Michael Berg [Berg - The Way: Using the Wisdom of Kabbalah for Spiritual Transformation and Fulfillment

To Rav and Karen Berg-my teachers and my parents: I will never be able to repay you for all you have given me. You have taught me all anyone needs to know, through your words, your actions, and most importantly, through your lives. All that I am is all from you.

To my brother and friend, Yehuda: Thank you for your friendship. May we continue together to reveal this wisdom to the world.

To Monica, my wife and my love: You are so much more than any man could hope for. You are my vision of love, joy, and fulfillment. For me, you are the epitome of both physical and spiritual beauty. You are my partner and my best friend. May we complete this journey together.

To our son, David: I hope I never take for granted the great gift that you are. For me, you are pure Light.

PART ONE

The Way of Kabbalah

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

PART TWO

Getting Ready for the Light

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

PART THREE

Spiritual Transformation

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

I would like to thank the many people who have made this book possible:

Most importantly my parents and teachers, Rav and Karen Berg. One cannot hope for better parents and guides. You have taught and helped millions of people, and I am lucky to be one of them.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Rabbi Isaac Luria, Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov, Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Rav Yehuda Brandwein. This book is your wisdom. I hope I have done it justice.

Yehuda Berg, my brother, my friend, for your insights and help.

My wife, Monica, for your support, assistance, and love, and for giving me the greatest gift in our son, David.

Don Opper, Mitch Sisskind, Peter Guzzardi, and Muriel Nellis, whose help has been invaluable in bringing this book to publication.

Tom Miller, my editor at John Wiley, for his important additions and comments (which prove again that the last mile is the longest mile!).

All the people at the Kabbalah Centre, and the thousands of students who have learned with me and from me. You help me to understand these concepts better every day.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is a five-thousand-year old tradition whose purpose is to bring an end to all pain and suffering in the world.

When I was six years old our family was living in Jerusalem. At that time my father and mother had made the decision not only to devote their lives to following the spiritual teachings of Kabbalah, but also to bring those teachings to the world.

My father, Rav Berg, had been raised in a strictly observant Jewish environment in Brooklyn. After many years of study, he was ordained a rabbi and spent several years teaching in a yeshiva in New York City. But over time he grew disenchanted with the insularity and lack of inclusiveness in the Orthodox way of life. Eventually he began a career in business, while still remaining observant in his personal life. After many years of living this way, he made a trip to Israel, where he was introduced to Rabbi Yehuda Brandwein, the spiritual leader of the Kabbalah Centre in Jerusalem and one of the twentieth century's greatest masters of the spiritual teachings of Kabbalah. (Whenever I visit Jerusalem today and meditate on Rabbi Brandwein's great soul, I gain wisdom and strength to live according to kabbalistic teachings.) Through his relationship with Rabbi Brandwein, my father made the decision to end his business career and dedicate his life to Kabbalah. Before Rabbi Brandwein passed on, he designated my father to succeed him as the leader of the Kabbalah Centre.

My mother, Karen Berg, came to Kabbalah along a very different path. Her family had not been at all observant. Before meeting my father, she led the life of a secular Jewish woman. Yet it was she who first suggested to my father that the wisdom of Kabbalah should be brought to humanity as a whole-that the ancient teachings should be made available to anyone who had a true desire to learn, regardless of their background and religious identity, or their lack of one.

Even as small children, my brother and I were aware that this was a truly extraordinary undertaking. Kabbalah ("to receive" in Hebrew) is a body of mystical wisdom that had long been kept secret from the world. Although it is really the Creator's gift to all mankind, Kabbalah has for centuries been identified with the esoteric or secret tradition of Judaism. Access to kabbalistic books and teachings had been granted only to scholars whose qualifications had been established over many years, or even over an entire lifetime.

The reasons for these prohibitions were twofold. Kabbalah teaches that the Torah-the first five books of the Bible-was given to Moses by the Creator. The Torah was literally dictated to Moses on Mount Sinai, as described in the Book of Exodus. Every word, every letter, of the Torah was received from God, but this was really only the beginning of the wisdom that Moses gained on Mount Sinai. The Torah, and indeed the entire Bible, is really a blueprint-an encoded introduction to a much more detailed body of wisdom that was also given to Moses by God. This was the so-called oral tradition, which was never to be written down lest it come into the possession of those who might misuse it. And even in the absence of malicious intentions, the teachings could be dangerous to those who were unprepared to receive them, in the same way that a lightning strike can overwhelm the circuitry of an ordinary household.

My parents were not only studying and living each day according to kabbalistic teachings, but were also actively making Kabbalah available to anyone who desired to learn. This was their purpose in the world. It filled every moment of their lives, and from a very early age it encompassed the lives of my brother and me as well. We adhered to all the rituals and observances given in the teachings, which Kabbalah tells us are really tools for connecting with the Light of the Creator and for fostering spiritual transformation. And we visited many spiritually important sites in Israel, including the town of Safed.

Safed was and is no ordinary place. Over the centuries Safed has been home to the greatest sages of Kabbalah. Here the mystical teachings have not only been studied but also put into practice to create a truly spiritual way of life. As my parents explained, the souls of the masters were still present in Safed, and the purpose of our visit was to connect with the souls of the kabbalistic masters who had created this extraordinary environment. Contrary to our usual understanding of death, the ancient sages had neither "departed" nor been "taken away." For them, death was not something that separated them from us in any fundamental way. It was as if they had simply gone from one room to another while remaining within the same house. Their spiritual attainments in life were so great that they were already at home in the spiritual dimension even while their bodies still lived and breathed in the physical dimension.