Tel Aviv faces 2012 threat with kabbalah

December 14, 2011 - 10:23 AM by David

People enter the Kabbalah Center in Tel Aviv this week adorned with blue and white baloons spelling out '2012'

The hundreds of people making their way into well-kept, handsome building just off of Dizengoff Circle this week looked like they could have heading to the theater or opera. They were also handsome, well-dressed and coiffed.

But the theater they’re attending has nothing to do with entertainment and everything to do with enlightenment Rabbi Eitan Yardeni, the kabbalah teacher to the stars like Madonna, was about to give a free, public lecture at the Kabbalah Center.

The ancient Jewish texts are defined by the Israeli-born, Los Angeles-based Yardeni as “the ancient universal teaching that helps us to understand the purpose and the meaning of life, and gives up practical tools for pure and lasting fulfillment.”

They were codified in Safed in the 1500s by Rabbi Isaac Luria, and poularized by the hassidim of the 1800s, have long been restricted to learning by devout married men over the age of 40. But in recent decades, at places like The Kabbalah Center in Tel Aviv, where over 1,000 people learn Kabbalah in weekly classes, and in its over 50 other locations around the world which were founded by Rabbi Philip Berg and his wife Karen, kabbalah study has trickled down to the masses – religious or not, Jewish or not. And the influx of celebrity devotees, like the Material Girl, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher have done little to help convince detractors that the Berg’s version of kabbalah is nothing more than a facile, self-help fad.

Perhaps, it’s that new age essence that has raised the hackles of members of the Jewish establishment who over the years have criticized the Bergs and the Kabbalah Center, and who call their empire a ‘cult’ which fuels their lavish lifestyle. Even the IRS is currently conducting an investigation into their finances.
But none of that was important on this night, as over 500 Israelis – some already students of kabbalah and some here out of curiosity – jammed the Kabbalah Center auditorium to hear Yardeni lecture on the topic “2012 – Certainty in a World of Uncertainty.” We all know the Mayan theories about the world coming to an end next year, and apparently, kabbalah has some insight into it.

“What tonight is about is opening our eyes to realize a certain direction and place to where the universe is pushing us. As 2012 approaches, the choices are becoming even more extreme. We’ve seen political revolution and social revolution, the pace that things are happening is so fast” he said with a backdrop of Dafna Leek speaking at one of last summer’s social protests.”

“What I want to tell you is that we have a choice – we don’t have to wait for bad things to happen in 2012. We’re at a junction where we can create change and avoid much chaos, pain and suffering. In business, when markets or real estate fluctuates, there’s some corrections or adjustments that need to be made. In life too, when there’s too much imbalance, selfishness and chaos, some corrections will need to take place. Do we have to wait for the chaos to take place to correct ourselves, or is there something we can do practically to change the situation?”

The crowd was rapt, and applauded throughout the speech. Near the end, the speaker plugged the center’s introductory kabbalah courses. Outside the building, one middle-aged down-on-his-luck-looking man riding a bicycle reads the flyer, and asks a passerby, “Is something bad supposed to happen in 2012?”
When he’s told about the Mayan civilization legend that allegedly predicts a cataclysmic event during the year that will bring about the world’s destruction, he laughs, and misinterpreting the explanation to mean the destruction of Israel, responds, “People have been trying to kill us ever since we’ve been here. Don’t worry, we’re going to be fine.”

He rode away chuckling to himself.

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