גוי'שע זינגער אקעגען חילול שבת ויום טוב

Jewish photographers asked to stay away during Madonna visit to Israel

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Organisers of Madonna's spiritual retreat to Israel requested that Jewish photographers do not cover her visit so they don't break religious laws and that all journalists wear white.
The self-proclaimed Material Girl, a keen afficionado of the ancient Jewish mystical tradition known Kabbalah, is due in Israel Wednesday for a three-day retreat which begins with a traditional blessing ceremony to welcome in the New Year.
But organisers from the Kabbalah Centre have made clear they will not accept any photographers of Jewish origin in order not to encourage Jews to break a religious edict banning work over the holiday, a spokesman said.
Jewish reporters may attend the ceremony but they will not be allowed to write inside the synagogue set up inside Madonna's Tel Aviv hotel.
And any journalist wanting to attend any of the events must be dressed in white.
"The Kabbalah Centre does not want (Jewish photographers) to do anything which will break the religious rules over the holidays," spokesman Lior Horev told AFP.
Commenting on the dress code, Horev said "all Kabalah Centre members would be wearing white for traditional religious reasons" and organisers did not want the media to stand out by wearing other coloured-clothes.
Madonna turned to Kabbalah in 1997 after coming into contact with the Los Angeles-based Kabbalah Centre which, according to its website, offers a path to spiritual enlightenment through an eclectic mix of Orthodox Jewish tradition, visualisation and positive thinking.
Two months ago, she took the Hebrew name Esther and is now reportedly observing the Jewish sabbath.

Madonna visits Western Wall site

Pop star Madonna has visited Judaism's sacred Western Wall in the dead of night, to avoid being mobbed by waiting photographers.
But the singer, who is on a spiritual quest to the Holy Land, only glimpsed the wall from her car and did not go down to the site during Sunday's visit.

Earlier, she made a midnight pilgrimage to a Jerusalem cemetery and held a ceremony at the grave of a Jewish sage.

The Kabbalah devotee began her five-day visit to Israel on Wednesday.


Celebrity following

The singer and her family have joined 2,000 fellow Kabbalists from the Los Angeles-based Kabbalah Centre to celebrate the start of the Jewish New Year.

Kabbalah is a type of Jewish mysticism that has a growing celebrity following.

But Madonna, who recently adopted the Hebrew name Esther and wears a trademark Kabbalah red string on her wrist, has insisted she is serious about her belief in the Jewish mysticism.


She visited the grave of the Kabbalist sage Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag with her husband, film-maker Guy Ritchie, at the Kiryat Shaul cemetery, just after midnight on Sunday.

Polish-born Ashlag, who died in 1954, is the renowned author of the Sulam - the ladder - a commentary on the core Kabbalistic text, the Zohar.

Madonna spent more than an hour inside the stone mausoleum, placing candles on the tomb, praying and chanting.

The entourage, led by a rabbi, recited blessings over food and wine and drank from small plastic cups

After the visit, they moved on to the Western Wall - a part of Judaism's holiest site where the biblical temples once stood - but Madonna stayed in the car.

Religious values

At the site she received a mixed welcome from young worshippers, with some chanting: "She has no right to be here."

Some have opposed Madonna's visit and involvement in Kabbalah, charging that the raunchy, materialistic values the singer has promoted in the past are contrary to religious values.

But others welcomed her visit and said she had deprived herself of a spiritual experience by remaining in her vehicle.

Hadass Chen, who came to see the singer, said: "Why did she not come out of the car, we were waiting for her.

"You don't feel the vibe if you don't touch the wall."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3670172.stm