Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Kabbalah craze out of control

According to the NYT, every boutique owner in America is jumping on the Kabbalah bandwagon. Forget the Zohar and pure Kabbalah water; you can now buy, amongst other over-priced merchandise, $45 silver and gold bendels (more commonly known as string bracelets), 'Moses Is My Homeboy' T-shirts, Teffilin (presumably decorative only), and candles from a line 'called simply Kabbalah,' which are imbued with frankincense, cinnamon and myrrh and said to promote sexual energy, spiritual cleansing 'and the like.' Each $20 candle, to be sold in Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus, will be 'packaged with a bendel blessed at Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem.'
I wonder whether this is, a. the beginning of the end for the Kabbalah Center, which has clearly lost control of its 'brand'; and b. a bad thing, in the long-term, for the rest of us, who unfortunately risk being tainted by the commercialism, opportunism and religious kitsch up to now associated with just one marginal cult.

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