Four women dressed in red stand in a Southfield living room to declare their faith: “Here, oh, sons and daughters of light,” they recite in unison. “The infinite all. Our Creator. The all is one.”
Schavi Ali, an Egyptologist and Kabbalist since the 1970s, anoints each woman’s forehead with brown lotus oil, saying “May the Lord make her face to shine upon you and give you peace.” She then dispenses what she says is Kabbalistic wisdom: Bible stories are not literal, but metaphoric. God doesn’t have a gender. Kabbalah originated in ancient Egypt. And many of the world’s greatest leaders, including Jesus Christ, were Kabbalists.
Kabbalah, a system of Jewish mysticism, has been passed from teacher to student for at least 4,000 years. Believers say it holds the keys to the universe and is the tree of life referred to in the Bible. Kabbalah, they contend, shares the oral law handed down from God to Moses.
Originally intended to be studied by only a select group of people, Kabbalah became widely known after Madonna became a student of it seven years ago. Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Missy Elliott, Ashton Kutcher and other celebrities jumped aboard. Kabbalah subsequently has become a pop culture phenomenon, with Kabbalah red string bracelets briefly appearing on Target’s Web site as a hot buy for $25.99 and Saks Fifth Avenue offering Kabbalah candles.
While many followers applaud the widespread interest, critics say Kabbalah is being distorted. Even some adherents worry about its popularity.
“It’s becoming faddish,” says Ali of Southfield. “My concern is that people will take it too lightly, and it’s nothing lightweight.”
She credits Kabbalah with improving her health. Siti Adé of Hazel Park, who studies with her, says it has ended a lifelong search.
After studying divination, metaphysics, Christianity, Hinduism and the Egyptian goddess Isis, Adé says she has found the answers she sought in Kabbalah.
“This is more truth, more the root, the foundation of the other paths I have taken,” she says. “I have come alive.”
Khephera Jesal, a Southfield colon therapist and holistic nutritionist, says speaking “the 72 names of God” and meditating on the Hebrew letters for them has helped her feel more spiritually empowered.
“With Christianity, I was taught to pray and petition, and it may or may not come to fruition,” she says. “With Kabbalah, I’m seeing my desires manifested.”
The Kabbalah Centre, spiritual home of several Hollywood stars, is credited with spreading Kabbalah to the masses. The Los Angeles nonprofit organization says 3.4 million people worldwide have participated in its programs — including at least 3,000 Metro Detroiters who’ve taken online courses.
In addition to lessons, the Kabbalah Centre’s Web site (www.kabbalah.com) sells amulets and oil. The site also offers a Zohar, a sacred text believers say is the authentic Holy Grail, for $415.
Such appeals to the masses are “neo-Kabbalah,” according to Zachary Braiterman, associate professor of religion at Syracuse University.
“I don’t think there’s any scholar in the field of Jewish studies (who) would not say that the recent forms that Kabbalah takes in popular culture is a huge distortion of Kabbalistic tradition,” he says.
Braiterman contends a Kabbalist must be a practicing Jew, not a Christian, Muslim or worshipper of any other religion. Eitan Fishbane, assistant professor of Jewish Religious Thought at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, agrees.
“It’s one of most important things to be emphasized,” Fishbane says. “Historically speaking, Kabbalah is inseparable from Judaism.”
Since Kabbalah is a system of belief, not a religion, no particular religion has a claim to it, says Yehuda Berg, a rabbi with the Kabbalah Centre and author of several books on Kabbalah.
He says the more people who study Kabbalah, the better. And he’s all for people buying red string bracelets or candles at department stores if it helps them connect spiritually.
“If a teenager can go to a store to buy a video that has violence and sex, why shouldn’t he be able to go to the same store to buy a red string bracelet?” Berg says.
“The more it becomes easy to get negativity, it should be just as easy to get something positive. You can go home and have anything, a pizza or pornography or anything else delivered to you. Why shouldn’t spirituality be just as accessible? As the world becomes more hateful and negative, we need something to balance it.”
People who buy a bracelet or a candle eventually may go further by opening a book, going online or seeking a study group to learn the message behind them, Berg argues.
That’s what happened to Kay Schwarzberg, 57, of St. Clair Shores. When she was 21, she begged a rabbi to teach her Kabbalah. The rabbi told her that women and people younger than 40 couldn’t study it.
As many rabbis began teaching Kabbalah to non-Jews and women in recent years, Schwarzberg tried again to find a teacher. She began studying with a rabbi with the Kabbalah Centre branch in New York two years ago. She also connected with the Greater Detroit Kabbalah Association, which meets at Congregation Beth Tephilath Moses in Mount Clemens and Shir Tikveh in Troy.
“It has changed the way I look at things and, God willing, it’s changed the way I deal with other people,” says the family law attorney. “The basic concept is very simple: Don’t be reactive. It’s not about you. People aren’t doing things to hurt you. It’s about understanding how we are being reactive, how we are being egotistical and idolatrous, how we are putting our homes and cars ahead of our spouses and families.”
As the popularity of Kabbalah continues to spread, Rick Ross of the New Jersey-based Institute of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements cautions people about getting involved with the Kabbalah Centre. It is, he says, the only Kabbalah group he has ever received complaints about.
“It’s very specifically about the pressure on participants to buy tickets to events, to buy paraphernalia,” Ross says. “I’ve had very serious complaints about people being pressured to give large amounts of money. One woman was pressured to put up money to open a center like Madonna did. Another one gave all she had, even the deed to her house, and ended up homeless.”
Kabbalah Centre representatives declined to comment on the accusations.
Schwarzberg, who studies under the Los Angeles-based Kabbalah Centre and with the Greater Detroit group, says any group — whether a church, a synagogue, a mosque — must seek donations to survive.
She says her daughter has worked in Los Angeles at the Kabbalah Centre for about 18 months. “It’s not a cult, not an ‘I can’t leave, I can’t come home’ situation,” Schwarzberg says.
Meanwhile, whether with organizations or independently, people continue to study in living rooms, synagogues and other places.
Rabbi David Nelson of Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak Park is encouraged by that fact. He encourages people who are interested in Kabbalah to explore it.
“There is more than one truth,” Nelson says. “Kabbalah is one avenue toward truth. If it’s explored on a deeper level, it can provide inspiration. I don’t regard it as a threat.”