, two well-known Israeli theater actors, Israel Sasha Demidov and Henry David, study regularly with the group.[35] Two novels born within Bnei Baruch are The Kabbalist by film director Semion Vinokur (2012), a “cinematographic” biography of Yehuda Ashlag,[36] and The Egotist by Jesse Bogner (2014), a chronicle of the journey from the boring life as a socialite in New York to the Kabbalah.[37] One of the visual artists inspired by Bnei Baruch is Austrian-born Zenita Komad.[38]

Doctrine

Bnei Baruch 2016 Newark Conference

Laitman conducts open daily 3:00 AM – 6:00 AM and 6:00 PM- 8:00 PM lessons, either live (normally in Petah Tikva) or through the Internet. The lessons are translated live into eight languages, including English, Russian, Chinese, Turkish, Italian, Japanese, as well as into seven other languages in recording (among them Arabic).[39] Many Bnei Baruch students follow these lessons, and every student is free to choose his or her own study routine. Bnei Baruch also has 27 centers throughout Israel and over 150 centers worldwide, where Laitman’s students teach weekly introductory courses. [40] In these courses, there is no separation between males and females, whereas in the daily morning and evening lessons men and women study separately, although the separation assumes different forms in different countries. As noted by Italian scholars of new religious movements, Massimo Introvigne, this separation “has raised eyebrows among critics” but “is not unprecedented in Kabbalistic schools and continues the practice of Baruch Ashlag.”[41]

Laitman insists that what he teaches is not a religion, but a science, a claim that is based on a very specific view of history. The basic principle of Kabbalah, which according to Yehuda Ashlag was “love thy friend as thy self” as a pathway to the attainment of the Creator, was discovered, Laitman teaches, in Babylon by Abraham, who himself was not a Jew but a Babylonian.[42] According to Laitman, in the days of Abraham the Babylonians faced a crisis of spiking egotism that separated them from each other and disintegrated their society. The quest to find the source of this social crisis, eventually led Abraham to discover the Creator (which Laitman, following Yehuda Ashlag, defines as the force of love and bestowal). Abraham realized that the bust of egotism was only an opportunity for the Babylonians to unite on a higher level and discover the Creator, and began spreading this notion among the residents of Babylon. [43]

According to Laitman, the small group of students that gathered around Abraham was eventually called "Israel," after their desire to cling to the Creator (from the words Yashar El, meaning “straight toward the Creator”). As summarized by Myers, Bnei Baruch teaches that this group had “a spiritual designation” rather than an ethnic or religious one, indicating a practice based on Abraham’s method centered around the unity above the growing ego.[44] Although Abraham gathered only a small group, his wisdom gradually conquered a significant number of followers,[45] which developed over time and culminated in the building of Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple. Eventually, however, the ego took over, the First and the Second Temples were destroyed, and the “Jews” scattered among the nations. The purpose of this scattering of the Jews among the nations was to eventually bring about the reform (“correction”) of the whole world.[46]

A key component in this development of the nation of Israel and humankind, Bnei Baruch maintains, is desire, which is composed of different levels. The first corresponds to the development of basic desires, such as for food, sex and shelter. The next three degrees in the development of desire refer to social levels – desires to have property, gain fame and control, and eventually to possess knowledge about reality. The development of these desires is regarded as the catalyst of human development, i.e. when the desire develops, humanity comes up with a technological way to satisfy this growing desire in the form of a new and more advanced technology. The fifth, and last, level of desire to develop is the spiritual desire. The spiritual desire develops as a feeling of dissatisfaction with the fulfillments of the desires on the lower levels, and generates an existential inquiry in the person, most notably verbalized by the question, “What is the meaning of life?”[47] It was, Bnei Baruch teaches, once rare, which is why Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai ordered to keep the Kabbalah secret. However, the more the world declined over the centuries into a spiritual crisis, the more souls with spiritual desire appeared. This was why Isaac Luria, according to Bnei Baruch, opened the study of the Kabbalah to all Jews, and Yehuda Ashlag started extending it to non-Jews as well. From the end of the 20th century, Bnei Baruch insists, the method of connection and overcoming of the ego that the movement believes was discovered in Babylon by Abraham, and developed by Kabbalists over millennia, must spread to the masses.[48]

