Before my entry into the world of Kabbalah in 1962, I was a traditional, observant Jew. I observed the Jewish holiday known as "Shavuot" in the Orthodox manner. This holiday, which commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments, required that we study biblical or Talmudic text all night until dawn, at which time we would pray and then go to sleep. This was the way I had observed Shavuot from the age when I was first capable of staying awake all night. As I understood then, it was customary to observe this holiday in commemoration of the event on Mount Sinai. The reason for studying was to display our connection to the event, and that was all there was to it. It was a traditional observance, with no particular personal meaning for me.
The reader may then imagine how shocked and confused I was when I experienced my first kabbalistic Shavuot with my master, Rav Yehuda Brandwein. We seemed to be practicing and observing the holiday just as I had since childhood. It was truly a revelation to me, however, to learn the “why” of the event. This was the explanation of the revelation event and what it was meant to do for me today, 3,400 year later. I could not believe my ears.
"Kabbalistic teachings can rid life of chaos."
My master first reminded me that anyone who referred to this holiday as the commemoration of the giving of the Ten Commandments or the initiation of a new religion, specifically Judaism, was mistaken. Furthermore, he continued, the entire tradition omitted the most significant aspect. When I heard him say this, I was trembling. What had I and all of Jewry throughout the millennia missed? I had been steeped in the religious observance of this event and believed I had been taught all there was to know about the Ten Commandments.
“First,” he began, “never again refer to the event as the Lord’s Gift of the Ten Commandments. There was no event that signified ‘commandments’.”
Upon hearing these words, I might have said, “Good-bye. I really do not want to hear anything more,” but my master had a reputation as a rabbi, a scholar, and a kabbalist, so I stayed. He continued by reciting something I faintly recalled from the Talmud: the statement that what happened on Mount Sinai was the Revelation of the Ten Utterances. Why, I wondered, would the Talmud use the word “utterances?” Most of the world considered the Revelation on Mount Sinai to be the Revelation of the Ten Commandments.
Every movie-goer is familiar with the spectacular movie, The Ten Commandments, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. He literally immortalized the awareness of the revelation incident. Upon learning that the event on Mount Sinai involved not commandments but utterances, however, I asked my master how such a misunderstanding had emerged. Why had this mistaken interpretation been permitted to stretch over millennia?
The answer was shocking. After all my years in rabbinical study, my master’s response was a complete deviation as to the methodology used in approaching the more important events in Scriptures. My teacher explained to me that behind every misunderstanding that emerged from the significant event of revelation lay the sinister hand of the satan, and it was his continued presence that perpetuated this gross distortion. The satan places great emphasis on maintaining this mistaken interpretation, my master explained. The satan was familiar with the time of revelation and the ten utterances, but the true purpose of the revelation, said my master, could be summed up in one word: immortality.
Recalling this crucial, new understanding of the connection between Shavuot and immortality, Karen and I decided to establish this long-forgotten tenet that belonged to all humankind – The Mount Sinai revelation experience. We gave the attendees a mini-experience of immortality by guaranteeing them that by fulfilling the requirements outlined by the Zohar and Rav Isaac Luria, they could enjoy the next four months without fear of death. This concept was too much for many, including some who had taken formal classes at the Centre.
Many close friends of the Centre warned us that this guarantee was stretching our luck too far, but Karen and I were determined.
If Kabbalah is indeed the solution and salvation for all humankind, we are going to ride it for all it’s worth. The beauty of Kabbalah is that regardless of what one’s religion may be, kabbalistic teachings can rid life of chaos.
THE REVELATION OF THE TEN UTTERANCES
The understanding of the true significance of what occurred on Mt. Sinai is of great import. Once you turn on this understanding, it increases the brightness, and more and more of the true meaning of this event is revealed. In order for the process of mortality to be reversed, every single one of the components must be prepared in order to realize the whole. Additionally, the process must occur in harmony with the cosmic calendar. Only in this way can the energy for immortality be released at the appropriate time, with the right consciousness. Each and every year the right moment comes around. This is the significance of the revelation.
