This morning's papers including The New York Daily News, are filled with articles about Madonna, Kabbalah, The Kabbalah Center, and how they are effecting her relationship with baseball star, Alex Rodriguez. Among the charges being made, is that Madonna is "brainwashing" A-Rod with her mystical beliefs.
What do we even mean by "brainwashing"? Too often, especially when it comes to religion, the term brainwashing is applied to any education with an outcome of which we don't approve. I mean there is no evidence of her depriving him of sleep, threatening his family, etc. of which I am aware. Are you?
There is nothing even shocking about a story in which two people that become romantically involved end up sharing a spiritual path as well. Madonna and A-rod may actually be in love, and if so, it would hardly be the first time that one lover was drawn to the spiritual practice of the other -- especially when its an ancient tradition that has brought meaning to lives of thousands of people over the last thousand or more years.
In fact, If we took away the gateway of romance, how many fewer Christians, Jews, Muslims would there be in the world? How many people who started their lives in one church, moved to another based on who was in the pews?
Also, the obsession with the Kabbalah Center as a cult makes no sense to me at all. In fact, that perception is nothing more than the byproduct of an alliance between "mainstream" religious leaders, who are jealous of the success of a competing religious institution, and a press that is fundamentally hostile to religion in general and the idea that people would shape their lives around it, in particular.
I give great credit to the Bergs and the rest of that crowd for their willingness to share pieces of Jewish tradition with the entire world, and to base their claim of its value not, on tradition, but because it actually helps the practitioner. In some ways, I wish that all faiths would use that as their measure. Can you imagine answering the question about why you are committed to a tradition with the words, "because I love it", before you mentioned tradition or even God?
They are certainly guilty of over-simplification and of offering up a theology that sees rituals and prayers as tokens to be placed in a divine vending machine which dispenses endless bliss, but they are hardly the first religious group to do that! However, we all reap what we sow. The Kabbalah Center and its followers opened themselves up to the charge of fakery or being a cult by offering a version of Jewish mysticism that is often presented as magic tricks, the performance of which will bring the practitioner whatever they want, including love and sexual fulfillment.
A man leaving his wife for another woman is hardly news. This is mostly a case of a celebrity-obsessed culture caring more about the sex lives of two people because they are famous. Though I wonder what would happen of we all paid as much attention to the people in our own lives who face such struggles, rather than worrying so much about how Madonna, A-rod, and the Kabbalah Center, deal with theirs.
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Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
Why should anyone care about Madonna, her belief in Kabbala, or her relationship with Hay-Rod? We all have loads of issues to work out in our own lives. By paying attention to this stuff we're just listening to static rather than making our own spiritual progress. As if she would care about any of us enough to make blog postings about our lives...
With Madonna its all about finding an exposed nerve and hitting it with a twenty pound hammer (See the Like a Prayer video clip)
When she dated Dennis Rodman nobody cared. Yet it seems that baseball is so quintessentially American and associated with family values (playing catch with dad) that again she successfully hit an exposed nerve. Maybe the equation she deciphered is Baseball=>American=>Christian and should never lead to Kabala/Jewish.
She does an interesting service to Judaism by associating it with an icon of the mainstream of American culture. Being part of the main stream of culture is the one thing Jews aren't familiar with.
The last sentence in the blog about one focusing on his own loved ones is the real value added of this article. Looking at the life of others is just a form of escaping ones own life.
Nobody cared if she dated Rodman because neither one of them was MARRIED! And their reputations were fairly similar, if YKWIM. A-Rod and Madonna (currently) are married with children. Not the same thing at all. And are you saying that only CHRISTIANS are associated with "quintessentially American" values and past-times??????
Madonna is not Jewish. She was raised Catholic. I have no idea what she believes now. The Kabbalah Center isn't accepted by most Jews as being "real" Kabbalah. It's a kind of "lite" version for non-Jews. Particularly those who have money to spend.
She does NO service (or disservice for that matter) to Judaism because she's NOT JEWISH! We don't care what she does. And why would you possibly think that we're not part of mainstream culture???? I live in Texas, I eat BBQ, I drive a Ford, etc. What? I don't go to church or celebrate Christian holidays, so that makes me un-American????
Seriously, you need to meet some Jewish people. Wait...you probably already have but didn't realize it because we fit into the American mainstream culture just like you do!
Sheesh!
PP
honestly,i think to just brush this off with 'it could be any married man or women with children so what's the big deal' is astounding.breaking up any family is a big deal,if madonna exposes her spirituality so publicly she has a resposibility to honor it...i can hardly believe kabbala beliefs condone breaking up families...to brush all this off is a sad statement indeed...every family that is broken needs to do it's very best to heal and honor those chilren.family is a sacred honor,whether you inherit,adopt or give birth once this happens you are bound,to regard it as a passing 'no big deal' is, well in my book ,a sin.
Maybe Madonna saw this:
www.dovabramson.com/field_of_life
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