Studying on the quiet
Claudine Frederik, Contributor, Jakarta
In the quest to find our inner selves, Kabbalah has become the buzz word for celebrity spiritual sampling, with Madonna its megawatt champion.
It has made the once obscure ancient mystical Jewish teaching for spiritual enlightenment a household word around the world, in what one publication called a "celebrity Kabbalah cult".
But when the lapsed Material Girl made her tour of Israel last week in her new spiritual alter ego of Esther, the news reports hit home with Ben Ketang here in Jakarta.
"I have been living and breathing Kabbalah since 2002," Ben said, not without pride. "It has done so much for me personally."
Ben, who worked as a media and public opinion analyst for one of the presidential teams and is part of the Indonesia-Israel Cooperative Association (IICA) for business ties, said the spiritual tool provided him with a sense of direction in his life.
"I am now quite in control of myself. I am at peace with myself. It takes something to control oneself."
Some critics have dismissed Kabbalah as a cult, with unscrupulous practitioners making a buck off lost souls searching for themselves.
Ben countered that in its teaching that the individual must overcome egoism and the yearnings of self, Kabbalah shows how to put a clamp on one's thoughts.
"We have to eliminate all negative thinking, even if it concerns your enemy," Ben said. "It is very hard not to think badly about people whom you know think (badly) about you. But, the main ingredient of the teaching is sharing. There are many things to share, which does not necessarily mean sharing on a financial level."
It can take the form of sharing a good idea, or listening to someone's complaints, for instance. Kabbalah is Hebrew for "to receive" and people are "vessels" to receive blessings, happiness and sustenance.
The ancient spiritual tool, which started about 2,000 years ago, became better known in Indonesia through former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres, a friend of former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.
Ben said Peres sent several hundred copies of the Zohar, widely considered the most important work for the study of Kabbalah, for donation to whoever might be interested in learning more.
"That is when my interest in Kabbalah started," Ben said. "It is not only practiced by the Jews, other Arabian countries also delved in this spiritual technology thousands of years ago."
Kabbalists claim the spiritual tool can be used as a supplement to greater enlightenment for those from any religion.
They also say that it is a very powerful tool with mystical overtones (thus, each word of the Scriptures is believed to contain its own power). The word impossible does not exist in a practitioner's dictionary; failures or difficulties are regarded as illusions; they are not real. Real is the Light of the Creator.
With its ties to Judaism and Israel, however, many Indonesians may be wary of Kabbalah's mission.
Although Gus Dur, who is an international board member of the Shimon Peres Center for Peace, urged the opening of greater ties with Israel during his presidency, the need for presidential candidate (and likely winner) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to declare that he would not establish diplomatic relations with Israel during the campaign shows the continuing sensitivity on the subject among Muslims.
Ben said his personal hope was for the establishment of an Israeli embassy in Jakarta, to allow greater exploration of Kabbalah, but he realized it was not a possibility today.
"At the moment, we still don't have enough members," said Ben, who has visited Kabbalah centers in Israel. "Pakistan is advancing much better than us. They have had a study center since a couple of months ago. I'd like to set up a center here, too, to give those who are interested the opportunity to learn Kabbalah. It would be a branch of The Kabbalah Center in the USA."
The center has more than 50 study centers spread around the globe and more than three million members worldwide, said Allan Harari, an American expatriate in the flour milling business who has studied Kabbalah for seven years.
In a bid to introduce the teachings to more people in the country, Harari organized a presentation on a recent Sunday. About 20 people showed up to listen to what benefits they could expect if they studied Kabbalah. The teaching promises protection, happiness, prosperity and well being, if you do not let your ego get the better of you, Harari said.
It is by no means an easy study. It boils down to correcting oneself most of the time, and students should expect to turn around their way of thinking order to tame their egos. The belief is that problems and chaos are mainly due to ego.
A recent practitioner of Kabbalah is Jeffrey Mogot. Out of work and suffering badly from asthma, he started to scan the "healing" word provided in a book named 72 Names Of God.
The healing words are in Aramaic print. Kabbalah claims that the letters radiate a healing force that will cure illness or make a person's wishes come true.
Jeffrey said that the daily practice was of great help. His condition changed within a couple of weeks; coughing practically stopped altogether, the wheezing has also disappeared and he felt more energetic.
"It really is a blessing since I don't have the means to get regular treatment at some expensive hospital or clinic," he said.
Ben Ketang can be contacted at ben_ketang@yahoo.com