Q&A: Kabbalah Institutes

Hello and blessings. Laitman has no connection with true Kabbalah. In fact, he denies the fundamentals of Judaism and has no ties to the tradition of the Torah of Moses and Kabbalah. His entire approach is fake and distorted. It's a shame for precious people who fall into his trap. He preaches non-observance of Torah and commandments under the guise of Kabbalah, and his movement is defined as a missionary cult by the "Yad L'Achim" organization. Even the rabbis who had previously endorsed his books have retracted. The "Bnei Baruch" cult is flush with funds they gather from hundreds of thousands of non-Jews who are members of his so-called "Kabbalah." Apparently, he has no issue spreading his false doctrines among masses of non-Jews, further violating the transmission of Torah secrets to those unworthy.

I am quoting some of Michael Laitman's pearls from his Kabbalah website for you to judge for yourself.

"It is self-evident that the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which brings a person to such an understanding of creation and his place within it, causes a person, even unwillingly, to stop praying. And yet, in all religious practice methods, prayer is the central, main, and most important action, which all other religious commandments are arranged around as mere appendages. In such a case, it is clear that the wisdom of Kabbalah, as a science entirely directed towards internal observation and inner change, keeps a person away from all external ceremonies and commandments of any religious stream. Hence, all religions – with Judaism at the forefront – oppose the science of Kabbalah."

Laitman continues: "Is Kabbalah connected to Judaism? The foundations of Kabbalah were discovered by Abraham our forefather, a resident of Haran, who wrote the Book of Creation. His students, relatives, servants, and descendants gathered around his spiritual legacy to form a study group which, over time, called themselves the people of Israel, despite being, in fact, part of the Ancient Near Eastern peoples (a fact proven by genetic tests). Can adherence to customs or belonging to any religion prevent a person from engaging in Kabbalah? A person beginning to engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah finds himself outside the customs and ceremonies of this world because he starts developing within himself an additional sense, one not related to this world but to the Creator Himself. He begins to understand that customs, religions, and beliefs are not connected to the Creator and connection with Him but were created by people for psychological comfort, feelings of security, self-justification, and imparting minimal moral values to human society."

"However, Kabbalah also claims that despite a person’s engagement in Kabbalah, if he has an internal need to keep certain customs, Kabbalah will not uproot him from them; on the contrary, Kabbalah advises him to continue his habits until he no longer finds benefit in them. Additionally, Kabbalah encourages the keeping of educational customs and rules, claiming they help a person to be more organized while he learns the laws of Kabbalah, until the sensation of the upper world teaches him how to think and behave correctly."

Needless to say, all true kabbalists actually placed great emphasis on the fulfillment of the commandments, writing that it represents our connection with the Creator, as well as the correction of creation. Laitman distorted and manipulated these concepts for other purposes. Jews, keep your distance from this man!

Hello. Laitman, among other things, says that there is no resurrection of the dead as traditionally understood by our sages, and there is no obligation to lay tefillin despite explicit verses like "and bind them as a sign on your hand," and that fasting on Yom Kippur need not be an actual fast, again - despite explicit verses. As you write, he indeed says that one must understand the acts of commandments, but he adds that this suffices, and there is no need to perform practical commandments. True kabbalists, it should be noted, write in all their books about the correction of creation and maintaining the connection with the Creator through prayer, practical commandments, and everything a Jew is commanded according to Halacha.

So indeed, stay away from this like fire, besides other problematic issues.