Can a Red String Save Your Soul?

Photo: Tuvia Tenenbom, the founder and genius of the JEWISH THEATER of NEW YORK.

The Jewish Theater of New York announces the world premiere of Kabbalah, a progressive and provocative comedy about mysticism, consumerism and the nature of faith. Written by Tuvia Tenenbom, the show opens November 15, 2005 at the Triad Theatre, 158 W. 72nd St., in New York City. Equally inspired by both the history of Kabbalists and the red string bracelet trend that has taken hold of everyone from Britney Spears to Wal-Mart shoppers, Tenenbom's Kabbalah aims to explore the traditions of this mystical Jewish faith, its applications and metamorphoses in the modern world and the implications for both the religion and its devotees. As with every production offered by The Jewish Theater of New York, the controversy factor runs high. Kabbalah pokes fun at the cost of membership ($4 for Kabbalah water and $200 for the cleansing of sin), questions the zealous interpretations of present day religious leaders and features an in-need-of-salvation Madonna as one of its leads characters. Kabbalah is rooted in truth, the kind of absurd truth that Tenenbom repeatedly relies on to create meaningful, entertaining theater. When asked about the motivation behind Kabbalah, Tenenbom says, "On the surface, it is an expression of my fascination with the quick cure phenomenon; 'Wear a red string bracelet and be successful or drink the water and stay healthy.' It's ridiculous!"Tenenbom continues, "On a deeper level, Kabbalah reflects my personal need to protect religion from consumer corruption. If everyone starts viewing Madonna or Demi Moore as religious leaders first and entertainers second, Jews risk having their faith perverted by some celebrity-driven version of ancient mysticism. Our production uses comedy to underscore some poignant themes." For tickets call TheaterMania at 212.352.3101 or buy online by clicking HERE. Members of the Media please call Liz Lauren or Abe Cohen at 212.494.0050 or email TheJTNY@aol.com. All JTNY's shows in the United States are in English. Outside of the USA, shows are presented in the language of the host country.

WHAT IS KABBALAH?

Kabbalah, from the Hebrew word "to receive," popularly refers to the mystical or esoteric part of Judaism.

The Essence of Kabbalah

Contrary to popular thinking, the main authors of Jewish mystical texts through the ages (such as de Leon & the Ari, or the authors of the Book of Bahir, Book of Yetsira, etc.) do not deal with practical issues, and nothing in their writings can be applied to real life. Which means that Kabbalah, from its earliest days, had no practical use whatsoever. Instead, Kabbalah busied itself with questions such as: What's God made of? How does He spend His time? Is He alone or does He have company? Does He stand, sit, or walk? Does He sleep? What does He do after work hours? Did He really create the world? Why would He do such a thing? Why do people have two eyes and not three? Why two legs and not four? And, of course, there are some more impertinent questions, like: Does God have sex? If yes, with whom? Who needs the Jews, and why are they around? (BTW, according to Kabbalah: Yes, God has a mate…though her/its name is not very clear. He does have children: The Jews [Note to Christians: sorry…]. All Creation is His imagination…that includes: animals, people, etc. Sometimes He sleeps. When He's awake, He matches up people. He created the world because He wants to unite with it. He’s made out of Nothing, but so is everything else. People are the way they are [two legs, two eyes, etc.], because of some complex mathematical formulas having to do with the numerical values of the Hebrew letters denoting the different body parts. [This, btw, is how the Bible itself is treated. Biblical accounts, i.e. the Parting of the Sea, have more to do with some hidden meaning of the letters than anything else. In other words: The Exodus by itself did not necessarily occur in reality…]. Generally speaking, Kabbalah is a system of thought that sees truth in paradox and finds holiness in opposites. Absurd or abstract as it might sound to some, from this simple axiom Kabbalah has constructed a body of laws known as Laws of Spirituality. What this means in actual (if we can use that word) terms is that Kabbalah grants anyone who so wishes the absolute freedom to postulate anything they want, be it the strangest concept or the most blasphemous idea, and then try it out within the Laws of Spirituality (in the same way that science tests hypotheses about the laws of nature). But given that Kabbalah thrives on paradox, almost any idea can pass the test of the Laws of Spirituality. Truth be said, many religions thrive on paradox; but Kabbalah distinguishes itself because it allows its players to make decisions on their own without any religious authority imposing its view on them. Through the ages, sadly to say, that freedom gave rise to some charismatic leaders who brazenly misled their followers, many times to tragic consequences (witness Shabtai Zvi, and countless of other "messiahs" in Jewish history). But given that Kabbalah has always been a mystery to most people and its rules of engagement a secret to almost anyone, it is no wonder that the pages of Jewish history are laden with "Kabbalists" who misguided their followers to bitter ends.

