OUR EMBEDDED KABBALAH CENTER SPY DIGS DOWN DEEP FOR $ALVATION

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New York Post (NY)
October 31, 2004 
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Inside Madonna's 'Religion' - Second of two parts
OUR EMBEDDED KABBALAH CENTER SPY DIGS DOWN DEEP FOR $ALVATION
Author: MARIANNE GARVEY
Article Text:
One of the most exclusive book parties in history was held in London a week ago.
The book was "Becoming Like God." The author was Rabbi Michael Berg, whose family runs 50 Kabbalah centers around the world, and the guest list simply read, "Demi, Gwyneth, Madonna and Donatella."
Demi Moore, who threw the star-studded affair, felt it was the least she could do for the chubby middle-aged man, who has wooed many of Hollywood's starlets with his family's far-fetched philosophy.
He preaches that by suppressing their egos and sharing their assets, they can achieve inner peace and - every actor's dream - immortality.
In return for practicing what he preaches, according to the promotions for the new book (which include his Kabbalah centers' 800 number), they can "do away with pain, suffering - and even death."
But mostly, the extraordinary roster of famous followers of Kabbalah - a form of ancient Jewish mysticism that focuses on reincarnation - seem to be doing away with large portions of their box-office dollars in the form of donations to the Berg family and their nonprofit organization, especially Madonna.
Kabbalah may be just recently making headlines, but the practice has been reeling in actresses for a decade, ever since Sandra Bernhard enrolled in classes back in 1995, at the advice of her personal trainer. She told her friend Roseanne Barr how much she loved it, and Roseanne became addicted the following year.
Bernhard is also credited with roping in Kabbalah's biggest superstar, Madonna, in 1997. Madonna, obsessed with the teachings, dragged in Guy Ritchie, now her husband, after they met, as well as her mini-me, Britney Spears.
Last year, after her straight-to-video sex tape hit the Internet, Paris Hilton checked out Kabbalah. Demi Moore showed up on the set of "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," completely absorbed in it. She pulled boy toy Ashton Kutcher in.
Shortly after working with her on "Charlie's Angels," Lucy Liu showed an interest, and brought her friend Soleil Moon Frye to Kabbalah class with her. Mariah Carey was seen wearing the trademark red string earlier this year, and Donna Karan gushes in interviews about her faith in Kabbalah.
After a month-long Post investigation into Hollywood's new "non-religion" and intense Kabbalah classes at the high-profile Los Angeles center with the man who indoctrinated Madonna herself, the mysteriously self-help-like tenets of Kabbalah were no clearer. What was clear was that Kabbalah is a brilliant business that has made a Brooklyn man and his family very wealthy.
The Hollywood version of Kabbalah was created 35 years ago when a Brooklyn insurance salesman named Feivel Gruberger went to Jerusalem, trained in the ancient form of Kabbalah that was originally only allowed for Jewish men over 40 after they mastered the Torah. He changed his name to Philip Berg, returned to America and opened shop in a one-bedroom apartment in West Hollywood.
He created a self-help concept - on par with motivational speaker Tony Robbins or author Deepak Chopra - with expensive accessories, books and classes to go along with it.
He appointed his own rabbis - including two of his sons - and trained them to instruct followers on how to get closer to "the light" and scan the Zohar, Kabbalah's equivalent to the Bible, which followers claim "holds all the answers to the universe."
Berg and his sons have written 10 Kabbalah books and now own 14 centers across America, with their headquarters located in Beverly Hills at the flagship L.A. center.
His rabbis relate Kabbalah to a spinning record: that the universe and all its energy is in constant rotating motion. Kabbalists are connected to this energy and see that they are part of a higher being, but if you are on the outside looking in, you are supposedly selfish and disconnected.
The classes focus on your negative traits to enable you to "see the light." Teaches ask you to face "extensions of your egos" like, anger, pride, judgment, hate and control.
Students write lists of uncomfortable, yet positive, things we should do: give up control, work as a team, volunteer your time, volunteer your money, make a commitment and hear criticism.
"They begin associating things with 'this is good, this is the light,' and 'this is bad, this is dark' - they begin forming a we/they mentality, and that's what they've done to the insiders to get them to give more," top U.S. cult expert Rick Ross said. "They've associated money with 'the light' and goodness so people refuse to question that."
The irony of the non-religion's appeal to A- and B- list Hollywood ladies is that while vanquishing selfishness is the single most important theme of Kabbalah, the famous and semi-famous get first-class, personalized treatment from the moment the center's door is opened for them.
The rest of us were wandering around the nondescript Kabbalah Centre in Beverly Hills trying to keep our wallets in our bags as volunteers promoted $3.80 bottled water that has been "infused with Kabbalistic meditations" by rabbis at the center, $26 twines of red string that are supposed to ward off evil when tied around your wrist, and $20 candles for "meditation" and "specific energies," like certainty.
"It isn't all me, me, me. We are part of something bigger; we are connected to the universe," Madonna's first Kabbalah teacher Eitan Yardeni, regarded at the center as the "best Kabbalah teacher in the world," said in one of my classes.
"We are all trapped in the same prison of our minds and our negativity. We are all the same."
Then in walked "Charlie's Angel" star Lucy Liu, causing him to pause and approach her with an intimate hug and air kiss.
Some members said that when Madonna is in town, it's even worse. For years she has been personally and individually taught by members of the Berg family.
