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Stars Attend Funeral for Kaballah Guru: Rabbi Berg

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Actor Ashton Kutcher attended the funeral of Kaballah Center founder Rabbi Phillip Berg in Safed, Israel last week
Actor Ashton Kutcher attended the funeral of Kaballah Center founder Rabbi Phillip Berg in Safed, Israel last week
Hollywood actors Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, along with fashion designer Donna Karan, were in Safed, Israel, on Sept. 18 to attend the funeral of Kaballah Center founder Rabbi Phillip Berg, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.

Channel 2 said 5,000 people attended the funeral, nearly all dressed in white, as Rabbi Berg had requested.

The Los Angeles-based spiritual organization announced the death of Berg — known to followers as the Rav — on its Web site Sept. 16.

Berg had been in ill health since 2004 when he suffered a stroke. The center said he was 86; public records indicate he was 84.

Having written a number of books on the subject of Kabbalah, Berg believed that the philosophy should not be taught exclusively to a select few Jewish scholars but become a shared wealth of practical wisdom available to all of humankind.

There is disagreement about whether Berg’s teachings, as relayed through the Kabbalah Center, have sufficient grounds and/or genuine authority according to Jewish law, as they include some dogmas and translations differing markedly from those of more-traditional Kabbalists. Some Jewish scholars emphatically reject such teachings, deeming them as foreign to both the Kabbalah in particular and to Judaism in general, while others applaud his populist advocacy.

Berg is survived by his wife Karen and two sons, Yehuda and Michael, who continue on as leaders of the Kabbalah Center.

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