Curious about all that Kabbalah stuff in Hollywood? Radar Online has a slashing story about the movement and its founder, Philip Berg, that's worth reading. You can judge for yourself how much to believe or disbelieve. Link. Excerpt:
The Bergs have come a long way since 1971, when Philip, then known as Shraga Feivel Gruberger, began preaching his version of Jewish mystical enlightenment to a small group of students in Israel. A onetime insurance salesman who left his wife and seven kids to marry Karen, his former secretary, Berg has become a man so revered that some of his followers believe he has the power to resurrect the dead. In the process he has created a multimillion-dollar brand out of a bastardization of an arcane branch of Judaism, larding it with pricey accessories and bold-faced names. His followers have been promised that Kabbalah can find their lost children, cure their illnesses, replenish their pocketbooks, and bring them true love. Berg himself is so above it all that even his wife refers to him, at least to the press, only by an honorific. He is “the Rav."
Under the Bergs' leadership the Kabbalah Centre has become both enormously wealthy and world famous. Its products–the red strings, the scented candles, the holy water–are on display everywhere from the counters at Sephora to the pages of Us Weekly. The Centre's website does a lucrative business selling $280 crib sheet sets featuring protective Hebrew lettering; the diamond necklaces bearing symbols for healing, happiness, love, and prosperity are so popular they've sold out. No less a luminary than Britney Spears has been photographed toting a volume of the Zohar, the Kabbalists' bible, which sells at prices up to $415 for a set.
The story (the first in a series, apparently) says Madonna has given $18 million to the Centre.
