Michael Berg created the first-ever contemporary English translation of the Zohar. He is co-director of publications for Kabbalah Publishing and the author of The Way: Using the Wisdom of the Kabbalah for Spiritual Transformation and Fulfillment and The Secret: Unlocking the Source of Joy and Fulfillment. In addition to his writings, Berg is known for his weekly lectures on the wisdom of Kabbalah. He lives in Los Angeles and New York City with his wife and three children.
In this creatively designed and delivered book, Berg probes the mysterious depths of Kabbalistic wisdom to present a rounded and revealing examination of the process whereby individuals can become like God. In many traditions, this is called divinization, and it is predicated upon the fact that human beings have been created in the image of God.
How can we spend so much of our lives underplaying and even denying this astonishing fact? Berg blames it on several imprisoning factors: the evil inclination within us "hotwires us to the Desire to Receive for the Self Alone," and we find ourselves enslaved to selfishness and always looking out for Number One. These efforts take plenty of our precious time and energy and leave us feeling depleted and depressed. The state of ego is a state of amnesia: "We don't remember what we came to do." And we are attached to comfort. Certainly our consumer culture abets this process by putting before us a tantalizing menu of escapes, diversions, and opportunities to do nothing more than wallow in our possessions.
Berg's objective in this bold work is to offer "an escape plan for the strongest maximum-security prison ever built" — a six-part God formula. Two parts are (1) We become like God by systematically destroying the ego, because the desire to receive for the self alone is the opposite of God. He does not receive from anyone, and (2) We become like God by transforming into beings of sharing, because God is a force of infinite sharing. The journey to God means moving beyond the comfort zone to a place where we place others before us. In other words, becoming like God means behaving like God. Try to imagine what would happen if all the people of all the world's religions no longer tried to make converts but concentrated on incarnating the love and compassion at the heart of their faith. Imagine what could take place in the world if all believers would behave like God! Berg shares the Kabbalistic vision of this transformation and he does it with verve and élan.
