Philip Berg

Philip S. Berg (original name Feivel Gruberger) (August 20, 1927 – September 16, 2013) was an American rabbi and dean of the worldwide Kabbalah Centre organization.

Having written a number of books on the subject of Kabbalah, Berg believed that the philosophy should not be taught exclusively to a select few Jewish scholars but become a shared wealth of practical wisdom available to all of humankind.

There is disagreement about whether Berg's teachings, as relayed through the Kabbalah Centre, have sufficient grounds and/or genuine authority according to Jewish law, as they include some dogmas and translations differing markedly from those of more-traditional Kabbalists. Some Jewish scholars emphatically reject such teachings, deeming them as foreign to both the Kabbalah in particular and to Judaism in general.

In poor health following a stroke in 2004, he died on September 16, 2013.

Berg was born as Shraga Feivel Gruberger in Brooklyn, to an Orthodox Jewish family. His first wife was named Rivkah with whom he had eight children. It was Rivka's uncle, Rabbi Yehuda Brandwein, dean of a Yeshiva named Kol Yehuda, whom Berg first met on a trip to Israel in 1962, and who would become his Kabbalistic mentor. There is some disagreement over who succeeded Rabbi Brandwein as dean of Yeshiva Kol Yehuda - Berg has claimed to have replaced Rabbi Brandwein in that role, but that claim is disputed by Brandwein's son Avraham, who is the current dean.

After Brandwein's death in 1969, Berg returned to the U.S. and began working again with his former secretary and future wife, Karen, on the condition that she let him teach her Kabbalah, a discipline he claimed was reserved exclusively for men. In 1971 Philip and Karen married and traveled to Israel. Then, in 1973, the Bergs returned to Queens, where they established their full-time headquarters during the 1980s.

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