Yes, the immortality energy is present within the Light. With the right meditations and the complete wisdom of Kabbalah, people are allowed to tap into the Light’s awesome energy, drawing it into their bodies. Meeting its enemy, mortality energy, the Light force is capable of completely eliminating mortality, as if it had never been there, just as a light bulb eliminates darkness from a room when the switch is turned on.
THE REMOVAL OF THE MORTALITY INFLUENCE
The mortality influences goes deep. Mortality at the time of the Garden of Eden penetrated to the genetic level. Two distinct stages are required for its removal. The first is for us to become prepared for the transformation, to cease doubting. We must leave our cynicism and “show-me” egos behind, and change over to certainty consciousness. And after this we must allow ourselves to receive the radical metaphysical alteration that we undergo when we truly open ourselves to Kabbalah energy. We must, of our own free will, choose immortality.
THE MISTAKE OF MOUNT SINAI
When my master discussed the revelation on Mount Sinai, he said that soon the circumstances would appear in which I would receive my confirmation that immortality was real. I felt that he was referring to what Karen and I had established as the Mount Sinai revelation experience. By the late 1970s, these gathering included scholars who were Kabbalah-educated and initiated, although the conferences were open to all who could raise their consciousness to the level of acceptance of immortality.
Many of the established Jewish communities were opposed to linking this event to Shavuot. They asked that we redesignate the event as the “giving of the Ten Commandments” and that we omit the word “immortality.” When I indicated that his event was less my own idea, but instead embodied conclusions reached by the Zohar, the hostility become still more intense. However, I knew that there was no turning back, for the traditional methods of observation of this holiday ignored the Zohar. My master believed, and I believe, that dogmatic form of religion was never the intent of the revelation. Neither was the revelation intended as an event in which the Jewish people became a nation.
"The purpose of the revelation was instead to restore the universe to an orderly, structured nature."
The purpose of the revelation was instead to restore the universe to an orderly, structured nature – a world where the Life force is law, as it existed before Adam. To any rational mind, this new approach was exactly what people wanted and needed. Why would this interpretation of the revelation bring down the terrible wrath of the Jewish establishment and hostility between Jews only seen during the destruction of the Temples? This is even more incomprehensible to me when I consider that immortality is a concept accepted within all major religions.
TIME TRAVEL
In our day-to-day lives, a strange paradox exists. Although people are consumed by death consciousness, they are at the same time engaged in an incredible denial of death. It’s as if life and death have been reversed. For example, there is rarely an adult who has not been asked to purchase life insurance so as to provide for his or her dependent children in the event of the death of the provider. Ever the questioner, I have wondered, Why do the insurance companies call this “life insurance,” when its proper name should be “death insurance,” inasmuch as payment of this policy will occur only when the insured dies.
But those who attend our celebration of the revelation on Mount Sinai are truly acquiring life insurance – a guarantee that they will survive for the next three or four months (until the end of the Hebrew/Astrological year). For the present, this small taste of immortality is a pleasure to offer, just as before a large meal one is offered a sample of the chef’s talents in order to whet the appetite.
In the 30 years that the Centre has been providing the kabbalistic revelation experience, there has not been a single death among those who have attended in the four-month period immediately following the revelation experience. This is what the master had originally foreseen when he shared his vision of mini-immortality. Little did Karen or I know where that humble beginning would take us. Today, thousands of people around the globe are reaping the benefits of the master’s prophecy.
The idea that mini-immortality was a virtual reality spread like wildfire. The notion that a time-travel machine was available has even intrigued scientists. While the Centre’s findings could not be verified by conventional scientific methods, this did not deter students from around the world from attending the Mount Sinai revelation experience.
To achieve immortality, albeit for four months only, required traveling back in time. Although the time machine has thus far been a part of science fiction only and not of science, scientists have explained that if such a thing as a time machine ever existed, it would be as if time slowed down in actuality. While the years would go by, in real time, we would not age. When we achieve permanent immorality, the close stops altogether, for all time.
Although the rational mind cannot grasp the concept of time slowing down or stopping permanently, the fact has already been established. The controversy that has surrounded our claims in this regard may be compared to the 19th century debate over air travel. Some claimed that heavier-than-air machines would never remain aloft yet pioneers persisted until airplanes become a reality.
