Finding Her Religion – Has the Material Girl Found True Meaning?
- Brian Thomas
- Oct 1, 2004
- Series: Other
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The Queen of Pop has spent her career re-inventing herself, and over the past several years she has been dabbling in a form of Jewish Mysticism known as Kabbalah to become more spiritual. Madonna, who recently did an interview with Matt Lauer on NBC's Dateline , revealed that she has been a "Kabbalist" for seven years now and its teachings have taught her to be more patient, and less demanding; except when staying in a hotel that, for some reason, doesn't serve “Kabbalah Water” (imagine a German hotel manager frantically trying to figure out where he is going to find the Material Girl spiritually blessed water here).
A new way of marketing religion? Better sex through spirituality.
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Kabbalah 101
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Kabbalah is a system of thought which was originally included in Jewish theosophy, philosophy, science, magic and mysticism. ‘Kabbalah' is Hebrew for “that which is received” and refers to a secret oral tradition of teaching which extends from teacher to pupil. The term “Kabbalah” seems to have been first applied to secret mystical teachings in the 11 th century by Iba Gabriol, a Spanish philosopher, and has since become synonymous with all Jewish mysticism.
In legend, God taught the Kabbalah to some angels, who in turn taught it to Adam after the Fall. The Kabbalah was to help mankind return to God. It then passed to Noah, Abraham, and Moses, who then initiated the seventy Elders. The Elders then initiated others and so on down through the ages via oral tradition until somebody finally had to good sense to write it down.
Many of the basic ideas and principles found in Kabbalah are also found in Gnosticism. Both attach an importance to knowledge, called the “gnosis” or the knowledge of God. As in Gnosticism, sin is not considered to be wrongdoing, but ignorance that separate humankind from God. This gnosis unites man to God (to know God is to be God), even though the enlightened may lead morally questionable lives. Both Kabbalists and Gnostics follow a form of platonic-dualism that separates matter and spirit (see Plato's Timaeus ). Everything physical (matter) is debased and unimportant, because it cannot have anything to do with the purity of a good God. What matters most is the spiritual side of life as it can relate to God through an attainment of knowledge.
The Tree of Life
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The Kabbalists share similar goals with the Gnostics: each group sets out to answer the deep questions of life. Who am I? Who is God? Why am I here? How can I know God? Why is there both good and evil? It is no easy task to find the answers these questions from the Kabbalah, but I will briefly explain the main tenets of their faith.
God, in Kabbalism, is seen as a mirror from which shines a brilliant light. This brilliant light is then reflected onto a second mirror, then onto a third, and so on. With each succeeding reflection the light loses some of its brilliancy until it finally reaches the finite world dimly. Within this concept of the Light lies the Kabbalist's theory for the creation of the world. In the beginning there was God, and from himself he sent an emanation (the light). From this first emanation evolved nine more, ten in all, called the “sephiroth.” These ten emanations are all facets or parts of God. The sephiroth was the world, or universe, and God is the world. Therefore, the sephiroth are the facets or parts of God, and they are also the facets of the universe.
The origin of this thinking is based upon two books called “Sefer Yetzirah” (Book of Creation) and “Sefer ba-Zohar” (Book of Splendor). The dating of the “Book of Creation” is unknown, but is thought to have been written in the 10 th century. The teachings of “Zohar” seem to have developed in Spain in the 13 th century. The Book of Creation teaches that each of the ten sephiroths form the “Tree of Life.” This tree describes the path by which the divine spirit descended into the material world, and the path by which mankind must take to ascend back to God. Through meditation, mankind ascends to the divine by gaining the meaning of each sephirot one at a time. As the Book of Zohar puts it: “Open for me slightly your heart, and I'll open the world for you.” This ascension is an attainment of secret knowledge and is considered by practitioners of the Kabbalah to be exceedingly difficult.
Kabbalism has developed through the centuries finding popularity in many Western occult groups and has been related to Wicca, Numerology, Tarot, and Astrology (although some criticize or downplay these associations). Its recent rise in popularity as the religion of choice seems to be entirely based upon its celebrity credibility. Call me skeptical, but Hollywood is probably not the best starting place in a quest for meaning or truth.
