Madonna writes op-ed for Israeli newspaper
Image via Wikipedia
From the truth is stranger than fiction file: Pop singer Madonna wrote an op-ed for Israel’s largest newspaper. The column in the Hebrew (and online-only English) Yedioth Ahronoth extols the virtues of Kabbalah – or at least the Kabbalah-lite that is so popular in Hollywood these days.
And, oh boy, the article is a doozy. Where to start? Well, how about this:
“I had traveled the world many times over, performed in soccer stadiums, appeared in films, dined with state leaders, collaborated with great artists and achieved what most people would view as a high level of success but I still felt something was missing in my life.
I was pregnant with my daughter, almost 14 years ago and I had just finished the film Evita and realized I had spent my whole life worrying about myself, and that I would soon be responsible for someone else’s life.
I was raised a Catholic and my father was very religious but none of my questions ever really got answered when it came to trying to understand why people suffered in the world or what the meaning of life was all about.
And suddenly I thought, “What will I teach my child about the important things in life?”
I was practicing Yoga for years and studying Sanskrit. I had read many books by the great Yogi Masters and Indian Avatars. I studied Buddhism and the teachings of the Dali Lama. I studied Taoism and the Art of War.
I read about the Gnostics and the early Christians. I learned a lot and I was very inspired but I still could not connect the dots and find a way to take this knowledge and apply it to my daily life.”
Of course, Kabbalah is the answer for Madonna. The stripped down variant of Kabbalah that the pop singer follows has found a fertile audience in Israel — a country where Jewish traditionalism and newfangled variants on mysticism co-exist easily. Kabbalah centers in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Safed market the American variant of the faith to secular Israelis in much the same manner as they do in the States. To noone’s surprise, ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel are not very happy about the development.
Shaul Youdkevitch, the founder of the Israeli Kabbalah Center who bought Madonna to Israel in 2004, was arrested for promising to cure a cancer patient in exchange for donations several years ago.
And why the op-ed in an Israeli newspaper? You guessed it. Madonna is performing in Tel Aviv.
Post Your Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment
T/S Members
Log in with your True/Slant account.
For those of us who don’t know, can you explain what Kabbalah, and its lighter version, are? I have some idea what variants of traditional Judaism involve, but not Kabbalah for all its celebrity status.
Absolutely. Kabbalah is a form of Jewish mysticism making heavy use of numerology and cosmology that had its origin in medieval Spain. Traditionally, Kabbalah was only practiced within the ultra-Orthodox community and learning it was restricted to religious males over the age of 40. As far as these things go, there was a lot of interplay in terms of philosophical themes and influences between the Kabbalists and similar mystics on the Christian and Islamic sides of the divide.
As for the newer Kabbalah practictioners that are floating around, a lot of traditionalists take issue with them discouraging asceticism, encouraging materialism, divorcing Kabbalistic teachings from their original Jewish context and with ignoring the traditional corpus of thought on the subject.
Then again, maybe Lindsay Lohan & Britney Spears are secret geniuses of meditation and mystical complication and we just don’t know about it…
In response to another comment. See in context »Remember a few years ago when Madonna visited the Holy Land, she was going by “Esther?” It prompted a good friend to quip, “That Madonna (Esther). She’s so biblical.”
Thanks for the explanation. I see a fair bit of this Religion Lite out there.