Two key notions of Bnei Baruch’s doctrine are correction and connection. Correction, a core concept in Kabbalah in general, means the continuous effort of moving from hate to love, from egoism to altruism.[49] The idea is that our world is still dominated by egotism and conflict, but we can "connect" at a superior level above our ordinary life. "If we connect correctly,” says Laitman, “we discover in the connections among us a special force" that we can also call God: "God is the force that humanity discovers through the right connections among people."[50] Laitman claims that in the future, we will be able to realize Yehuda Ashlag's “altruistic communism” that, he insists, is “completely different” from Soviet-style communism: “We build a balanced society where the upper force, which is the force of connection and love, is among us and connects us, and by this we will achieve complete correction.”[51]

Controversies

Bnei Baruch is criticized in Israel by three different groups. First, some academic scholars of the Kabbalah in the tradition of Gershom Scholem regard Bnei Baruch's "pragmatic" Kabbalah as not philologically correct nor true to the ancient sources. This criticism is mostly confined to the academic milieu.[52] Ultra-orthodox Jews insist that Kabbalah should be taught to qualified Jews only, and regard Bnei Baruch's dissemination of the Kabbalah to non-Jews as heresy and sacrilege.[53] Finally, some who are associated with the anti-cult movement regards Bnei Baruch as a cult, accusing it of a personality cult of its leader, of requiring exaggerated monetary contributions to students, and of brainwashing[54] As noted by Israeli scholars, Marianna Ruah-Midbar and Adam Klin-Oron, a unique feature of the Israeli anti-cult movement is that ultra-orthodox Jews and secular critics of religion strictly cooperate in several of its organizations, so that it is difficult to disentangle strictly religious and secular criticism of groups labeled there as "cults."[55] As noted by Israeli scholar Boaz Huss, Bnei Baruch's practical, this-worldly approach to Kabbalah is very different from the academic reconstructions of Scholem and Moshe Idel and from Kabbalah as taught in the ultra-orthodox milieu, which explains part of the criticism.[56] On the other hand, Introvigne has concluded, after a participant observation of the group in various countries, that Bnei Baruch does not try to convert students to any particular religion and, although students exhibit an intense devotion to their teacher and devote to the movement on average more time and resources than followers of other spiritual movements, their attitude is neither uncommon nor exceptional in the world of religion and spirituality, and criticism is also explained by the intense debate in Israel over who, among scholars, religionists or independent teachers such as Laitman, is "authorized" to define Kabbalah.[57]

Notes

  1. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 16.
  2. ↑ Introvigne (2016); Blau (2015).
  3. ↑ Introvigne (2016).
  4. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 7.
  5. ↑ Bick (1980), 174.
  6. ↑ Huss (2005), 616.
  7. ↑ Meir (2013), 242.
  8. ↑ Huss (2005), 616.
  9. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 9.
  10. ↑ Introvigne (2016).
  11. ↑ See Myers (2007).
  12. ↑ Introvigne (2016); Introvigne (2017), 9.
  13. ↑ Rabinowicz (2000), 203.
  14. ↑ Meir 2007, 157.
  15. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 10.
  16. ↑ HaModia (1991).
  17. ↑ Introvigne (2016).
  18. ↑ Introvigne (2016).
  19. ↑ Yifrah (2017).
  20. ↑ Some of these writings were collected in Laitman (2008).
  21. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 10.
  22. ↑ F. Ashlag (2005).
  23. ↑ Meir 2007, 158.
  24. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 11.
  25. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 12.
  26. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 12.
  27. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 16.
  28. ↑ Introvigne (2016).
  29. ↑ Introvigne (2017). 17.
  30. ↑ Yediot Ahronoth (2016).
  31. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 17.
  32. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 17-18.
  33. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 28.
  34. ↑ Niv (2013).
  35. ↑ The MEIDA Center (2017).
  36. ↑ Vinokur (2012).
  37. ↑ Bogner (2014).
  38. ↑ See Komad (2015).
  39. ↑ The MEIDA Center (2017).
  40. ↑ The MEIDA Center (2017).
  41. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 16.
  42. ↑ Myers (2011), 200-202.
  43. ↑ Myers (2011), 201-202.
  44. ↑ Myers (2011), 203.
  45. ↑ Myers (2011), 209-210.
  46. ↑ Myers (2011), 203.
  47. ↑ Myers (2011), 204-206.
  48. ↑ Myers (2011), 207.
  49. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 14.
  50. ↑ M. Laitman, quoted in Introvigne (2017), 15.
  51. ↑ M. Laitman, quoted in Introvigne (2017), 15.
  52. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 33.
  53. ↑ Introvigne (2016).
  54. ↑ See Blau (2012); The MERIA Center (2017).
  55. ↑ Ruah-Midbar and Klin-Oron (2013).
  56. ↑ Huss (2007).
  57. ↑ Introvigne (2017), 31-32.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.