Word: rabbies
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...tutored more than 3,000 students in Kabbalah and the contemplation of such seemingly simple mantras as the headings for the first four Torah readings in the book of Genesis. A meditation conference organized by the Bay Area group Chochmat HaLev drew 500 people. Spiritual life at Rabbi Rami Shapiro's Temple Beth Or in Miami features a custom-built meditation garden. All told, Omer-Man believes, there are some 200 "small scale" programs of experiential mysticism countrywide...
...Kabbalists, especially those influenced by the wildly creative Jewish renewal guru Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, tailor their teachings to the spiritual aspirations of liberal Jews, rather than revive the Orthodox devotion that was the Kabbalah's original context. Another thing entirely is the empire of Kabbalah Learning Center leader Rabbi Philip Berg, which claims to serve 10,000 students through programs in eight countries. Berg offers a profitable self-help program featuring a regimen of personal "corrections"; devotees like Hollywood producer Sandy Gallin admit its basics are similar to those offered by Deepak Chopra or Marianne Williamson. Yet the center seems...
...backyard, ensconced in a cozy black leather armchair, Rabbi Philip Berg, 68, is presiding over a hushed celebration of the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkoth. As the garden party proceeds, he remembers when he saw the Light. "When you meet your master, it takes but a minute," says Berg, referring to the late, hallowed Kabbalist Yehudah Brandwein. "The Light simply turned on." The enlightenment was passed on by marriage as well: Brandwein's niece became Berg's first wife. Since Berg met Brandwein in 1962, the Brooklyn-born leader of the Kabbalah Learning Center has pursued a single mission...
...Kabbalah is heavier on the pocketbook. Classes are reasonable, as little as $10, but costs escalate with the purchase of the center's books and tapes. For example, its 24-volume edition of the Zohar, in Aramaic and Hebrew, sells for $345, three times the price of similar compilations. Rabbi Michael Skobac, a consultant for Jews for Judaism, has received complaints of aggressive and unethical door-to-door solicitation by center teachers. In addition, some members report feeling squeezed for cash. "At the center, they say you can only make a difference when you give until it hurts," says...
...concerned about their relatives' overzealous commitment to the center. Students often spend Jewish holidays with Berg; a few become hevra, volunteers who live and work at center facilities. "My husband took our daughters there," says a Long Island, N.Y., homemaker. "My eight-year-old said, 'When you look into Rabbi Berg's eyes, you see his soul, and he's beautiful.' I ask you, is that normal?" Their marriage fell apart after her husband insisted on spending Rosh Hashana at the center...