Kabbalah (the play):

Kabbalah postulates an absurd notion of mortality and sin, proving it beyond any shadow of a doubt by using authentic Kabbalistic rules and reasoning. Realistically speaking, Kabbalah (the play) is nothing less than real Kabbalah. In addition, Kabbalah introduces the audience to the concept that no idea is foreign to it and, by extension, no conclusion can be made from it. (Corollary: Any idea that can be proven beyond doubt is a false idea.) That is the essence of Kabbalah and Kabbalah. And, again by extension, this is arguably also the essence of Judaism.

History:

1. Bible: The first known "Kabbalistic" texts are in the Bible, in compositions such as Ezekiel and Daniel. In those days, at the beginning of what would later be known as Kabbalah, Jewish esoteric thinking was limited to "Merkavah" and "Hechalot," or Chariot and Palaces, visions and experiences. Following the destruction of the first Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and the expulsion of Jews from the Holy Land, Jewish faith went through its biggest crisis of faith: God’s own house (the Temple), and His promise of Eternal Land, turned out to be a fallacy. The Priests, who served their God on a daily basis in what they believed to be His own house, also felt betrayed by Him. It didn't’t take long for their Chief Priest, Ezekiel, to report that he had had a vision in which he saw the real Temple standing tall and high in Heaven, and described in detail how the Heavenly creatures (the Chariots et. al.) worshipped the Lord. His vision, detailed in the Biblical book that carries his name, was the first esoteric idea known to Judaism: The Temple on earth was not the real one, he claimed, but rather a mirror image of the real Temple above. Hence, so the calculation went, the Temple was never destroyed and God’s promise to His people was never broken…This idea, in time, brought birth to a few more: The real Jerusalem is above, in Heaven, the real Holy Land is above…and so and on.It was a mere short distance from these ideas (though it took quite a few years) to the mystical notion that people, too, are but an image of their "real" selves above… And from that to the notion that nothing is real and that the real is nothing… Polishing all those ideas a bit more, gave us one of the basic tenets of the mystic: God is Nothing, He has no Beginning and He has no end, etc.

The Zohar (Book of Splendor) & Kabbalah:

Probably the best known of Jewish esoteric literature, the Zohar was written in 13th Century’s Spain by Moshe de Leon. De Leon, for reasons that are still not clear, ascribed his composition to First Century’s Talmudic Sage, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. (Testifying after his death, his wife said that he did so because he wanted to guarantee her income after his death, reasoning that more people would pay for his writings if someone other than himself wrote them.) The Zohar, a commentary on the Bible (mainly the Pentateuch), is a system of thought dealing with the Essence of God. After the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, also in the 13th Century, the Zohar began its legacy as the most prominent book in Jewish mysticism, helping to create generation after generation of Jewish mystics. But because this book was written in Aramaic, but using the Hebrew alphabet, most people who opened the book could not read past its first word. And even those who did have wide knowledge of the two languages were baffled by the Zohar’s insatiable appetite for paradox. Quite often in this book one sentence states the opposite of its former, and in many instances one sentence would take the two opposite sides of an argument--claiming that this secret is the real truth. This tendency for paradox, so it seems, greatly added to the allure of this book and to the certainty that it represented "holiness."

