Customer Reviews

The Power of Kabbalah: Thirteen Principles to Overcome Challenges and Achieve Fulfillment

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I'll start with the good stuff. This book challenges you to look at life in a different way. To actually seek out challenges in life, not to avoid them. True spiritual growth comes from taking advantage of life's tribulations. I can totally agree with that. This book also encourages people to give up the "culture of victimhood" and leave it behind. An idea I adore. The book also tells people that if you have absolute faith in God, or a higher power, if you are certain that God will give you what you NEED, great things will happen. That's not a new idea, but it's certainly true.
Now on to the bad stuff. The author of this book is SHAMELESS in his manner of rewriting history. According to Yehuda Berg, anybody who was anybody in history was great because of the Kabbalah. Any great idea that ever came from those people we hear about came to them because they were Kabbalists. The Dark Ages came about because Kabbalists hid The Zohar, the Kabbalah holy text, in a cave which caused "civilization" to plummet into chaos without its "wisdom". The author clearly intends us to forget that ONLY EUROPE was affected by the Dark Ages, and that the Middle East was experiencing a time of great prosperity and intellectual achievement. The author states that both Buddhism and Hinduism owe their existence to Kabbalists moving to India to spread their philosophy. I mean, come on! The ideas in this book don't need to be legitimized in such a silly manner.
Do I suggest that you read this book? Possibly. It can be a positive experience. Just remember to read this book with a great amount of skepticism.

I've noticed that many people see a need to Berg-bash in their reviews. I'm not certain what their true motives for doing so are. But, this book is well worth reading as an introduction to Kabbalah. No it is not the definative scholarly text of the belief, but it serves to introduce you to a system of belief that can improve your life. Don't fear it or the Bergs.
I've also noticed many reviews that seem to be written from a very Christian point of view. This perplexes me, I myself was raised Anglican, Educated at a Jesuit university and frequently considered the call of ministry. But why do so many Christians dismiss different (i.e....hebrew/kabbalah) as being dangerous new age heresy? it just begs this statement to be made, anything that may have occured prior to crucifixion was most certainly not of the Christian movement. The movement of Christianity was AFTER the crucifixion. Therefore, Jesus and his friends were most certainly Jewish. Very progressive Jews I might add. He may very well have been a carpenter turned Rabbi. And he might even have been exposed to the Kabbalah; seems many of his ideas were awfully close to it......thus the more conservative non-progressive Jewish community might have been threatened by him..... and we all know where that led.
So, pause a moment when reading these reviews. If you are drawn to this book, by all means buy and read it. It may contain the answers you seek. Question the motives of those that seem merely to dislike the Bergs of for that matter those that are locked into a strict Christian paradigm. They may not be willing to see the merits of the book.
and please, to the Fundamentalist out there; do consider the history of your faith. reason dictates that this anti-semetic tone I see so much of in these reviews is most unfounded. Consider that without Judaism, Christianity would never have happened. We all share common roots. aleph kaf aleph. (go look it up)

Here is a book that demystifies the secrets contained in the ancient writing of the kabbalah. As a service to the public, author Yehudah Berg presents a quick, easy-to-read outline of the basic tenets of kabbalah.

I have two reactions to this book. The first is that I appreciate being able to have a feeling for what the kabbalah is because I always thought it was something that was only appropriate for a rabbi or sage to study and not for the average man. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the basic tenets of the kabbalah mirror those thoughts I have developed about spirituality as opposed to religiosity during my life.

My second reaction was of disappointment. Sadness that such a miraculous work is watered down to such a degree that it feels like "marketing' the kabbalah in the same way that any cult goes about selling its philopsophy. Particularly objectionable to me is the book cover endorsment by Madonna. In addition, I really dislike the blatant advertising of other books by the same publisher and the offers of a free consultation at the back of the book. This makes the entire book seem more like a late-night TV ad than a book about a serious subject.

The Power of Kabbalah speaks to readers of all religious denominations and is extremely informative, easy to read and understand. I highly recommend this and plan to purchase another copy as a gift for my Dad.

Another great and highly recommended book on spirituality is "A Course in Miracles".

This book is well written, assuming that it is intended for beginners on spiritual paths. The content is simple enough for anyone to understand, but I got an impression that the book oversimplified matters. In other words, it lacks solid explanations of the actual specific information in terms of psychology and philosophy. Without such explanations, there is nothing unique about Kabbalah, for I find other religions, psychotherapies, and even cults using same arguments about operating our lives by taking responsibility for our actions. Also, I believe if the book eliminated repetition, it would have been a much thinner book with a less expensive price.

