Becoming Like God: Kabbalah and Our Ultimate Destiny (Hardcover)

~ Michael Berg (Author) "There once was a prince who lived in a grand palace..." (more)
Key Phrases: transformative sharing, godly nature, ego nature, Rav Shimon, Rav Yitzchak, Rav Ashlag (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Michael Berg, editor in chief of Kabbalah Magazine, offers an easy-to-digest manual on becoming like God. Drawing upon the traditional teachings of the Kabbalah, Berg shows readers how to overcome the ego nature, which the ancient texts name as the "desire to receive for the self alone." Throughout the book, Berg (The Way) uses the metaphor of imprisonment, claiming that most of us are confined in a jail of pain, suffering and death. Our job is to escape, which means conquering the evil prison guard (ego). Berg's amazingly Buddhist-like teachings offer enticing motivation for taking on this powerful opponent. Who wouldn't want fight ego and become like God with an "infinite payload of health, joy, and life" (which Berg claims is our birthright)? The key to this jailbreak, according to Berg, is to stop looking out for oneself, and starting looking out for the needs of the collective. This book may not tell you everything you want to know about accomplishing this new life mission, but it is an inspiring primer. --Gail Hudson

Product Description

In his continuing work to demystify and teach the ancient, esoteric texts of Kabbalah, Michael Berg suggests that the time is right for people to break free of "ego nature" and achieve total joy and immortality: in other words, to "become like God." Advising ruthless honesty about human life — its pain, suffering, and death — and then providing an escape plan based on those truths, Berg uses the tools of Kabbalah — such as the Zohar, the key text of the discipline — as well as the collective energy of all the individuals sharing this path to help form that critical mass that will allow everyone to realize their true, joyous nature. Becoming Like God gives readers the methodology to be applied at every moment to destroy ego, begin transformative sharing, and create a path to realize their true, godlike nature.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 177 pages
• Publisher: Kabbalah Publishing; illustrated edition edition (August 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571892427
• ISBN-13: 978-1571892423
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #416,726 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars great concept, shabby empty delivery, November 25, 2004

By	Samantha Atkins "a seeker" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am very open to the concept of it being our destiny to "become like God". However, this book is singularly unhelpful to doing so on any level. Sure it puts out the message. Sure it has a lot of related cheerleading. What it doesn't have is any real depth. The authority for the message is supposedly the Kabala and specifically the Zohar. Yet no real meat from these sources is presented. Nor are readers who are not already believers in the veracity and insight of these sources offered any further grounding despite the handwaving claims of this book not requiring any particular religious background.

The biggest lack in the book is the lack of any real spiritual guidance to the task at hand. There is the old platitudinal stuff about overcoming the "seeking to receive only for one's self". But there is very little guidance about how to actually do this or all the myriad guises of this same impulse and how to find a way beyond them all. A Course in Miracles does a much better and far more comprehensive job and is much more spiritually rich. The only guidance given here is to ssek one's deep humiliation and to give when it is disasterous to one's self to do so. This is not at all grounded or deep.

If I sat out to design a book that would make the entire business of Theosis look like an empty New Age rant I would not have done much worse than this empty tome. It is a great pity it is receiving the attention that it is.

87 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lacks Breadth, Depth, And Clarity, November 9, 2004

By	Janet Boyer "JanetBoyer.com" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Right now, this minute, as you read these words, you're either heading for eternal life or you're committing suicide...God exists. And he would never consign the human race to endless suffering and unavoidable death. Union with God is possible, and its consequence is never-ending joy and the removal of death. God does not suffer and die; therefore, we don't need to suffer and die." --Michael Berg in Becoming Like God - Kabbalah And Our Ultimate Destiny

It seems that everywhere I turn anymore, I see the Kabbalah. Or Cabala. Or Qabalah. Or...well, you get my drift. A recent skit on Saturday Night Live featured a fake quote by Madonna where all she said was "Kabbalah, Kabbalah, Kabbalah"--a reference to the pop star's interest in this mystical off-shoot of Judaism. Her pilgrimage to Israel made the news, and People magazine recently featured a small piece on the party that she and Demi Moore threw in London for Kabbalistic Rabbi Michael Berg. Gwyneth Paltrow was in attendance, as were other luminaries like Guy Ritchie, Valentino, and Versace.

What were they all celebrating at this posh party? The release of Berg's new book Becoming Like God - Kabbalah And Our Ultimate Destiny. Michael Berg is the director of The Kabbalah Centre, and has achieved the amazing feat of translating the 23 volume Zohar from the Aramaic into English--all by the age of 28. (He began the translation at age 18.) The Zohar is the foundation of the Kabbalah, and according to Kabbalistic teachers like Berg, is not a book of religion but of ancient technology--a technology so powerful that it can end death itself.

