"Kosher Sex" Rabbi Attacks Sex Symbol: The Madonna-Kabbala Controversy "update"...A Series of articles...
"Perverted priorities: Madonna and Idolatrous Hair"
By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.
http://www.shmuley.com/index.php?section=article&id=86

(The first part of this article deals with other related Jewish current affairs issues)

Every day it seems that the world devolves into further disorder and chaos. International leaders seem clueless about basic right and wrong.

On Saturday, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi humiliated himself and his country by traveling to Pyongyang to see the tyrant Kim Jong Il and pay him millions of dollars in tribute for the freeing of Japanese hostages who were kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s. Kim did everything he could to disgrace the Japanese premier, including canceling meetings and not even offering him food. Koizumi was forced to eat a boxed lunch of rice balls that one of his aides had brought from Tokyo. Here was the head of the world's second largest economy allowing himself to be bullied by a bully.

The only hope for the world to crawl out of its directionless mess in an age of upheaval and terror is to follow the moral path. It is always wrong to appease tyrants. It is always right to stand up for human freedom and punish, rather than reward, those who make a mockery of human rights by taking hostages.

It is troubling that the world today lacks simple moral direction. The Jews, who gave humanity the Ten Commandments, the cornerstone of world morality, should be at the forefront of providing moral illumination. But we seem too morally confused to help ourselves, let alone others. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a man of once unshakable principles, is now adrift and is about to evict thousands of Jewish settlers in Gaza who committed no crime other than to cultivate a barren land and absorb the full brunt of Palestinian terror. They are being punished for watching their comrades die, and Sharon is committing the double sin of making a mockery of the party referendum that he himself called for, as well as reward terrorism.

Then there is the American Jewish community. This past week the glorious Salute to Israel Parade took place in New York. It was a magical spectacle that drew upwards of 100,000 spectators and tens of thousands of marchers to honor the Jewish state. But why was Donald Trump chosen as the Grand Marshal? To be sure, we should be very grateful to Trump for agreeing to be publicly associated with Israel. But did he have to lead the parade? Is that the best American Jewry can come up with? Israel needs moral giants to front its defense, not some famous rich guy.

THEN THERE is Judaism, which seems equally directionless.

Throughout the world this week, two Jewish stories dominated even the secular press. The first was that rabbis in Israel and England had forbade the use of Indian hair for women's wigs because the hair might have been used in an idolatrous ceremony.

Jews are dying every day in Israel, we are about to hand over another huge chunk of our land back to people who want to destroy our state, courageous American soldiers are battling to establish the first Arab democracy, and the brains of Israeli soldiers are being kicked around like footballs by terrorists in Gaza. But what are Judaism's representatives thundering about? Idolatrous hair.

Let me be clear. I too am an Orthodox Jew, and my wife covers her hair with a sheitel. But having been in Israel last week and walked through the city of Hebron with its mass of memorials to dead Israeli civilians, the last thing on my mind was the origin of my wife's wig.

While Jewish legal prohibitions against idolatry must be taken seriously, I would prefer seeing rabbis providing direction as to the advisability of further territorial concessions that will only bring Israel's enemies closer to its major population centers.

AND THEN there was the second "Jewish" story. Madonna was about to launch her American concert tour, and the New York Post revealed how she would sing Kabbala-inspired songs while "simulating sex with a female tango dancer."

You know your religion is up a creek when your people are facing mortal danger but your religious leaders are obsessed with Indian hair, and the most famous representative of your mystical tradition is simulating lesbian sex with scantily clad pregnant dancers.

Earth to Phillip Berg: Do us all a favor and dump Madonna as your principal spokesperson. Sorry to be so crass, but Madonna is a slut. Yes, she may sing, and she may dance. But she is famous for being a slut. And no religion dare have a slut as its principal representative.

To be sure, I am not advocating that the Kabbalah Center throw Madonna out. Every human being should be encouraged to approach God, regardless of other choices they have made.

I realize that Madonna has brought the Kabbalah Center great notoriety and is, according to reports, a contributor to the tune of millions of dollars. But is the Kabbalah Center really so desperate that it is prepared to promote itself through a vulgarian whose main contribution to the culture is porn rock?

