Bnei Baruch

Bnei Baruch is a group teaching Kabbalah in the tradition of the Yehudah Ashlag (Hasidic rabbi). Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag emigrated from Poland to the Yishuv in what was then Palestine in 1921. He wrote a commentary on the Zohar called the Sulam (Ladder). He became very popular in Israel, and was consulted on Kabbalah by the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel, David Ben Gurion. Relying on his claim that the statement “Love thy friend as thyself”, Yehuda Ashlag proposed a theory of "altruistic communism," a form of socialism based on principles of altruism and different from Soviet-style, materialistic communism. '

Yehuda Ashlag died in 1954. After his death, his disciples divided: some followed one of his associates, Yehuda Tzvi Brandwein (1904-1969), who had become Ashlag's brother-in-law through his second marriage. Brandwein's group is, directly or indirectly, at the origins of some contemporary Kabbalah movements, including the Kabbalah Centre of Philip Berg. Other disciples of Yehuda Ashlag accepted the leadership of two of his four sons: Benjamin Shlomo Ashlag (1907-1991), whose group remained comparatively small, and Baruch Ashlag.

In order to fight an attempt by Baruch Ashlag's brother, Benjamin Shlomo Ashlag, to assert his version of their father's work in British courts, Laitman founded Bnei Baruch ("Sons of Baruch"). Gradually, the group developed. Its internal sources report that the breakthrough came in 1997, when the group started offering free Kabbalah courses through the Internet and radio (television followed in 2007), and eventually moved its headquarters from Haredi Bnei Brak to nearby (and more cosmopolitan) Petah Tikvah. Through the Internet, Bnei Baruch started gathering members throughout the world.

Controversies

Bnei Baruch is criticized in Israel by three different groups.

First, some academic scholars of the Kabbalah in the tradition of Gershom Scholem regard Bnei Baruch's "pragmatic" Kabbalah as not philologically correct, nor true to the ancient sources. This criticism is mostly confined to the academic milieu.

Orthodox Jews insist that Kabbalah should be taught to qualified Jews only, and regard Bnei Baruch's dissemination of the Kabbalah to non-Jews as heresy and sacrilege.

Finally, some associated with the anti-cult movement regard Bnei Baruch as a cult, accusing it of a personality cult of its leader, of requiring exaggerated monetary contributions of disciples, and of brainwashing

As noted by Israeli scholars, Marianna Ruah-Midbar and Adam Klin-Oron, a unique feature of the Israeli anti-cult movement is that orthodox Jews and secular critics of religion strictly cooperate in several of its organizations, so that it is difficult to disentangle strictly religious and secular criticism of groups labeled there as "cults." As noted by Israeli scholar Boaz Huss, Bnei Baruch's practical, this-worldly approach to Kabbalah is very different from the academic reconstructions of Scholem and Moshe Idel and from Kabbalah as taught in the orthodox milieu, which explains part of the criticism. On the other hand, Italian scholar Massimo Introvigne has concluded, after a participant observation of the group in various countries, that Bnei Baruch students exhibit a disturbingly intense devotion to their teacher, and on-average devote more time and resources to the movement than followers of other spiritual movements. This attitude is common among cults. Criticism is also explained by the intense debate in Israel over who is "authorized" to define Kabbalah: academic scholars, Orthodox establishment people, or new, independent and unafilliated teachers such as Laitman.