She is known to attend Friday night services, dinner and special trips, like the one to Israel this past September. But members say during services, she is seated off to the side, blocked from the view of non-famous followers by a partition. During the meals, she has the privilege of being seated next to the Bergs and having special meals cooked for her.
She's said she found her whole purpose in life through Kabbalah - and she's now convinced she is a "vessel" to spread Kabbalah throughout the world. Last summer, she declared herself the "Messiah of Kabbalah," according to the Holy Observer, a Web site that reports on religions.
DROPCAP Kabbalah literally means "to receive" and is rooted in Hebrew.
And landing Madonna has been a cash cow. She makes enormous donations to the Kabbalah Centre, reportedly spending $21.6 million to open a Kabbalah school in New York in December.
She has handed over all the money earned from sales of her series of five children's books to Kabbalah's Spirituality for Kids - a branch that offers classes for children on how to be a better person in which she enrolled her own kids, Lourdes, 8, and Rocco, 4.
And during her recent Reinvention Tour, she sold her own brand of Kabbalah goods, like "Kabbalists Do It Better" T-shirts, and reportedly gave the proceeds to the Kabbalah Centre.
This is exactly what classes at the L.A. Kabbalah Centre teach you to do: Give money to the Kabbalah Centre.
My teacher stressed that the more money you give away, the better human being you will become.
"You'll be saying, 'I've gained more certainty with Kabbalah; I don't worry about money. I've learned to share!'" Yardeni exclaimed during class.
And, surprisingly, to become that better human being, you're prodded into sharing the money specifically with the Kabbalah Centre - to take more classes, pay for more services, buy more books. It never stops.
Different volunteers called me on my cell phone about six times in a month-long period, asking me if I wanted to shell out more money to enroll in more classes. Once in class, giving money is often brought up more than once.
The most pricey events have a theme and offer those who attend life-changing benefits such as love or money.
Michael, 40, a student at the L.A. Kabbalah Centre, shelled out $1,200 to attend one service with a "no death" theme, which promised "no death" to family or friends, to relationships or business ventures.
He was on the verge of losing his Internet security company and his BMW when he went to the three-day meditation and study service and focused on his problem. After attending, he said he was sure his business would be saved.
"My business was about to close in early 2004," he said. "So I went and meditated and concentrated on no death of any kind - physically or in business or in relationships."
Michael said the $10,000 he needed to save his company and his car came immediately after the service from an anonymous friend of one of his employees.
"I know the service allowed me to get that," he said. "Without Kabbalah, it wouldn't have worked."
DROPCAP Rabbi Berg, 76, has managed to amass a personal fortune of a reported $20 million, and the Beverly Hills center alone is turning over $26 million a year - although Berg does not release his exact yearly personal income to the public.
The amount of money that flows into the center rises yearly. It comes from donations - some as high as 10 percent of members' annual salaries - class payments, special services and bookstore sales.
Money from services, classes and sales from the Kabbalah bookstore are recycled into Berg's Kabbalah centers, the Spirituality for Kids program and opening new centers - as well as multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills mansions and a fleet of Mercedes and Lexises for his family.
In fact, while Rabbi Berg, who recently suffered a stroke and has been under hospital care, is finishing the third $2 million mansion in a family compound in a nicer area of the neighborhood, he is also constructing a dorm for his full-time volunteer Kabbalah worker bees just behind the L.A. center.
The center itself has no associations with outside charities. You won't find most members volunteering elsewhere or the rabbis helping in a soup kitchen.
Although Yardeni stressed in class that Kabbalah is not a religion, but "gives the tools for life," Berg's Kabbalah centers are registered as churches with the IRS and have special tax-exempt status.
IRS 990 forms, which show revenue, expenses, assets and liabilities from 2000, show the organization had assets totaling over $14.5 million and $5.5 million in revenue.
In 2002, the Kabbalah organization's assets rose to $23 million. And in 2003, the L.A. center alone reportedly grossed $26 million.
The Kabbalah centers are run tightly by Berg and his immediate family; the board of directors is made up of Berg, the director, and his wife Karen, treasurer. His son Yehuda is co-director and is rumored to be moving up to his father's position soon. Berg suffered a stroke a month ago and remains an inpatient at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills.
Devoted students do not question what their donations and money towards classes, books, and services are being used for.
Like Ariel, 27, a psychology student who said that she "completely trusts" the center.
"I've stopped making, 'Where is my money going?' so important," she said.
CLASS PICTURE: Celebrities who are either practicing kabbalists of have taken classes and the years they joined the "religion."
* Sandra Bernhard, 1995
* Roseanne Barr, 1996
* Madonna, 1997
* Guy Ritchie, 2001
* Britney Spears, 2003
* Demi Moore, 2002
* Lucy Liu, 2004
* Ashton Kutcher, 2003
* Soleil Moon Frye, 2004
* Paris Hilton, 2003
* Mariah Carey, 2004
* Donna Karan, 1997
* Marla Maples, 1999
Caption:
- Rabbi Yehuda Berg (above) lives in luxury at his family's $2 million L.A. mansion (top), thanks to obedient Kabbalah followers who drop big cash on "The Power of Kabbalah" book, Impact energy bar for spiritual strength, meditation water and Kabbalah Cures headache ointment (left). (Retna Ltd, Katielee Arrowsmith/Splash) - CLASS PICTURE: Celebrities who are either practicing kabbalists of have taken classes and the years they joined the "religion."
Copyright, 2004, New York Post
Record Number: NYPO20041031591018