Can the center's leaders not see the contradiction between having Madonna as a front-woman amid their claims that Kabbala is a life-altering experience?
The principal text of Kabbala is the Zohar, which means "book of illumination," and indeed Judaism's biblical mandate is to be a light unto the nations. Islam suffers today because of an inability on the part of its clerics to condemn the darkness being spread by many of its practitioners. Judaism dare not make the same error by having rabbis be consumed by inanities and failing to provide moral leadership on the critical questions of our time.

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Then this response as reported by MSNBC:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5112674/

Rabbi no fan of Material Girl

By Jeannette Walls
MSNBC
Updated: 4:11 p.m. ET June 02, 2004

Not everyone is impressed that Madonna has re-invented herself.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the former friend and advisor to Michael Jackson, has attacked Madonna, calling her a “slut” and a “vulgarian.” In a startling essay for SomethingJewish.Co.UK, the Rabbi blasts Phillip Berg, the head of the Kabbalah Centre for letting the Material Girl be the religion’s highest-profile spokesperson.

“Earth to Phillip Berg: Do us all a favor and dump Madonna as your principal spokesperson,” Boteach writes. “Sorry to be so crass, but Madonna is a slut. Yes, she may sing, and she may dance. But she is famous for being a slut. And no religion dare have a slut as its principal representative.” He goes on to say:“[I]s the Kabbalah Center really so desperate that it is prepared to promote itself through a vulgarian whose main contribution to the culture is porn rock?”

“I find Rabbi Boteach’s comments regarding Madonna frightening,” Madonna’s spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, told the Scoop. “His vile attacks on her character and as an artist are staggering for someone who professes to be a religious person. . . . I suggest this man take a look at his own character and what problems he may have that would make him feel that he should make statements about a truly beautiful human being that he does not know in the slightest. . . . Madonna’s relationship with the Kabbalah and her commitment to (their) teachings has been a beautiful experience for her and the fact that Madonna wants to share her lessons . . . is yet another example of her truly generous and loving spirit.”

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To which Rabbi Boteach responds:

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Responds to Madonna’s Attack on Him Today

http://www.shmuley.com/index.php?section=news&id=38

This morning, the singer Madonna, through her spokesperson, the PR agent Liz Rosenberg, said of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s recent Jerusalem Post article arguing that Madonna should be removed from her role as the spokesperson for the Kabbalah movement:

“I find Rabbi Boteach’s comments regarding Madonna frightening. His vile attacks on her character and as an artist are staggering for someone who professes to be a religious person. . . .”

Ms. Rosenberg’s full comments about Rabbi Boteach’s article can be found on the MSNBC website:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5112674/

In response to this attack, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach released the following statement:

“For two decades Madonna has been allowed to destroy the female recording industry by erasing the line that separates music from pornography. Before Madonna it was possible for women more famous for their voices than their cleavage, like the beautiful Ella Fitzgerald, to emerge as music superstars. But in the post-Madonna universe, even highly original performers like Janet Jackson now feel the pressure to expose their bodies on national TV in order sell albums. This in turn has spawned the lascivious careers of Madonna copycats like Brittney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

“How tragic that sixty years after feminism rightly demanded that women cease being treated as the lecherous man’s plaything and instead be accorded the dignity of an equally intelligent and dignified member of society, Madonna has been allowed to undo so much of that progress with barely a whimper of protest.

“But while it is unbecoming of responsible feminist leaders not to speak out at Madonna’s wholesale vulgarization of the female image, it would be downright scandalous for Jewish religious leaders not to object to Madonna being promoted as the foremost practitioner of Judaism in the world. Judaism and Kabbalah are, above all else, moral disciplines that demand a striving for moral excellence. Stripping on stage and calling oneself a Kabbalist are mutually exclusive.

“For Madonna to put herself forward as a spiritual spokesperson while continuing to degrade women by simulating sex acts at music concerts, portray full nudity in her movies, and to ridicule lesbians by performing same-sex kisses merely for TV ratings, is a mockery of her claims to a life of spiritual renewal based on the teachings of the Kabbalah.

“Women like Liz Rosenberg especially, who heave greatly distinguished themselves professionally through their brains rather than their busts, should be at the forefront of criticizing Madonna’s assault on feminine dignity.

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Stay tuned..........





- posted by Izak @ 2:41 AM