Philip Berg

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Philip Berg
This article is about the head of the Kabbalah Centre. For the attorney, see Philip J. Berg.
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Philip S. Berg (original name Feivel Gruberger) (August 20, 1927 September 16, 2013)
[1]
was an American
rabbi and dean of the worldwide Kabbalah Centre organization.
Having written a number of books on the subject of Kabbalah, Berg believed that the philosophy should not be
taught exclusively to a select few Jewish scholars but become a shared wealth of practical wisdom available to all of
humankind.
There is disagreement about whether Berg's teachings, as relayed through the Kabbalah Centre, have sufficient
grounds and/or genuine authority according to Jewish law, as they include some dogmas and translations differing
markedly from those of more-traditional Kabbalists. Some Jewish scholars emphatically reject such teachings,
deeming them as foreign to both the Kabbalah in particular and to Judaism in general, while others applaud his
populist advocacy.Wikipedia:Avoid weasel words
In poor health following a stroke in 2004, he died on September 16, 2013.
Biography
Berg was born as Shraga Feivel Gruberger in Brooklyn, to an Orthodox Jewish family.
[2]
His first wife was named
Rivkah with whom he had eight children. It was Rivka's uncle, Rabbi Yehuda Brandwein, dean of the prestigious
Yeshiva Kol Yehuda, whom Berg first met on a trip to Israel in 1962, and who would become his Kabbalistic
mentor. There is some disagreement over who succeeded Rabbi Brandwein as dean of Yeshiva Kol Yehuda - Berg
has claimed to have replaced Rabbi Brandwein in that role, but that claim is disputed by Brandwein's son Avraham,
who is the current dean.
After Brandwein's death in 1969, Berg returned to the U.S. and began working again with his former secretary and
future wife, Karen, on the condition that she let him teach her Kabbalah, a discipline he claimed was reserved
exclusively for men. In 1971 Philip and Karen married and traveled to Israel. Then, in 1973, the Bergs returned to
Queens, where they established their full-time headquarters during the 1980s.
Reports about Berg are conflicting. According to a 1994 article in Tel Aviv magazine, Berg said he was ordained in
the U.S.A. in the early '50s and received an additional ordination in Israel from his former father-in-law. Berg
received rabbinic ordination by the Lakewood Yeshiva in 1951, though he has been denounced by the traditional
Orthodox Jewish community as represented by the Lakewood Yeshiva. According to Burg website he was an
alumnus of Yeshiva Torah VeDaas not BMG, Lakewood. The Los Angeles Task Force on Cults and Missionaries
claimed he was not affiliated with the 80-year-old Yeshiva Kol Yehuda in Jerusalem, once headed by Berg's
ex-uncle-in-law, the late Rabbi Brandwein, though he claimed he was.
[3]
In 2010, the Internal Revenue Service launched an investigation, reportedly investigating whether funds were
directed to the personal enrichment of the Berg family, and subpoenaed financial records of the organization and two
affiliated charities connected to Madonna. The centre called the allegations merit-less and said it intends to defend
the case vigorously.
Berg had been ill since suffering a stroke in 2004. He died on September 16, 2013. He was generally reported to be
86 (although the Los Angeles Times reported that according to public records he was 84). He is survived by his wife
Karen and two sons, Yehuda and Michael who have led the Centre since his stroke. He also had eight children from
his first marriage.
Philip Berg
2
Works by Berg and his sons
Philip S. Berg, The Wheels of a Soul. Research Centre of Kabbalah, 1984. ISBN 0-943688-13-2
Philip S. Berg, Astrology, the Star Connection: The Science of Judaic Astrology. Research Centre of Kabbalah,
1987. ISBN 0-943688-37-X
Philip S. Berg, "Kabbalah for the Layman", Vol. II. Research Centre of Kabbalah, 1993. ISBN 0-924457-19-8
Philip S. Berg, Kabbalistic Astrology Made Easy. Research Centre of Kabbalah, 1999. ISBN 1-57189-053-X
Michael Berg, The Way: Using the Wisdom of Kabbalah for Spiritual Transformation and Fulfillment. Wiley
Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-471-22879-6
Yehuda Berg, The 72 Names of God: Technology for the Soul. Kabbalah Publishing, 2003. ISBN 1-57189-135-8
Yehuda Berg, The Power of Kabbalah. Kabbalah Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-57189-250-8
Yehuda Berg, The Red String Book: The Power of Protection. Kabbalah Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-57189-248-6
Rav P. S. Berg, Kabbalistic Astrology: And the Meaning of Our Lives. Kabbalah Publishing, 2006. ISBN
1-57189-556-6
Notes
[1] [1] Petition for Naturalization of Max Gruberger, Philip Berg's father accessed at Ancestry.com. Selected U.S. Naturalization Records - Original
Documents, 1790-1974 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.
[2] Udovich, Mim. "Kabbalah Chronicles: Inside Hollywood's hottest cult", Radar Online, June 15, 2005. (Copy at )
[3] Ellin, Abby; Sacks, Adam J. "The Kabbalah Centre Wants your Heart - and your Money: The String that Binds" in The Village Voice, August
11, 2004.
References
Daphne Merkin, In Search of the Skeptical, Hopeful, Mystical Jew That Could Be Me (http:/ / www. nytimes.
com/ 2008/ 04/ 13/ magazine/ 13kabbalah-t. html), New York Times Magazine, April 13, 2008
Tamara Ikenberg, Madonna, et al. have watered down Jewish mysticism, scholars charge Louisville
Courier-Journal, August 26, 2004
David Rowan, Chief Rabbi sounds alarm on mystical Kabbalah group The Times, April 3, 2004
Robert Eshman, L.A.'s Kabbalah Learning Center seems to attract many searching Jews, but criticism of it is
widespread The Jewish Journal, February 14, 1997
Aynat Fishbein, The Cabal of the Cabbalah Centre Exposed: New Relations "Tel Aviv" (An Israeli magazine)
September 1994, pp.3135
Nadya Labi, What Profits Kabbalah? Time Magazine, November 24, 1997
The Truth about the Kabbalah Centre Task Force on Cults and Missionaries, Los Angeles, CA 1995
Further reading
Jody Myers. Kabbalah and the Spiritual Quest: The Kabbalah Centre in America, London 2007.
Boaz Huss. "The New Age of Kabbalah: Contemporary Kabbalah, the New Age and postmodern spirituality",
Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 6 (2006), pp.107125
Jonatan Meir. "The Revealed and the Revealed within the Concealed: On the Opposition to the "Followers" of
Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag and the Dissemination of Esoteric Literature", Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish
Mystical Texts 16 (2007), pp.151258
Jonatan Meir. "Phillip Berg and the Kabbalah Centre", Daat 70 (2011), pp.159162
Jonatan Meir. "The Beginnings of Kabbalah in America: The Unpublished Manuscripts of R. Levi Isaac
Krakovsky", Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 13, 2 (2013), pp.237268
Philip Berg
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External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Philip Berg
Official website of the Kabbalah Centre (http:/ / www. kabbalah. com/ )
Kabbalah Centre Israel (http:/ / www. kabbalah. co. il/ )
NYTimes obituary (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2013/ 09/ 21/ us/
rabbi-philip-berg-who-updated-jewish-mysticism-dies-at-86. html?hpw)
Article Sources and Contributors
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Article Sources and Contributors
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