THE KABBALAH CENTER – CULT OF PERSONALITY?
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There are fourteen Kabbalah Centers throughout the world. Six branches are within the United States – one in New York , three in California , and two in Florida . Rabbi Berg has come under some heavy scrutiny by both traditional Jewish teachers and other practitioners of Kabbalah. Who is this Rabbi Phillip Berg? He was not always the “world's foremost authority on Kabbalah.” Born Feivel Gruberger in Brooklyn , he was in fact a former insurance agent who abandoned his first wife and eight children before reinventing himself as a modern guru. Rabbi Berg insists that he is following in the footsteps of Rabbis Brandwein and Ashlag, but followers of each state that “Berg is a charlatan who has degraded the teachings of the Zohar”. He is universally condemned by both the orthodox rabbinate and contemporary schools of Jewish Mysticism in Israel, the United States, and elsewhere in the world.
What Madonna and Britney probably don't know is the history of abuse and manipulation reported about Phillip Berg and his Center by ex-followers. Despite its claim to be “motivated by no other desire than the spiritual growth of humankind”, many investigations into Rabbi Berg's group have revealed a growing international concern about its fund-raising methods, extraordinary mystical claims and what former members say is its cult-like ability to split up families and undermine marriages.
Rabbi Phillip Berg
Like many celebrities or financially well to do involved with cult-like religious groups, they have been insulated from the realities other participants have suffered. Former members speak of abject servitude. They say the Bergs decide “everything connected to the lives of the crew, who marries who, who separates, who leaves the country and goes to another branch. Berg is asked whether it is permissible to become pregnant, and Karen Berg (the Rabbi's second wife) is asked how to have sexual relations.” Another member states, “When a married couple disagrees about association with the Kabbalah Center , especially when this involves immense financial commitments, the one in favor of Berg is usually advised to divorce the disagreeing spouse because ‘the marriage is spiritually unsuitable.'”
Additionally, Rabbi Berg's doctrine seems to differ greatly from the practices of normative Judaism and the actual Kabbalah. According to the Rick Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements: “Berg reduces the Torah and Jewish tradition into a manual of black magic and astrology to manipulate heavenly forces or energies to attain personal gratification or to avoid personal misfortune.” Students are told that just running their eyes over the Zohar's original Aramaic can ensure good luck or healing properties (despite being unable to read a word of it). In a series of interviews with former insiders and relatives of those still involved, the Evening Standard of London was told that: “the Center sold specially blessed mineral water as a means of treating cancer (could this be Kabbalah water?); supporters were warned their children might fall ill unless they donated money; and volunteer workers were warned that the ‘dark forces' would bring them personal tragedy if they ever left.” It seems that Bergism is a somewhat eccentric, idiosyncratic composite of its leaders beliefs, preferences and often singular interpretations of Jewish writings.
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The Kabbalah Center has built a financial pseudo-religious empire through manipulation, fear, brainwashing, greed, and mystical teaching that discounts rational thinking or questioning of the leader-guru, Phillip Berg. How does this charlatan respond to these allegations? He condemns all who criticize and censure him and his organization, charging them with “being jealous of his teachings and popularity.” He may not be so hasty with his words now that his favorite patron (Madonna) has recently been reported to be “concerned about how/where her donations are being spent.”
Most celebrities (or for that matter non-celebrities) that become involved in these types of controversial religious sects do not know all the details and history of many of the groups they join. Or as David Fairchild humorously puts it: “You never realize you're in a cult until they pass out the free Nikes and Kool-Aide.”
NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN
The false teaching of Jewish mysticism (including Kabbalah), Gnosticism, and forms of neo-platonic thought are something Christians have had to confront from the very foundations of the Church. The Apostle Paul was quickly met with various forms of early mysticism in his Gentile converts, which called for delicate, but firm correction. The church of Corinth apparently had a spiritual aristocracy that prided themselves on the possession of deeper wisdom and mystical experiences, regarding other believers as inferior beings who had not attained this ‘special knowledge or enlightenment' (sound familiar?). The church at Colossae went one step further creating a syncretistic amalgam of Christianity with philosophical elements drawn from mystery cults, Platonism, Hellenized Zoroastrianism, and Judaism. The Colossian Christians were being persuaded to worship intermediate angelic powers (very similar to seriphots), observing special ceremonies and the feast days of the Jewish calendar, coupled with a strict adherence to ascetic principles. These heresies continued to build in the post-apostolic church, reaching their climax between 150-250AD. Early apologists such as Ignatius, Iranaeus, and Tertullian spent much of their respective ministries confronting these errors.
A BIBLICAL RESPONSE
There are not many rabbis in their seventies who can draw a celebrity crowd like Phillip Berg. What are these celebrities searching for? Liz Taylor said that Berg's teachings offer a “light to lead me through the darkness”; for Jeff Goldblum and Naomi Campbell it provides them a means to discover their “inner light”. These responses are spiritually vague; so let me interpret. They are searching for meaning to their lives. Despite their wealth, fame and power they have recognized the futility of a life without answers to the deeper questions of life. Who am I? Where am I headed? What is the purpose of life? These are great metaphysical questions that everyone should be asking. Unfortunately, they are seeking the answers in the all the wrong places.
God and His revealed Word must be the starting point when considering the meaning to life. When man begins with man, he ends with less than man and comes to either existentialism (life is without meaning) or some form of mysticism (internal navel gazing leading to irrational speculations), and both lead to frustration. This frustration is produced because mankind was created with the purpose of communing in fellowship with its Creator. Through sin this fellowship has been broken. To paraphrase CS Lewis, God is the fuel mankind was built to run upon. Attempting to find satisfaction or answers apart from God will not work, because we were not made to run on anything else. As David Fairchild has said, “Since God exists, people naturally strive to find meaning to their existence and the things around them because God put those desires within each of us. If you begin with man as the measure of all things and attempt, inductively, to find a sufficient basis for truth, justice, morality, beauty and meaning, you will fail because that which is finite and relative by nature, can never become infinite and absolute by nature just because we want it to.” This is essentially what the Kabbalist is trying to do as he climbs the proverbial ladder of secret knowledge back to God.
So we must begin where the Biblical writers began: with the existence of God as the ultimate source of truth. This is how we know what we know. Thankfully, God has not left us in the dark. We do not need to ascend some secret mystical ladder to reach God. He has left us His Word – the Holy Bible. Below are several Biblical responses to the truth claims of Kabbalah:
1. God is personal and was directly responsible for the creation of the universe ex nihilo (out of nothing) and for creating man in His image. The Bible begins by affirming, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Additionally, He was pleased with His creation. “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). God likes matter.
2. Man is not divine or capable of reaching God through his own attempts because of sin. Our sinful condition is not the result of plain ignorance or our existence as physical (material) beings, but because man disobeyed his Creator (moral choice), resulting in God’s curse and separation from His creation. The Bible affirms this in many ways:
a. Man is deceitful and desperately sick (Jer. 17:9).
b. Man is full of evil (Mark 7:21-23).
c. Man loves darkness rather than the light (John 3:19).
d. Man does not even seek after the true God (Rom. 3:10-12).
e. Man cannot understand spiritual things apart from God (1 Cor. 2:14).
3. Salvation is not found in correct thought or secret imaginations, but is deliverance from the consequences of our sin and from damnation (Rom. 6:23, Eph. 2:8-9).
4. This salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone (Acts 4:12). Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
References:
Kabbalah Center: Secrets of a Celebrity Sect
Evening Standard (England), Oct. 3, 2002
By David Rowan
Pop Goes Kabbalah
Time Magazine, Nov. 24, 1997
By Nadya
Labi The Early Church
Penguin Books, 1967
By Henry Chadwick
Grasping for the Wind
Sermon on Ecclesiastes 1:12-18
By David Fairchild
Rick Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements
Brian Thomas is the Director of Worship at Kaleo Church in San Diego, CA. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical History from Puget Sound Christian College (but don't hold that against him). In his spare time, he is also a Naval Officer.
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