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| 'Thank G-d for Madonna'
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| By Romina Ruiz-Goiriena
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Madonna, Demi Moore and Britney
Spears popularized Kabbalah, making it a fashion trend among
Hollywood stars and singers. But for rabbis in Safed, the
birthplace and beating heart of Kabbalah, it is a route to
lure Jews back to their religion.
Tucked away from the
mystical city's main streets, the Ascent of Safed hostel and
education center recently organized a four-day conference
offering "hands-on" Kabbalah workshops.
The
participants - along with thousands of devoted pilgrims -
flocked at midnight to the gravesite of the father of
Kabbalah, Rabbi Isaac Luria (known as the Holy Ari). They were
there to commemorate his death and "absorb the energy of this
supernatural place."
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| "Safed is conducive to spirituality," says James
Alexander, a 28-year-old "English Jew of liberal tendency,"
who has been backpacking around Israel and the territories for
the last ten days, hoping to experience all it has to offer.
Ascent has a numinous allure, with its hundred-year
old stones, hidden caves and interior gardens.
"Here,
Chassidut [defined by the center as Kabbalah for the
non-mystic] merges the literalist with the symbolic and has
changed my perception of Orthodoxy," Alexander says.
Shira Schwartz, of the Chai Center in Los Angeles and
a scholar in residence at Ascent, associates the growing
interest in Kabbalah with the quest for spiritual values in a
globalized world dominated by materialism. "Jews are hungry,
they are searching and looking for a connection to G-d," she
notes.
There is no doubt for Shira's husband, Rabbi
Shlomo Schwartz, a Kabbalist for 40 years, that celebrities
have made this mystical practice famous. "Thank G-d for
Madonna-Esther or whatever her name is, for putting Kabbalah
on the front page," he says.
Dressed in shorts, a
black T-shirt emblazoned with the face of reggae singer
Matisyahu, tziziot, and kippa with his long white beard, Rabbi
Schwartz admits that sometimes, "You have to take advantage of
what G-d puts in your way."
After all, "people are not
listening to rabbis, they are watching Madonna on MTV."
His wife agrees. "Kabbalah is now a street word," she
says.
But gratitude for the recent fame of Kabbalah
has a downside. They both warn that many centers are not
staying true to the teachings and are just spreading
money-making "flaflalogy" in a cult-like manner.
"Ascent is about teaching real Kabbalah," Shira
Schwartz insists.
Zalman Rothschild, one of the Ascent
counselors, says that the center opens its doors to travelers
from around the world who are interested in learning, but aims
to "spread Judaism and Chassidic philosophy."
To many
of those attending the conference, Ascent of Safed is
responding to a void in the Jewish world by bringing together
people of different places and different origins.
"I
had a traditional Jewish education in South Africa, but I've
always been interested in Kabbalah, for me it has further
depth and meaning than traditional Orthodoxy," says
34-year-old David Skolni.
Madonna may have given
Kabbalah its 15 minutes of fame, but for Sheree Sharkan, 31,
visiting from Chicago, "there is a lot in Kabbalah that speaks
to people from different backgrounds. Our generation seems to
be searching for meanings, purposes, and answers."
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