The Kabbalah Center was begun more than 30 years ago by Rav Berg and his wife, Karen. Until that day Kabbalah was considered an exclusive ancient wisdom only accessible to those great scholars and mystics who had already reached great heights of spiritual and intellectual perfection. With the founding of the Kabbalah Centre Rav Berg began to revolutionize the transmission of this knowledge so that it is now accessible to the great masses of people who are in dire need of guidance to create better selves and an improved, perfected world.

According to Rav Berg of the Kabbalah Center, the way to connect to God is through self-transformation. The more we do for others, help people, say something nice, improve the world around us, our own ego becomes reduced allowing a place for God to enter. At the Kabbalah Center it is taught that our actions for goodness helps us to negate our selfish aspects, which in turn connects our soul to God. In addition, prayer is the means by which we can connect to the source of the spiritual strength which gives us the ability to resist our egos, selfish desires and incorrect responses.  We are the tools through which the spiritual light enters the world to transform it and heal it, and prayer is the force which propels us to action. The Kabbalah Centre is a great place to begin this transformation of the self and ultimately the world.

The roots of the Kabbalah Centre can be traced back to the great Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag, who, in 1922 established the Kabbalah Centre. On his passing, Rav Yehuda Tzvi Brandwein took over at the helm. Rav Berg was one of the students of Rav Brandwein, and the Kabbalah Centre’s sites relates that Rav Brandwein designated Rav Berg as his disciple who was to continue the Kabbalah Center’s tasks. Rav Berg and his wife, Karen, have been at the helm for over 30 years!

The Kabbalah Center, started and run by Rav Berg and his wife, Karen, has a number of very interesting internet sites. On their sites, they say that the Kabbalah, which is the center of what they teach, is “the world’s oldest body of spiritual wisdom.” This is very interesting, and I would say requires investigation, especially in today’s age when people are searching for meaning in their lives. So, I am going to look up the Kabbalah Centre on the internet, and also look to see if their are

I studied Zohar yesterday - well almost, more like read a section of it.

As I see it has already been mentioned, the Zohar is the primary work of the Kabbalah. It is  written in Hebrew and primarily Aramaic (an ancient Semitic language similar to Hebre), and it is a work of great depth and symbolistic content.

My desire to study Kabbalah and specifically the Zohar is connected to my idea to improve myself as a person. I have heard I have also heard Rav Berg and the faculty  of his Kabbalah Centre speak of improving the world… so, it sounds good to me and inspired me.

The Jewish prayer book has some passages of the Zohar incorporated into the prayer service. I took a look at the English translation of one of these, but I didn’t understand it. I got the the literal meaning of the words (as they were translated in the prayer book) but not the depth and significance. It’s a start.