There is a movie playing now in theaters called "Bee Season". A review I have read says that it is in part, a story involving Kabala.
The current pop culture fascination with Kabala is somewhat of an enigma to me. I could never understand its draw and being a rationalist by nature, have never wanted to pursue its study. But Kabala is a legitimate part of Judaism and because it has been getting so much attention lately ...and now with this new movie... I want to make a few comments about the current phenomenon.
I haven’t seen the movie yet so I will reserve judgment on that. But Kabala in general has entered mainstream America because of a pop icon by the name of Madonna. She has almost single handedly made Kabala a household word. Is this a good thing?
Well, the truth is, I don’t know.
There is another person responsible for the current fascination by the name of Philip Berg. He is the head of the Kabbalah Centre and has been around for decades trying to sell his wares. He was pretty much been ignored until Madonna came along. She has bought into it big time. And she has brought other celebrities along with her and in the process has drawn a great deal of public attention to it.
Is the Kabala that she studies legitimate? Or is it false? Is Berg a charlatan or L’Shma... is he doing God’s work or the devil’s?
Well, it depends upon who you ask. But mostly, mainstream Judaism has repudiated Berg completely as an opportunist and fraud. On the other hand the Kabala he teaches is not entirely made up. It is based on the Zohar. The kinds of paraphernalia he is currently hawking like the red string, has been around a long time, especially in Sephardic communities who are much more oriented towards Kabala than Ashkenazic ones. He did not make it up. Of course, he does a good job in spinning Kabala to his own benefit and his organization spreads it not only to the traditional parameters of Jewish study which is reserved for men over forty but even beyond the walls of Jewry. He has been promoting it to non-Jews. The truth is I’m not sure how Halacha deals with promulgating it beyond Jewish students. But my gut feeling is that in and of itself teaching legitimate Kabala and not some perversion of it may not be such a bad thing.
Be that as it may I am not here to write about Berg. My guess is that he is somewhere between a charlatan and a true believer... probably more the former than the latter.
The question in my mind is whether all this attention is a positive development for Judaism or not. Is it a good thing for celebrities like Madonna and others to sing the praises of things Jewish? Is that good PR for us? Is it a Kiddush HaShem when a non-Jew so sincerely embraces a complete stream of our teachings? Or... is Madonna’s association with Kabala a Chilul HaShem because of status as one of the worst promoters of immorality in modern times.
The fact that some in Berg’s organization have been arrested for fraud and that his organization has been accused of greed as their primary motive argues the Chilul HaShem side. The fact that a high profile celebrity like Madonna has changed her life for the better because of it, argues the Kiddush HaShem side.
Those are some of my thoughts. I am as of yet not sure whether all this interest in Kabala is a good or bad thing.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