The Mystics of Tsfat:

It took a few hundred years for another thinking giant to appear in the skies of Kabbalah: The Ari of Tsfat. Basing himself on the Zohar, and probably on knowledge of Gnosticism as well, the Ari invented a brilliant system of complex imagery that reshaped the Story of Creation. He started with the idea that God shrunk Himself in order to give room for His Creation, and followed this with the idea that there are Divine Sparks that were dispersed throughout the Universe. The Jews, so the reasoning went, were cast all over the world to gather the lost Divine Sparks from all corners of the earth… Once again, Jews found reasons for their history of expulsions and exiles. God, as this train of thought goes, has never actually broken His promise to His Chosen People: Their sorrows, including repeated loss of place and people, were the result of God's eternal love for them, and served a dignified purpose that only the Very Chosen could accomplish. Written by T.T. for The JTNY.

GUEST STAR

ADI BLOTMAN

Israeli-Born Actress Makes Transition from Army Troops to Comedy Troupes

Blotman: “It’s very clear that, even as a child, I enjoyed the spotlight.”

New York, NY – During basic training in the Israeli Army, actress Adi Blotman never dreamed she would make it in the competitive world of New York City comedy. Now, her time spent on stage with the National Comedy Theatre has taught her to expect the unexpected, and she loves it. Born in Ra’anana, Israel in 1981, Blotman now spends her weekends making audiences double over with laughter as part of the National Comedy Theatre, the critically-acclaimed improvisational comedy show that recently opened a brand new theater in midtown Manhattan. While it took years of training to sharpen her comedic skills, Blotman knew she was destined for the stage at a very early age. “I was always cramming myself into the shot of our family home videos,” she explains. “It’s very clear that, even as a child, I enjoyed the spotlight.” During high school Blotman channeled her creative energies into art and literature classes. After graduation, she joined the Israeli Army and in December of 1999 gritted her way through three weeks of basic training.

Blotman (joking): “I didn’t get to socialize with many of the other girls...My only friend was the gun they made me carry everywhere I went for three straight weeks.”

According to Blotman, basic training was her least favorite part of being in the army. “I didn’t get to socialize with many of the other girls’” she jokes. “My only friend was the gun they made me carry everywhere I went for three straight weeks.” During her service in the army, Blotman worked as a certified teacher helping underprivileged children in a poverty-stricken area. Despite the rigors of basic training, Blotman says she wouldn’t trade her army experience for anything in the world. In fact, she still has every single painting her young students gave to her. While Blotman found army life extremely fulfilling her desire to be on stage continued to grow. Upon leaving the service she informed her parents of her desire to move to New York and become an actress. They suggested that she first take acting classes in Israel to make sure she was serious. It quickly became clear, however, that their daughter had talent and before long they were sending applications to acting schools in New York. In March 2002, Blotman visited the city for a round of acting school auditions.

“Adi has a twisted, dark sense of humor,” quotes Gary Kramer

Two months later, she was a New York resident and a student at the New Actor’s Workshop where she studied under such well known talents as Mike Nichols and George Morrison. According to Blotman, she first discovered the joy of improvisational comedy during the school’s intensive two-year-actor-training program. “The teachers were amazing and I learned so much,” she recalls. “And, making Mike Nichols laugh is still one of the coolest things I’ve ever done!” Soon, Blotman became a fixture on New York’s improv circuit, frequently appearing with various comedy troupes. Her real break came when she auditioned for the National Comedy Theatre. Similar in style to Drew Carey’s “Whose Line is it Anyway,” the National Comedy Theatre is an improvisational comedy show based completely on audience suggestions. “Adi has a twisted, dark sense of humor,” quotes Gary Kramer, Artistic Director,” “She brings a completely different type of energy to the show.

Bltoman: ” It’s a tough city to live in and it’s a tough world. People need to laugh more and I’m glad I can help!”

I think it’s because we’re all afraid that she could kill us.” Despite her success, Blotman makes sure that she returns home to Israel at least twice a year. However, she does not see herself moving away from Manhattan any time soon. Besides, she has some unfinished business right here in New York. “I feel that comedy provides people with a service they need,” she explains.” It’s a tough city to live in and it’s a tough world. People need to laugh more and I’m glad I can help!”