Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My parents, Rav and Karen Berg, have given me many gifts of incalculable value. However, the greatest gift theyve given me (and millions of other people around the world) has been guidance in the 5,000-year-old spiritual wisdom known as Kabbalah. Since they began talking, writing, and teaching about Kabbalah, they have given its key concepts a degree of focus and clarity that has never been known before. Moreover, having conducted their own lives according to these spiritual principles, they have provided a living example of Becoming Like God in action. It is impossible for me to adequately express my gratitude to my parents, and I will never be able to repay them for what they have given me. Everything written here comes from what theyve taught me, and I hope Ive presented their teachings faithfully. With the deepest possible love and respect, I offer this book as a tribute to them.
I would also like to thank my brother Yehuda for being my friend and partner in the path of continuing our parents dream to spread this wisdom to the entire world.
I would also like to thank Jai Collins, Paul Wolfe, Peter Guzzardi, and Esther Sibilia, who helped me put these ancient ideas onto paper with clarity.
My most important daily partner is my wife. There is so much I can say about Monica, but for me the most important is this: Without you I have nothing, with you I have everything.
PROLOGUE:
AN OPEN LETTER
THIS BOOK IS A LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE INMATES OF A PRISON. ITS A STRANGE PRISON, BECAUSE WITHIN ITS WALLS LIE MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS AND SUNSETS. IT CONTAINS RARE BIRDS AND RARE DISEASES, MINI-DRAMAS, MAXI-DRAMAS, MELODRAMAS, AND THE LATEST DVDS. THE PRISON HAS NO NAME, BUT OVER THE YEARS ITS INMATES CAME UP WITH ONE AND IT STUCK. THEY CALL IT LIFE. NO ONE GETS OUT FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR, AND IN THIS FACILITY EVERYONE IS SENTENCED TO DIE.
THATS WHY THIS LETTER IS ADDRESSED WITH GREAT PASSION AND URGENCY. YOU WHO READ IT, HOWEVER COMFORTABLE
YOUR SURROUNDINGS, ARE INHABITANTS OF THIS PRISON, AS AM I. OUR PRISONS HISTORY IS LITTERED WITH LEGENDS OF ESCAPE ATTEMPTS, AND RIFE WITH ADVICE FROM ESCAPE EXPERTS, BUT PRISON LIFE HAS PROCEEDED PRETTY MUCH UNCHANGED FOR SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS. WHICH IS TO SAY THAT MOST PRISONERS ARENT AWARE THEYRE IN PRISON.
BUT NOW AN INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY HAS PRESENTED ITSELF. A HISTORICALLY ORDAINED OPPORTUNITY. AN OPPORTUNITY WRITTEN IN THE DNA CODE OF OUR UNIVERSE. A CRACK IN THE PRISON DOOR HAS OPENED AND ALLOWED A SHAFT OF SUNLIGHT TO SHINE THROUGH.
CONSIDER THIS BOOK A REPORT FROM THAT SUNLIGHT.
THAT SUNLIGHT EMANATES FROM THE CREATOR OF OUR UNIVERSE. WE CAN FOLLOW IT TO ITS SOURCE, AND WHEN WE DO, WE DISCOVER OUR OWN SOURCE.WHEN WE DO, INSTEAD OF PRAYING TO GOD, OBEYING GOD, FEARING GOD, OR REJECTING GOD, WE BECOME LIKE GOD.
ON WHAT AUTHORITY DO I MAKE SUCH AN EXTRAORDINARY STATEMENT? ON GOOD AUTHORITY, NONE OF WHICH IS MINE. IN FACT, NOT A SINGLE TRUTH THAT IM ABOUT TO REVEAL COMES FROM ME PERSONALLY. IM MERELY A REPORTER, AND MY NEWS SOURCE IS A 5,000-YEAR-OLD BODY OF WISDOM CALLED KABBALAH. MY PRINCIPAL
REFERENCE IS 23 VOLUMES OF ARAMAIC
TEXT, WHICH COMPRISE THE CHIEF REPOSITORY OF KABBALAHS WISDOM: THE ZOHAR. TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO, THE ZOHAR REVEALED TRUTHS SCIENCE IS ONLY NOW CONFIRMING. I HAVE HAD THE UNUSUAL PRIVILEGE OF TRANSLATING THE ZOHARITS FIRST COMPLETE ENGLISH TRANSLATION IN HISTORY AND A PROJECT THAT TOOK ME MORE THAN TEN YEARS.
