More in ‘kabbalah’

60secondrecap publishes quick video summaries of great books on its Website, and this week, it gave the full treatment to Elie Wiesel’s classic Holocaust memoir Night.
Definitely seems like a good way to introduce a middle-schooler to the book. If you’re reading this and over the age of 20 or 25 or so, and still haven’t ...

When a person is sick, Jews pray for him by reciting the verses of Psalms that begin with the letters of his name; Psalm 119 is often used for this purpose, as it is made of 22 sets of eight verses that begin with the same Hebrew letter, and the sets are arranged alphabetically—or, perhaps, ...

• To cap off her visit to Israel, Madonna visited the tomb of revered kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria, which was worthwhile if only for this sentence: “Madonna was accompanied in her visit by Rabbi Michael Berg, her own rabbi’s brother, as well as her partner Jesus.” (Also, check out these lively comments.) [Haaretz]
• GE has ...

It’s finally happening: Madonna is in Israel, and she’s hitting the sites—and the politicians. Having gotten the Old City of Jerusalem and the Western Wall out of the way, Her Madgesty will visit with Tzipi Livni later today and with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday. Also, her “Kabbalah-related celebrity friend[s]” Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, ...

Some Jewish leaders may have failed to switch the name of the H1N1 virus from swine flu to Mexican flu, but others are taking a more, er, practical approach to battling the disease. Yesterday morning a group of rabbis and kabbalists boarded a plane in Israel and flew over the country with the goal of ...

In the first of her “Exclusive” columns for Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, Madonna narrates the road-to-Damascus—or, in her case, dinner-party-in-L.A.—moment when it became clear to her that, because of Kabbalah, the ancient strain of mystical Judaism, “my life would never be the same.” It was 14 (yes, only 14) years ago. She had just finished ...

• Israel published a 160-page report justifying last January’s three-week military incursion into Gaza and reporting the results of several related investigations. The report comes in advance of two United Nations papers on the action that are expected not to be so kind. [JTA]
• Madonna, pop mega-star and Hollywood-style Kabbalist, will publish the first installment ...

Philip S. Berg is the head of the Kabbalah Centre, the organization responsible for turning the ancient strain of Jewish mysticism into a fad among celebrities and the people who emulate them. Philip J. Berg is perhaps the most prominent “birther,” who has been trying to convince the world (and the federal courts) that President ...

Most surprising to some (or to us, anyway) in the coverage of the death of the phenomenally successful and influential pop singer Michael Jackson is the appearance in recent photos of a bendel, the red string bracelet Kabbalah adherents wear to help ward off the evil eye. He reportedly began an on-going exploration of the ...

If The Unborn isn’t Hollywood’s first Jewish horror movie, it’s got to be the first one in which an exorcism is preceded by the blowing of a shofar.
The film, which opens today, was written and directed by David S. Goyer, who wrote Batman Begins and the Blade trilogy. It follows Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman), ...