"Kabbalah Center" scheme founder Shraga Berg Dies

[Zelhar]

I hope the cult and fraud of "Kabbalah Center" dies with him.


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/rabbi-philip-berg-founder-kabbalah-630136

[Yerusha]

Rabbi Philip Berg of Los Angeles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Berg
will be buried in Safed today.

Berg's early books were very good. Some, like his "Wheels of a Soul" on the subject of reincarnation in Judaism are classics.

His later writings were viewed by some as being too daring, in order to be populist.

Some envied his Kabbalah Centers around the world. Others his money. Others were outraged that he taught gentiles like Madonna, Demi Moore and David Beckham Kabbalah, accusing him of demeaning it, and of brainwashing, money-grasping and "cultism".

The fact is that as the Vilna Gaon states (Even Shleimah 2): "The Redemption DEPENDS on the study of the Kabbalah"  - עיקר הגאולב תליה בלימוד הקבלה - although they are all wonderful, it does not depend on the study of Chabad Chassidus, nor of Breslov Chassidus, not of Mussar, nor of Talmud, not of Shulchan Aruch, not of Rambam, nor of R.Soloveickhik etc etc, but on the study of pure Kabbalah and Zohar.

And few men did so much in this generation to spread its teachings to so wide an audience as Berg, and it is right that he be laid to rest not on the Mount of Olives, but near the Arizal and within sight of R.Shimon Bar Yochai, in Safed, the city where the Moshiach will first reveal himself, "carrying the Zohar in his hands" (R.Yehuda Ashlag).

[Ephraim Ben Noach]

I can't imagine he was a very good person. If he was, why would he teach some of the people he did...

[muman613]

The Kabbalah center is a fraud. Without a firm basis in Jewish ideology Kabbalah is completely useless. This is why it should not be taught to non-Jews, Jews who are not at the level to understand the deep secrets, Jews who are too young, etc. I have always considered the Kabbalah center to be a fraudulent money-making scheme for pop-Kabbalists.

Despite what the Vilna Goan, according to Yerusha stated, Jewish basics are the best to learn before anything even remotely resembling Kabbalah.

Actually Chabad Chassidus spread Kabbalah to many more people than this so-called Kabbalah center. So too does the Breslov Chassidus.. Both brands of Chassidus place a great deal of emphasis on Tanakh and Zohar (see the Tanya or Likutie Mohran)...



http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/2031161/jewish/What-is-the-Tanya.htm

Part 2. The Sources

We have already noted that the author of the Tanya made no claim to originality for his work. On the contrary, he emphasized his dependence on his predecessors. Among the "books and sages" which influenced his thinking, the Scriptures, Talmud and Lurianic Kabbalah must be given foremost place. This is indicated already in the first chapter, which opens the book with Talmudic quotations, references to the Zoharitic literature and R. Chayyim Vital, the great exponent of Lurianic Kabbalah, and with interspersed quotations from Scripture. Here we already have an indication of the author's cast of mind and his aim to build his system on the combined foundations of Scriptural, Rabbinic and Kabbalistic sources.

Rabbi Schneur Zalman's interpretations and doctrines are based upon the teachings of the Ba'al Shem Tov, the founder of general Chassidut, and his own "masters," Rabbi Dov Ber of Miezricz, the Ba'al Shem Tov's successor, and Rabbi Dov Ber's son Rabbi Abraham, the "angel."

The author draws abundantly from the Zohar and the Tikunei Zohar. He mentions by name Maimonides (the Code), and Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (Pardes). Of other "books and scribes" which influenced him, though he does not mention them by name in the Tanya, are R. Isaiah Hurwitz's Shenei Luchot ha-Berit, the works of the Maharal (Rabbi Judah Lowe) of Prague, and Bachya ben Asher's Commentary on the Bible.18

[Yerusha]

Actually, whilst learning Kabbalah without observance or knowledge of other parts of Judaism may have a risk of danger, but it is never useless, since it is the study of the Creator Himself.

In this paltry spiritually numbed-down generation, some like Berg viewed the risk of spreading knowledge of Elokus, even if in to the hands of the Klippa of the slithering Madonna, as worth taking.

[Yerusha]

http://www.bhol.co.il/Article_EN.aspx?id=59831
" Nuisance even in death: Safed residents against Berg grave 

Tomb of Shraga Philip Berg, became the focus of pilgrimage and was surrounded by burly bodyguards - to the dismay of residents .

What are burly and grim looking security guards, searching for in the ancient cemetery in Safed, where they allow only authorized access to the burial?

Two and a half years ago, anonymous bought a burial plot in the ancient cemetery in Safed, for "the righteous Rebbe of America," later anonymous built them over the plot structure of a burial cave, at an estimated cost of 180 thousand dollars.

Residents, who are not used to new burial caves being built and at such large investment, moreover the purchaser bought dozens of adjacent grave plots, trying to find out for whom the noise, but just two weeks ago the mystery was solved.
Founder of the Kabbalah Center Rabbi Shraga Berg (86) Brooklyn native and resident of Los Angeles, has died. On the eve of Sukkot morning, a coffin landed in Israel, and to the surprise of the ultra-Orthodox residents of the Mekubalim City, immediately began preparations for burial in the cave.

Thousands attended the funeral, Jews and Gentiles, religious and secular, including movie star Ashton Kutcher – a student of Rabbi who came specifically and Environment Minister Amir Peretz.

The cave in which he was buried, is equipped with lighting operated by solar energy, ventilation systems and the locked gate special coding system. On the inner wall of the cave is an elegant embossed candelabra and opposite a mounted stone bench wall. "

[muman613]

Well I guess Shraga Berg is now finding out that reincarnation ain't true.

I suspect he will be reincarnated for what he has done... He should have to rectify the damage he created in this lifetime.