The Way (Michael Berg)
Pure Pabulum
[My 1-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Way: Using the Wisdom of Kabbalah for Spiritual Transformation and Fulfillment” by Michael Berg.]
In The Way, Michael Berg states that “Kabbalah predates Judaism and all other religions… and even predates creation itself.” But then, in this book, he reduces the primordial Kabbalah to pop, dumbed-down nonsense by tying it to low-level occult Jewish texts. For example, he refers to The Book of Formation (Sefir Yetzirah), which, in his words, “describes the Hebrew letters as the foundation of the sun, moon and stars. Even intangible such as love, mercy, and time derive from the twenty-two letter of the Hebrew alphabet.” This is pure poppycock. But if you dig it, then Berg’s Kabbalah might be your cup of tea. Berg, like many other pseudo-Kabbalists, states that “Kabbalah’s most important book is the Zohar, or Book of Splendor.” The Zohar, the foundational text of mystical Judaism, according to many, has been identified as inauthentic, as a forgery; and beyond that, it’s simply not even close to as good as the premier foundational texts of Buddhism and Hinduism. The Bhagavad Gita, for example, is a quantum leap beyond the Zohar as a source of spiritual wisdom.
Berg says, “Through prayer, meditation, and simply by living in accordance with kabbalistic principles, we can maintain an open line of communication with the spiritual dimension of reality that the kabbalists refer to as the Upper Worlds.” But Berg offers us no information on the so-called “Upper Worlds” other than “The upper worlds exist within ourselves, in the sense that each of us is an expression of all creation.” One has to wonder if Berg himself has had any contact with these ”Upper Worlds,” which he is seemingly incapable of describing.
No study of the Jewish Kabbalah is meaningful without an in-depth consideration of the ten Sefirot, or emanations, that constitute the Tree of Life (sometimes referred to as “Jacob’s Ladder”), but Berg, shockingly, never mentions them. This alone reduces his book to pure pabulum.
Berg mentions receiving the “Creator’s Light.” Kabbalah means “to receive” [the Light]. But unbeknownst to Berg, the Light one receives in true mystical communion is Un-created, not from God the Creator, but from God, the Un-manifest, Un-created Hypercosmic Being outside of space-time. Moreover, although, Berg does provide a few rudimentary meditation exercises, he fails to provide instruction on how to directly and immediately connect to the Divine Light and channel its radiant influx.
In short, Berg is a low-level, exoteric kabbalist (but a sharp Jewish businessman), raking in big bucks by selling naïve Jewish mystic wannabes a “Stairway to Heaven;” and this book “The Way” is essentially a come-on promo publication to attract the unsuspecting to his pricey Kabbalah Center programs.
[My 1-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Way: Using the Wisdom of Kabbalah for Spiritual Transformation and Fulfillment” by Michael Berg.]
In The Way, Michael Berg states that “Kabbalah predates Judaism and all other religions… and even predates creation itself.” But then, in this book, he reduces the primordial Kabbalah to pop, dumbed-down nonsense by tying it to low-level occult Jewish texts. For example, he refers to The Book of Formation (Sefir Yetzirah), which, in his words, “describes the Hebrew letters as the foundation of the sun, moon and stars. Even intangible such as love, mercy, and time derive from the twenty-two letter of the Hebrew alphabet.” This is pure poppycock. But if you dig it, then Berg’s Kabbalah might be your cup of tea. Berg, like many other pseudo-Kabbalists, states that “Kabbalah’s most important book is the Zohar, or Book of Splendor.” The Zohar, the foundational text of mystical Judaism, according to many, has been identified as inauthentic, as a forgery; and beyond that, it’s simply not even close to as good as the premier foundational texts of Buddhism and Hinduism. The Bhagavad Gita, for example, is a quantum leap beyond the Zohar as a source of spiritual wisdom.
Berg says, “Through prayer, meditation, and simply by living in accordance with kabbalistic principles, we can maintain an open line of communication with the spiritual dimension of reality that the kabbalists refer to as the Upper Worlds.” But Berg offers us no information on the so-called “Upper Worlds” other than “The upper worlds exist within ourselves, in the sense that each of us is an expression of all creation.” One has to wonder if Berg himself has had any contact with these ”Upper Worlds,” which he is seemingly incapable of describing.
No study of the Jewish Kabbalah is meaningful without an in-depth consideration of the ten Sefirot, or emanations, that constitute the Tree of Life (sometimes referred to as “Jacob’s Ladder”), but Berg, shockingly, never mentions them. This alone reduces his book to pure pabulum.
Berg mentions receiving the “Creator’s Light.” Kabbalah means “to receive” [the Light]. But unbeknownst to Berg, the Light one receives in true mystical communion is Un-created, not from God the Creator, but from God, the Un-manifest, Un-created Hypercosmic Being outside of space-time. Moreover, although, Berg does provide a few rudimentary meditation exercises, he fails to provide instruction on how to directly and immediately connect to the Divine Light and channel its radiant influx.
In short, Berg is a low-level, exoteric kabbalist (but a sharp Jewish businessman), raking in big bucks by selling naïve Jewish mystic wannabes a “Stairway to Heaven;” and this book “The Way” is essentially a come-on promo publication to attract the unsuspecting to his pricey Kabbalah Center programs.
