Madonna On The Hidden World: From Material Girl to Queen Esther

By Dan Friedman July 31, 2009

In her first of what she promises will be a regular column for Yediot Ahronot Madonna has explained how she was turned on to Kabbalah.

She notes how her fame and global traveling hadn’t helped “when it came to trying to understand why people suffered in the world or what the meaning of life was all about.” Kabbalah opened her eyes to how things worked: “Nature and the laws of Cause and Effect.” To the quintessential material girl, suddenly, “[l]ife no longer seemed like a series of Random events…[she] started to see patterns in life.” As she puts it, “I woke up.”

There are obvious encomia to those who have helped wake her up, and road-to-Damascus (or should that be from-Damascus?) insights. Perhaps her own alacrity or some judicious editing have kept the column short but interesting — even if its fascination lies with the author’s celebrity rather than her slightly sophomoric prose.

Two things still remain hidden though: How long will she continue writing the column (neither she nor Yediot Ahronot have specified the length of their arrangement), and why?

Why does a global star with nothing obvious to sell want to write her own column? And why does she start by omitting that most obvious of questions? Perhaps to get us to read the next one?!

Dan Friedman is the former executive editor and whisky correspondent of the Forward, and is the author of a book about Tears for Fears, the ’80s emo rock band.

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