I've tried to read books on the Kabbalah before, but I usually give up early in the game--bored to tears by Hebrew words that I don't understand and a Tree of Life that's never really explained in lucid terms. When I received a copy of Becoming Like God, I thought that perhaps this would be the facile version of this ancient mystical tradition that would finally hold some relevance.

An easy-to-read book that's peppered with quotes in hot-pink, all-caps script--there is nary a mention of the Tree of Life, Kether, Malkuth, Binah, Chesed or any of the usual Kabbalistic buzz-words. One of the fuschia quotes in this book is FOCUS AND CLARITY ARE THE OPPONENT'S MORTAL ENEMIES. WE MUST FIGHT FOR CLARITY EVERY MOMENT: CLARITY ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF CLARITY, CLARITY THAT WE'RE IN A PRISON, CLARITY THAT THERE'S A GOD FORMULA TO BE APPLIED, CLARITY THAT WE'RE DESTINED TO BE LIKE GOD. (Forgive me for cyber-shouting, but this is an example of how these quotes look in the book.)

With all this talk about clarity...well, you'd think the book would be more clear. Instead, there is mention of an Opponent who's a "he"; I thought for sure he'd be unmasked as Satan himself at the end of the book, but instead, this nebulous Opponent's name is Why do you ask my name? (no lie)--as well as the desire to receive for self alone. What isn't explained is exactly what ego is within the context of the Zohar or the Kabbalah. Rather, Berg tries to convince us that we're all in a prison, that this Opponent is prison guard, that life must be a constant struggle of ruthlessness against this hated Opponent and that we must be ever-vigilant in the battle to become like God.

There is much talk in Becoming Like God about evil versus good, deception versus truth, and life versus death. Some concepts I totally agree with and "get": that the illusion of separation causes needless suffering, that the ego is crafty and seeks to keep us isolated, that we were made in the image of God and are ever-evolving to realize our Divinity, etc.

Yet, God is really never explained, either, and Berg portrays "Him" quite similarly to the typical male Patriarch of the Old Testament. The Earth is described as a warzone where the stakes are high (our very souls, in fact), and that we are basically warriors that are either committing suicide or becoming like God in every moment. Wow, the pressure! There is an urgent tone to this book that almost borders on paranoia and apocalyptic gloom. I agree that it would be nice for critical mass to occur and for humans to spontaneously evolve into Oneness...but quite frankly, I don't think the Creator is fretting about us going to hell in a handbasket because He/She knows that all is well.

The tone of this book is far different than what I feel in my Spirit and what I've read from books like Journey of Souls, which chronicles copious amounts of information from past-life regressions on the nature of creation, souls, the afterlife, life between lives, and the purpose of incarnating. Even if the Earth were to blow up, I'm confident that the Creator would find another suitable place in this vast Universe for us to continue our spiritual schooling! And, in books like Journey of Souls, we are informed that all things serve a purpose and for our highest good.

Yet, in Berg's book, I feel like I'm back in Pentecostal Sunday School where I'm being admonished that there's a boogey man out to get me and that I better get my act together or go to hell. For a book that proclaims Oneness, sharing, and the "illusion of the middle" (in other words, there's no in-between on the road to godhood: We're either on the road to light or on the road to darkness, says Berg)--there's a heckuva lot of duality and fear-based dogma therein.

It just doesn't jive with me. I see all the people flocking to this kind of teaching and I can't help but feel like the child in Emperor's New Clothes--wondering why celebs fawn over elaborate, silken clothes that just aren't there.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What this book's about..., October 25, 2004

By	Nicholas P. Linindoll "seekHaShem" (Mt. Pleasant, MI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've never written an amazon review before, but seeing some of the responses on this board have made me decide to respond. Some of the reviews are completely positive, giving it five stars, and others are caked in negativity giving it one star and bashing it as "drivel."

My input is this... I've seen better material from the Kabbalah Centre and other kabbalistic sources. Whereas this book is simple and has some theological weaknesses, it seems to me to be a great introduction to some of the ideas of kabbalah and a great place to launch from. Kabbalah does teach that we are the "fallen sparks" of the Creator. We do indeed possess a portion of the divine within us, and our purpose is to elevate these sparks to reunite with the divine and to cleave to the Creator. That's what the book is about... breaking free from the shells of negativity that seem to encase so many and realizing the divine sparks within each and every one of us. If you see the negativity around you, and you think, "There's got to be a better way..." then this book is for you!