Thursday, Jul. 10, 2008 By GILBERT CRUZ
TIME - A Brief History Of: Kabbalah

In the beginning, there was Madonna. At least that's how most see the modern history of Kabbalah--the New Agey revival of traditional Jewish mysticism recently linked in the tabloids to a love triangle involving the Material Girl and married New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez. Yet despite its high-profile Hollywood associations, the Kabbalah tradition--which involves the attempt to more directly understand God through contemplation and arcane textual study--stretches back centuries.

Kabbalah cohered and still revolves around its essential book, the Zohar--a gargantuan work penned in 13th century Spain by Moses de León--that explores divine mysteries under the guise of a commentary on the Torah. But it wasn't until the 18th century emergence of Hasidism as a Jewish movement in Eastern Europe that Kabbalah began to expand beyond its tiny group of scholars. Many Kabbalist masters, however, were killed in the Holocaust, causing the practice to languish temporarily.

Most celebrity practitioners, including Madonna and actress Demi Moore, are members of the Los Angeles--based Kabbalah Centre, which distances itself from the tradition's Jewish roots in favor of a more nonspecific spirituality. Followers take expensive courses and wear red strings on their wrists to ward off the Evil Eye (a practice not directly linked to traditional Kabbalah study). While some Jewish leaders have criticized the group for turning an ancient tradition into a sham pop spirituality (see its cynical sales of supposedly curative "Kabbalah water"), the center's emphasis on a more personal connection with the Almighty might not necessarily have seemed out of place to its earliest adherents.