London – The London Jewish Cultural Centre has cancelled an event booking by the controversial Kabbalah Centre.
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Fliers advertised a session on “love and relationships” taught by Eitan Yardeni, spiritual mentor of the centre’s most famous supporter Madonna, and his wife Sarah.
But LJCC chief executive Trudy Gold said: “Due to unforeseen circumstances, the space is no longer available and the hirer has been notified.”
Rabbi Barry Marcus, a long-term opponent of the centre who spoke to the LJCC, said: “I am happy the event is not going to happen. They are not part of the community, they operate outside the community and that’s where they should stay.”
The centre’s London branch lies close to his own Central Synagogue.
Last summer the branch announced it would be running “topical seminars” outside its West End headquarters to make it easier for people who wanted an introduction to Kabbalah.
According to the centre’s website, while the “4,000-year-old Kabbalah was preserved through Judaism some 3,500 years ago… its spiritual roots are for the benefit of all peoples” and it was “never meant for a specific sect”.
But critics complain the centre’s self-help version of Kabbalah is a travesty of the Jewish mystical tradition. It also has come under fire for its sale of artefacts such as “Kabbalah Water”, said to have healing powers, red-string bracelets, and copies of the Zohar (the esoteric commentary on the Torah) which retails for hundreds of pounds.
Rabbi Marcus said: “To suggest that you can understand Kabbalah without understanding a word of Hebrew is as preposterous as offering a course on quantum physics to someone who doesn’t have a basic understanding of mathematics.”
No one from the London Kabbalah Centre was available for comment.
The rabbonim in the UK have nothing to fear from this nareshkeit and should not be trying to censor or exercise prior restraint on these peddlers of their new age version of Kabalah. The more they make it seem like “forbidden fruit” the more younger yidden will be attracted to this form of spiritualism. The rabbonim themselves in EY, the U.S. and now the UK have made kabalah appear to be some sort of secret, magical set of beliefs by saying that only the a tiny percentage of yiddin with great learning in Torah and talmud could ever aspire to understand the teachings of kabalah. If we were to make the whole area more transparent and took away some of the mystery, a large portion of its attractiveness to unaffiliated yidden would go away.
Actually, this has nothing really to do with kabbalah. It has to do with a cult, that is making millions off of fickle people who want to believe in goodness. The cult leader tells them what midos to work on to become holier and close to god… and then collect LOTS of Money from them for his services.
Sounds awfully close to some versions of chasidus!!!
If you are promoting your self, and not promoting Hashem, you are just as guilty I guess.
The way to come close to Hashem is primarily through HIS Torah.
There are no real shortcuts….
Exactly who are these people who run the KB Centers in the US and UK? Are they from Frum backgrounds or are they reform types? Is the Zohar they sell authentic or are the translations incorrect like the Reform “Chumash”?
“not as bas as chasidus”????
are you kidding?
are you saying that The Kabbalah Centre is BETTER than chasidus?!
oy vey!
The Kabbalah Centre is a CULT.
That is what it is.
It is designed to empower the individual leader of the cult!!!
His name is Berg and he is a wise guy who may have been a talmid chochom, who has gone astray and is laughing his way to the bank.
It has nothing to do with Hashem, and everything to do with
Kinah, Ta’ava, and Kavod!!!
it has nothing to do with real chassidus. I was suggesting that it is a mistake to believe that giving money to a holy man can replace true avodas hashem.
Some ignorant people seem to think that chasidus is a system where “regular” people give money to support a holy man…. and that is how they become holy. That is a misrepresentation of Torah.
True chasidus should make a person become a better oved hashem, with the guidance of a Rav who is not profitting!
(or propheting!!!)