Now that Madonna and several Hollywood cultural icons have embraced the Kaballah ( as the latest remedy for the world’s ills),I am noticing a phenomenon. People are wearing loops of red string on their wrists…apparently, this is part of their kabballah study. What is the signficance of this? Is it so they can recognize themselves? Or is it a cultural thing?
Anyway, these things ain’t cheap-I’m told a trendy West-LA “Kabballahtorium” charges $65.00/a bracelet!
I’ve also seen GREEN strings bracelets…is that a higher order thing?
It’s a trendy way to say, “I’m so shallow a piece of thread can give me spiritual depth.”
Can’t you just go to Hobby Lobby, buy some red yarn, and tie a bit around your wrist? Viola! A string bracelet! Or is it a “special” kind of string?
Is this Kaballa thing the new Scientology? A way for the Hollywood elite to be part of a fad religion but still able to get out of it when it’s no longer hip?
The red string is meant to ward off the “evil eye.” How exactly it does this I couldn’t say.
I don’t know what the heck they put in a $65.00 string. We Jews are satisfied with ordinary thread. Some Jewish holy sites will have such strings there (I know that Rachel’s tomb has them), and maybe those have some sort of greater spiritual significance (not that I’ve ever heard of why that would be), but they don’t charge for them, it’s more of a “suggested donation” basis.
Oh, and I’m also not aware of any significance to a green thread.
Agrippina:
Yup. A way to show off their spirituality without being part of that “behavior moderation” religious stuff they really don’t care for.
One reason I’ve heard for the $65 bracelets is that the strings were taken to certain holy sites, as mentioned by cmkeller.
That still doesn’t explain very much though.
:eek: SIXTY-FIVE DOLLARS?! :eek:
It better have passed through Britney Spears’ small intestine to be worth that much.
Nice generalization. Is everyone who believes in Kaballah shallow or just the ones who wear the red bracelet? Or just the ones you don’t like? Maybe you could make a list of people whose religion we should respect and which ones we can ridicule.
Price is relative. The OP noted that the $65 bracelets are in a trendy west-LA shop. That’s the land of the five-dollar milkshake. People there also wear $1000 shoes because they have the money and that’s how they want to spend it. You don’t have to pay $65 for red string if believe in Kaballah any more than you have to go barefoot if you can’t afford expensive shoes.
Yes, no, no.
OK, here’s my list:
Respect: None of 'em.
Disrespect: All of 'em.
Kaballoney.
When you start selling string to Madonna and Britney Spears, you’ve apparently decided to stop having other people take your religious beliefs seriously and just cash in.
Fashion impaired?
With the kind of money the Hollow Headed have they can afford it. It is a status symbol that says, "Hey, look at me, I’m loaded and can PAY for a cheap piece of string!
Same applies to a $200 (price tag) cheap K-Mart pocket watch.
Want fun? Call the Neal Boortz talk show and ask where you can buy a “Versace Logo Jacquard Canvas Duffel.” That item sells for $349 and looks like a $30 bag, if its worth the much.
I’m on my way to K-Mart to buy some string at $4 a pound. I know a business opportunity when I see one.
The ones I really like are the T-shirts with the random Hebrew letters I hear they’re selling for a zillion dollars a pop. My plan is to print up a bunch of those myself and sell them over the internet; only difference is, mine will spell actual words.*
*Preferably dirty ones.
So the fact that Madonna used Catholic icons in her early work completely discredits all of Christianity?
They’ve been doing this in Chinatown for years.
No, it doesn’t. Now go back and actually read the posts. Pay attention; there’s going to be a quiz.
The OP talked about celebrities and other wannabees. My response did also. Do you understand the difference between mocking people who have serious religious beliefs and mocking people who adopt the symbols of these beliefs as fashion statements with no concept of their deeper meaning?
I do understand that. I’m reacting to two separate but equally objectionable things:[ul][li]You mock Madonna et al. for espousing a religion. How do you know she is “adopting the symbols of these beliefs as fashion statements” rather than actually having a level of true faith you’d deem acceptable? Please provide a cite into Madonna’s (and/or any other celeb you choose to disparage) inner thoughts and spirituality. You may be absolutely correct; I have no evidence either way. I just see no reason to assume Madonna cannot be spiritual just because her art is insipid.[/li]
[li]another poster (Agrippina) compared Kaballah to Scientology based on celebrities being involved. Agrippina’s question was valid, but an a priori assumption that any religion espoused by celebs is a farce or cult is not, and that seems to be the gist of much of the discussion (here and elsewhere) regarding the current popularity of Kaballah.[/li][/ul]
Because Kaballah doesn’t work that way. In order to study actual Kaballah, you need to be a devout Jew who’s grounded in Jewish law. It assumes a preexisting knowledge that takes years of study. Calling yourself “Esther” and wearing string isn’t enough to do it. Besides, I don’t think women are even allowed to study Kaballah.