What is Kabbalah?

Last week news broke that Madonna spent over $5 million for a London town house that will become a new center for the study of Kabbalah. This religious movement, long associated with Judaism, was little known until it became popular among celebrities. What is Kabbalah all about?

Kabbalah is defined as the esoteric part of the Torah that was received from God by Moses and has been passed down through Judaism for thousands of years. Translated, Kabbalah means "to receive" or as the centre says in its literature, "to get." Some Jewish scholars, such as Rabbi Binyomin Holland, believe the study of Kabbalah is not possible without a greater knowledge of the Torah and is therefore inseparable from Judaism.

This centuries-old tradition is so popular right now that many celebrities are dabbling in its disciplines. But Kabbalah is a far deeper spiritual system than people might guess from celebrity sound bytes.

This centuries old mystic cult is now the most popular among the celebrity sect. The Kabbalah String, a bottle of pure water, a CD for mediatation and so on...the symbols for peace abound in the market, which is almost priceless...

Although the Kabbalah is founded on the Torah, the Jewish scriptures and other sacred writings, it is no intellectual discipline; and the mystic is not to practice it in solitude, but is to employ it to enlighten humanity. The Kabbalist seeks two things: an union with God while maintaining a social, family, and communal life within the framework of traditional Judaism. Those who have adopted the Kabbalistic teachings have modified these latter aims