Karen Berg Brings Tikkun Olam to World Through Women

Karen Berg has been co-directing the Kabbalah Centre alongside her husband and spiritual soul mate, Rav Berg, for over fifty years. As the co-director she has been able to guide the Kabbalah Center toward broadening the number of students that come in contact with Kabbalah and who in turn bring the practice of Kabbalah into the world. In her special role as a woman, Karen Berg has especially made the Kabbalah accessible to a large number of women, who are in a unique position as women, to help spread the message of Tikkun Olam to others.

This achievement is even more significant because until Karen Berg was able to create an atmosphere in which women could become students of Kabbalah, the Kabbalah was closed to women and they simply did not learn this special, ancient and life-sustaining wisdom. I would like to give a big thank-you to Karen Berg for helping women to change their own lives and the lives of everyone around them, and making the world a better place to live, for everyone.

Karen Berg has written a book to take you on a journey of discovery, self-awareness and exploration of the amazing world of the feminine aspect of godliness. Called, “God Wears Lipstick”, this intense book, written by a woman that opened up the world of the Kabbalah to women for the first time in 4,000 years, Karen Berg is in the unique and special position to explain and expand on women’s special role in the universe.

Karen Berg bases her treatise on the deep secrets of Kabbalah. She explains why women have a unique spiritual advantage in the world; the special power of soul mates; and the real purpose and meaning of life.

In Karen Berg’s straight-from-the-hip approach you will explore with her the secrets of reincarnation, the real meaning and sacred power of sex, and what it takes to manage relationships in a deeply spiritual and satisfying way.

If you have been wondering why the world is divided into two genders, this is the book to answer that question.

“Women are the nourishers of the world, and as such, we are the messengers of God.”

--Karen Berg

Karen Berg and the Shechinah on YouTube

See Karen Berg on YouTube discussing the secrets of creation, the Garden of Eden, the Shechinah, innocence and educating children. In her poised and endearing style, Karen Berg explains difficult ideas in simple language to help make Kabbalah accessible to all.

The Ethical Aspect of God’s Creation and the Sephirot

The focus of the work of Rav Berg at the Kabbalah Center is to help people use the teachings of the Kabbalah to improve themselves and then transform the world into the perfected place which is the goal of creation. Understanding how the sephirot interact with each other and are affected by human behavior helps us to improve our behavior.

When we look at the famous chart of the sephirot we see that there are two outer columns. The column on the right represent the sephirot which signify how God reveals more blessings in the world when mankind and individuals use their previous blessings with compassion. The sephirot on the left side correspond to the way God hides these blessings when people abuse them in a selfish way and without compassion. This is exactly how our behavior is responsible for whether or not God seems present or absent.

By studying the sephirot and the Kabbalah we can learn how to make the world a better place.

How is the world created with Sephirot?

Rav Isaac Luria, who lived in Sefad, Israel, in the mid-16th century, developed a cosmology to describe how God created the world using the 10 emanations, or sephirot. Each of the sephirot are like the manifestation of God’s will, or ‘ratzon’ in the world. The names of the sephirot are as follows, but each name is need of a description to understand how God manifests his will in a particular way.

1. Keter- this means ‘crown’ in Hebrew and is the equivalent of ‘will’ or ‘ratzon.’
2. Chochmah- wisdom
3. Binah- understanding, which is different than wisdom
4. Chesed- loving kindness
5. Din- judgement
6. Tiferet- harmony or beauty
7. Netzach- victory
8. Hod- glory
9. Yesod- foundation
10. Malchot- kingship or sovereignty

Sephirot and Creation

I thought it might be fun to talk a little bit about some of the more well-known ideas in Kabbalah. We have all heard of the ‘sephirot’, and seen pictures of the charts which illustrate how the sephirot relate to one another, but what does it all really mean?

First off, it is crucial to always keep in mind that the 10 sephirot are not in any way, shape, or form 10 separate ‘gods.’ The sephirot can be best understood as godly ‘emanations’, or more clearly, ten different ways God reveals himself in this world. A good way to think about it is that God himself does not change but rather the ability, or way, to perceive Him is what changes.

More about sephirot later.

Rav Berg Translated the Zohar to English

You might not know this, but Rav Berg is the first person that translated the entire Zohar into English. Amazing! Without this translation we would all be forced to learn Aramaic in order to read the Zohar. Aramaic is a little used language today but used to be in much more wide usage many hundreds of years ago. Aramaic is a Semitic language related to both Hebrew and Arabic. While I'm on the subject I'll tell you the little I know about Aramaic. Some books of the Bible are written in Aramaic, including the books of Daniel, and Ezra. The Talmud is also largely written in Aramaic. More later.