Time travel simply means that one can travel faster than the speed of light. Albert Einstein claimed that it was impossible to travel faster than the speed of light because if one could, then there would be no past, present or future. Everything would be in the here and now, the present. Time would stop. There would be no aging. Einstein never proved that one cannot travel faster than the speed of light. He merely reasoned that such a phenomenon could not exist. If it did, people could travel back in time; they would go back and stop upon reaching their vigorous youth.
Einstein did not believe in time travel simply because he did not see the theory in practice. He could not accept the theory of immortality because he could not personally witness this reality. Today science has confirmed that particles exist that can travel father than the speed of light. Science is finally catching up with Kabbalah.
Yet one of the obstacles that science must deal with is their uncertainty principle. How aptly titled! It demonstrated how far physics remains behind Kabbalah, for as we know, one of the prime causes of chaos is that the satan has infused human consciousness with the principle of uncertainty. We must choose to change all this.
To achieve temporary or permanent immortality requires certainty that the revelation on Mount Sinai will accomplish this long-sought-after reality. There is nothing to reality aside from consciousness. If in our minds we have doubts whether the revelation on Mount Sinai created immortality, then all kabbalistic meditations and connections will not serve us in achieving immortality.
This act of traveling back in time was detailed in the Zohar. On the night of the kabbalistic revelation experience, all those who participate are provided with the methodology that assists them in connecting with the cosmos. It is this vital connection that embodies and perpetuates the energy of mini-immortality.
THE SWITCH FOR SINAI IMMORTALITY
“This energy of immortality can always be accessed.” - Rav Yehuda Brandwein
The basis of our revelation experience is, of course, the implementation of my master’s teachings. I will now finally return to his explanation of exactly how the switch for Sinai immortality can be turned on.
When light is revealed within the universe, it is destined to remain forever, but the Light remains potential, like electric current in the socket or wall switch. When the appropriate stimulation – in kabbalistic terminology, a proper vessel – is applied to the Light force, the Light force is reignited and revealed. “Inasmuch as the Light force of immortality on Mount Sinai had once become revealed,” explained my master, “this energy of immortality can always be accessed.”
Rav Luria, in his voluminous work, Gate of Meditations, provided the necessary vessel or switch for Sinai immortality. This procedure could not accomplish the revelation of immortality, however unless it was applied at the appropriate cosmic time of its original revelation. The guidelines were included within the Biblical code as deciphered by the Zohar. Eternal events are as cosmically scripted as are the appearance of the sun, moon, and all other celestial entities. The constellation of Leo in the heavens does not make its appearance in the wintertime, just as the sign of Capricorn will never appear in the heavens during the summer months.
"Eternal events are cosmically scripted."
Glancing into the sky with a high-powered telescope reveals each sign of the Zodiac configured with billions of stars appearing at the usual time of the year. Just as a TV guide is necessary for the viewer to know the exact time of the showing of a favorite program, so too, does the Bible disclose the exact calendar time when the cosmos is prepared to put on a particular program of events. The moment for the immortality event is the sixth day of the lunar month of Gemini. This is the opportunity for humankind to view and tap the energy of immortality.
Let us continue this analogy with the television. Merely turning on the TV will not permit accessing the primetime news at 7:00 p.m. Our sets have the potential ability to provide primetime news. If I turn the set on at 6:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m., however, I will not see the primetime news. Nor can the set access a particular program on anything other than the correct day.
The appropriate time to tune into the awesome energy of immortality, my master said, is the evening of the sixth day of lunar Gemini. This is the incredible information that only a Zohar can furnish. The entire evening up until, and including, the early morning must be devoted to accessing this unbelievable energy. The body must undergo deprivation. By implementing the codes for accessing immortality provided in detail by Rav Isaac Luria every person is guaranteed that he or she shall not die for at least the next four months.
Now when I first heard these words, I had never heard anything like them before. All I could thing was, “Too good to be true!” When I shared this reaction with my master, and asked if what he was saying had been proven or substantiated before in history, he answered, “No, that will be your task.”
This is an excerpt from the book
Immortality: The Inevitability of Eternal Life by Rav Berg.