IN HUMAN TERMS, MY AUTHORITY COMES FROM A LINEAGE OF GIANTS: KABBALISTS AND LUMINARIES WHO FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS HAVE LIVED, REVEALED, AND TRANSMITTED THE TEACHINGS OF KABBALAH, SOMETIMES IN SECRET, SOMETIMES IN THE FACE OF GRAVE DANGER, BUT ALWAYS WITH THE CERTAINTY THAT A MOMENT IN TIME WOULD COME WHEN THIS KNOWLEDGE WOULD EMERGE FROM ITS PRIVATE, ESOTERIC REALM AND BE AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE ON EARTH. A MOMENT WHEN THE PRISON DOORS WOULD OPEN AND A LONG HISTORY OF PAIN, SUFFERING, AND DEATH WOULD BE OVER. A MOMENT WHEN PEOPLE WOULD BECOME LIKE GOD.
THAT MOMENT IS NOW.
MICHAEL BERG
INTRODUCTION:
THE ROCK AND THE MOUNTAIN
A rock is hewn from a mountain. It has the same nature as the mountain, but when it is disconnected it is no longer called mountain, it is called rock. Not one atom of its essence has changed, yet pulling it from the mountain has made it something else. Put the rock back into the mountain and its no longer a rock. So the rocks existence is determined not by its substance, but by its relation to the mountain that is its source.
Kabbalah teaches that just as rocks are hewn from mountains, humans emerge from God. AT THE LEVEL OF THE SOUL, HUMANS HAVE EXACTLY THE SAME ESSENCE AS GOD. IN ESSENCE HUMANS ARE LIKE GOD.
SO, HOW DID WE BECOME ROCKS?
Kabbalah speaks of a negative force in the universe, a pickaxe that removes us from God. This force bears an odd name, but you will be quite familiar with it by the end of this book. IT IS CALLEDDESIRE TO RECEIVE FOR THE SELF ALONE. IT IS ALSO KNOWN AS EGO NATURE, A STATE VIRTUALLY ALL OF US INHABIT VIRTUALLY ALL OF THE TIME. AND IT IS THE SOURCE OF ALL OUR PAIN AND SUFFERING.
So heres what this book is about: overcoming that force; revealing our true essence; becoming like God.
This book is a guide to that ultimate journey. It is meant to point the way; to motivate; to offer tools, direction, and encouragement. I offer it on behalf of the luminaries who have preceded me, sages who completed their own journeys to becoming like God and left behind a road map for the rest of us. The list of mapmakers begins with Abraham and Moses and spans centuries to include Kabbalists such as Rav Shimon bar Yochai, Rav Isaac Luria, and the Baal Shem Tov. Most notably, in the last century, Rav Ashlag received divine authorization to reveal information from Kabbalah that had been held secret for time immemorial. He was the first Kabbalist to write down wisdom that for thousands of years had only been transmitted orally from teacher to student.
So you might say this book is made possible by a grant from the universe. Thanks to that divine decision, and to the window in the cosmos that has opened in this era, the wisdom of Kabbalah now can be made available to every man, woman, and child.
A note before we go further: The word God is not an ideal term. No word has ever borne such a burden of interpretation and misinterpretation. For this reason, Kabbalists rarely use the word. Light of the Creator is a more accurate expression, because the Creator we know is an energy of sharing and fulfillment. It is the Light of the Creator we experience in those moments when joy overtakes us, or when beauty suddenly illuminates our lives.
Having said that, since the word God is widely understood to represent a divine being of total perfection and ultimate potential, we will use it here in that sense, neutral of any set of religious beliefs.
