The highly-charged relationship between religion and secularism is often mediated in unexpected ways. Within Israel’s Jewish communities, which represent 75% of the country’s population, it is often the actions of outsiders rather than those of insiders that can teach us about the religious-secular divide. A current unlikely guide to this thorny divide is the pop star Madonna: The contrasting reactions to her recent visits to Israel are quite illuminating.
Twice this year, in June and September, after a 16-year absence, Madonna returned to Israel and gave concerts at Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Stadium. On each visit Madonna performed for over 100,000 fans. The cheapest tickets were $100 a seat, the most expensive $400—and all tickets sold out immediately. The last time Madonna had performed in Israel was in 1993. She told the Israeli press that the 16-year wait was too long. “Every time I come here, I get so supercharged with energy,” she said, “...I truly believe that Israel is the energy center of the world.” At those sold-out concerts, we can be sure that the audience was thoroughly chiloni— assertively secular.
But the dati (religious) aspect of Madonna’s Israel connection soon intrudes on our analysis. Though Madonna had not performed in Israel since the early 1990s, she had been there a number of times on a series of pilgrimages. Most recently, for Yom Kippur in 2007, Madonna arrived in Israel as the celebrity companion of over 2,000 self-styled Western Kabbalists. In July, People, which can’t seem to get enough of Madonna, reported that “Esther” had been threatened by Muslim extremists, outraged that the pop star supported the Israeli war in Gaza. Madonna, according to People, has since hired two Israeli bodyguards to protect her family.
Esther is Madonna’s adopted ‘Kabbalah name.’ Madonna’s (secular) Israeli fans have dubbed her “Queen Esther.” The star very adroitly returns her Israeli fans’ adoration. Some of the more kabbalistically literate of those fans have explained her Esther name as a “manifestation of the divine shekhinah.” On her September concert tour in Israel, Madonna was joined by one of the Los Angeles Kabbalah Center’s leaders, Rabbi Michael Berg. The Center (based in Los Angeles with branches in major cities) is a huge financial success. Founded in California in the 1970s, the Kabbalah Center teaches its adepts to utilize combinations of Hebrew letters to form “powerful names.” In a 2005 book, Wheels of the Soul, the founder of the center, Philip Berg, (known to his followers as Rav Berg) claimed that through the Center’s efforts “an astonishing 3.5 million people around the world have already been touched by the powerful teachings of Kabbalah.”
The Center’s exposition of the doctrine of the powerful names may be found in Yehuda Berg’s The 72 Names of God: Technology for the Soul:
Dealing with a difficult person or situation, having doubts, struggling with your thoughts? Whatever the situation, there is a Name that can give you your power back. With the 72 Names of God Wall Chart, you can access this ancient technology on your wall, desk, dashboard, or wherever you need it.
On her latest voyage to the Holy Land, Madonna was also accompanied by Karen Berg (Rav Berg’s wife ) author of God Wears Lipstick: Kabbalah for Women (2005). The book jacket describes Karen Berg as “perhaps the most preeminent woman kabbalist alive today.” (I found myself wondering, can there be a least preeminent woman kabbalist?) Kabbalah, the reader is told “will lead to true, long lasting permanent success in your life.” Would one expect any less from a book that describes itself as “the first Kabbalistic Bible for women?”
What does this have to do with Judaism or Israel? Within Israel, the reactions to this question are remarkably varied. More traditional Jews wonder if these ‘kabbalistic’ teachings have much to do with the actual Jewish mystical tradition. Perhaps the most trenchant comments on the Kabbalah Center’s authenticity may be found in Hebrew University professor Joseph Dan’s Kabbalah: A Short Introduction. Dan, Professor of Kabbalah, has noted that most of the Kabbalah Center’s teachings are in line with New Age conventions. A scholar with a somewhat more barbed criticism of New Age Kabbalism is Tamar Frankiel. She notes that among “groups that specialize in Kabbalah for a general audience... one must be careful because some of these groups are of doubtful authenticity and/or use questionable methods to a gain adherents.”
The oddity and irony of a visit to the Holy Land by a celebrity couple named Madonna and Jesus was lost on most of Madonna’s Israeli fans—as were the New Age connotations of Madonna’s energy references. And that Madonna is no longer cool among young American music listeners is a subtlety lost on Israeli and other foreign observers of American culture. As Emory student Benjamin Braun put it to me “Israelis don’t even realize that Madonna isn’t cool anymore; they’re still star crazy about her. Star-crazy about any celebrity, really.”
On her September 2009 visit, Madonna found ample time for Israeli politicians, who, like that public they serve, also can’t seem to get enough of foreign celebrities. An Associated Press story made the rounds last month with the headline: “Madonna joined the Israeli Prime Minister and his family in the traditional ritual welcoming the Jewish Sabbath.” Benjamin and Sarah Netanyahu, hitherto not known for their adherence to Jewish ritual practice, were described in an official statement as having “spent two hours together...lighting candles and reciting a blessing together.” The story concludes with this juicy ritual detail: “Madonna was wearing a short-sleeved black dress as she left the heavily guarded Netanyahu home Friday.”
Not wanting to take sides in Israeli politics, the pop star also met with Tzipi Livni, leader of the Opposition. The two women (and their bodyguards) ate at a fashionable Tel Aviv restaurant. (No enactments of religious rituals were reported.) Shimon Peres, Israel’s president, had already beat Prime Minister Netanyahu and opposition leader Tzipi Livni to the celebrity punch. During Madonna’s 2007 High Holiday pilgrimage to Israel, Madonna and Peres exchanged gifts and expressed boundless mutual admiration for each other. On that occasion Madonna told Peres “I am an ambassador for Judaism.”
In contrast to the secular Israeli leaders Shimon Peres, Tzipi Livni, and Benjamin and Sarah Netanyahu, Orthodox Rabbis in Israel were not charmed or flattered by Madonna’s interest in Kabbalism. Rabbi Shaul Eliyahu (the official Rabbi of Safed, the city of the Jewish mystics) wrote a public letter to Madonna telling the star that despite her good intentions in visiting Israel, her public behavior is an embarrassment. “Exposing a woman’s body may raise the lust instead of raising the love—and that is a shame.” But not all traditional Rabbis in Safed have been critical of Madonna’s brand of Kabbalism. In 2007 Rabbi Shlomo Schwartz told an Haaretz correspondent that “you have to take advantage of what God puts in your way. Thank God for Madonna—Esther, or whatever her name is, for putting Kabbalah on the front page... People are not listening to Rabbis, they are watching Madonna on MTV.”
Madonna as signifier of Israel’s secular-religious divide and “ambassador for Judaism?” Stranger things have happened in the Holy Land, but at the moment, I can’t think of one.
Madonna as "ambassador for Judaism"? Please, no, stay on MTV!
Jeff Best
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