Review: Berg: Education of a Kabbalist

Berg: Education of a Kabbalist

Last night I accidentally found a bookshop in Novato, CA on my way to dinner that was in the process of closing down for good. The Odyssey bookshop was selling everything for 80% off. Even thought I only had 10 minutes to look around I managed to pick up seven books for 15 dollars. Two of them should be mentioned here.

In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov is a version of the “earliest collection of legends about the founder of Hasidism” from 1814, edited and translated by by Dan Ben-Amos and Jerome R. Mintz. I was only familiar with Buber’s collection so I am looking forward diving into this one. After I read it I can decide whether it belongs into this collection on Kabbalah books or not.

The other book I had a bit of struggle with. I realized that I have strong prejudiced against the Kabbalah Center and its founder Berg. I feel and believe what he is doing is just business, has very little to do with what I would consider real Kabbalah. The problem with anything “real” or authentic is that once lots of other people have a very different understanding of it, it does not matter what the minority thinks about authenticity. By now in the wider world’s eye Kabbalah is associated with the people and celebrities this organization’s marketing machine has reached.

But last night I could not resists spending $1.35 on a book from them. I thought maybe I should read a little bit, so I could turn my prejudice into a slightly better informed opinion. I picked up Education of a Kabbalist by “Kabbalist Rav Berg.” For me a characteristic of somebody who has been working with Kabbalah is humility. Rav is a title what other people can use for those who they respect. It means great. A humble person would never call himself rav, not to mention commit self-publish something using this title. So it was clear that Berg is not humble. But adding the word “kabbalist” makes it worse. As far as I knew such title does not exist.

Then I read the prologue which strengthened my initial feelings about the lack humility of the author. Page 10 says, “when someone merits the title of Kabbalist, this denotes four specific personal qualities and scholarly attainments.” I would like to see some independent confirmation/source for this statement. I think they just made it up. That’s more or less independent of why I think of the four aspects they expound later. I used the pronoun “they” in the last sentences, because it is unclear who wrote the prologue. It talks about Berg in this person, so one would assume it was not written by him. But it is unsigned, so we have no way of knowing. I suspect it was the company’s marketer who put these words down.

The prologue’s first paragraph contains this twisted sentence,

The biggest surprise of all, however, may well be this: Although the book is entitled Education of a Kabbalist, with Rav Berg as author, on each page and almost in every sentence, Rav Berg focuses our attention on Rabbi Yehuda Brandwein his teacher, mentor, and Kabbalistic master.

From my perspective this is nothing else then self-grandeurization. This last word may not exist, but the meaning is clear, isn’t it? To make oneself look larger than one is. So why is it a surprise that a student titles a book referring to his own development and mentions his teacher in it a lot? It is fake humility. It would have been more honest either to write a straightforward book about the master or to give it a different title that reflects that the book is about the interplay between the student and the master. This way the uninitiated reader thought can feel some awe towards the author, look how humble he is. Not.

Just one more examples than I stop. Page 10 reads

Rav Berg’s depiction of Rabbi Brandwien presents, not just one individual, but an extraordinary line of souls, including, by implication Rav Berg’s own, who achieved a truly wondrous level of elevation.

Again someone (the marketer, a student, a not-so-secret admirer… who knows) is shining the author’s ego.

Now back to the four characteristics. The first one is about getting familiar with (or advancing on) the ten sephirot. Sounds fine. The second is about “living every day and every moment according to the teachings of Kabbalah.” I totally agree, it is important. The third is about being “committed to teaching the Kabbalah, to spreading the wisdom.” Berg certainly did his share in this regard. But it is a relatively recent addition to the idea of what a kabbalist is. It more or less originated with Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag. Before him it was a hidden knowledge. Despite what scholars such Gershom Scholem did in the academic arena in terms of analysis and explanation. As a practice it was not intended to be widespread. So the question is how modern my understanding of Kabbalah is. Do I consider a recent edition to the lore a central and essential part? I do not, and Berg does. Let’s leave it there for now.

The fourth aspect is about the received nature of Kabbalah, the way one is connected to previous masters. This indeed is a part of the tradition. But from Berg’s mouth, which after all is about reaching more (paying) students sounds less honest. Particularly that the same paragraph contains this little nugget: “Rav Berg is not only the messenger, but the personification of Kabbalah for our time.” What else is there to say? How can I argue with that?

Maybe I will continue when I read the other 150 pages of this small format book.

Year first published: 2004

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