Kabbalah does not exclusively represent the transformation of our lives by understanding how the mind works, but this book presents it as the only source of this wisdom. Anybody who has studied other major religions easily realizes that the ideas introduced in this book appear also in other faiths. After all, it does not matter where the idea came from originally. Regardless of the source of the wisdom, by either calling it Kabbalah or Buddhism or whatever, the laws of life and universe are the same. Whether or not the author has been exposed to other ancient religious knowledge is unknown to me, but except for the "only-Kabbalah-can-help-you" atmosphere, the book represents how life and the universe work in ways that are beyond our comprehensions.

Every wondered what kabbalah is about. Find out in this great introduction book. This is the best book for anyone who is interested in kabbalah. The book is written simple. Most kabbalah books can be complex. This one is great. I have recommended this book to over 75 people everyone who read it, loved it and uses the teaching everyday in their life.

After reading the previous reviews, all I want to say is that if you are already studding kabbalah, this book is a must, since it explains and reinforces in a very easy to read language many of the fundamental, and key concepts of kabbalah. If you are not, but you would like to understand how life works from a NON RELIGIOUS perspective, then I really encourage you to read this excellent book. Being in touch with such an amazing wisdom, could definitely change your life for good.

You will start to understand the true meaning, and practical use of many of the concepts you have heard for years, such as human dignity, unconditional love, sharing, feeling others pain, living out of your comfort zone, etc .. perhaps the main concept being the understanding of ego, what is it, how it works, and how it can be responsible for the chaos in our life. Ego makes us think that we are better than our neighbor, that we hold the truth and nobody else does, that we have the right to judge other religions or ways of thinking just because they are not similar to ours, that we can treat somebody without human dignity and still believe nothing will happen to us.

Kabbalah is practical, non religious, pure wisdom that really works !, so my final advice is: give it a try, if it makes sense, and if it can really help you to live a better life, keep it ... if it doesn't just throw it away.

The principles of Kabbalah set forth in this book are more a system of ethics that help our spiritual evolution than anything.

I've applied the Kabbalistic principles to my daily life and I am a much happier person. I appreciate the science behind Kabbalah. Anyone of any faith can incorporate Kabbalah into their life; you do not have to give up your faith to study Kabbalah.

I think the best part of this book is that the author answers the how, when, why and where of our nature and existence. He isn't afraid to answer the questions that we've all grappled with in a clear and concise method.

This book-an introduction to Kabbalah- is one that I think is very much needed by every human being. Yehuda Berg astounds me, by making the complexity of Kabbalah, easy to understand to everyone.
This book is truly remarkable, and gives the reader a great foundation to further their Kabbalah study. I urge anyone interested in finding out more on this subject, to read this book. I have a feeling you won't be disappointed.
I also want to add, Kabbalah is not just a fad made popular by celebrities. It is a spiritual path that anyone-regardless of their religion, or lack of-may study.

There are enough reviews that blast this book for being from the Kabbalah Centre, which has been criticized heavily for either being a cult-like group or not doing enough to prevent cult-like situations from arising. I will, instead, address the merits of the text.

Most importantly, this book addresses the teachings of the Kabbalah Centre. Their teachings are not supported or validated by any Jewish authority. Their teachings are not the traditional teachings of Kabbalah. But this does not make the book worthless--maybe you will respond to their teachings and find meaning within them anyway.

While reading the book, I did my best to verify scientific claims made within it. All of the claims were true, but upon closer inspection, did not actually prove the points that Yehuda Berg was trying to make. The Superstring Theory may have a certain number of dimensions, but that does nothing to prove Kabbalistic concepts. This kind of deceptive writing pervades the entire text.

There are a lot of promises about how Kabbalah will change your life for the better. Unfortunately, these claims are not supported by any details. The reader is not even directed on where to find the instructions. Reading other books by Berg will yield the same result: Promises, but no explanation.

If you respond positively to Berg's teachings, this book is a fine introduction. It can even save you money, as most of their other books just re-hash what is written here (if you are looking for an in-depth read, you won't find it in any of Berg's books).

Essentially, this book is an introduction to a specific school of thought that although labeled Kabbalah, is not Kabbalah. It is the Kabbalah Centre. If you are interested in the Kabbalah Centre, and not actual Kabbalah, then it's a decent introduction, but will leave you with no way of continuing the path or finding answers. But then what are you paying for? A book that promises that your life will improve, that you will have everything you ever wanted, but no way of actually knowing how to go about attaining it.