Madonna, the cone bra wearing ex-Catholic girl from Detroit, is not Jewish but that didn't stop her from telling former Israel Prime Minister Shimon Peres, "I am an ambassador for Judaism".
And she probably said it with a straight face - and in her faux British accent so the Jewish Prime Minister would, like, totally believable.
The Material Mom is in Jerusalem on the eve of Jewish new year to attend a conference on her cult Kabbalah.
Madonna met Peres at his official Jerusalem residence on Saturday evening and the two exchanged gifts, with Madonna receiving a lavishly bound copy of the Old Testament. She gave Peres a volume of "The Book of Splendor," the guiding text of Kabbalah, inscribed "To Shimon Peres, the man I admire and love, Madonna," the Yediot Ahronot daily reported.
"You don't know how popular the Book of Splendor is among Hollywood actors," Yediot quoted Madonna as telling Peres. "Everyone I meet talks to me only about that. I am an ambassador for Judaism."
O-kay...
Tell that to the real Orthodox teachers of Kabbala who reacted with disdain Sunday to the pop idol's Rosh Hashana visit in Israel.
One of them, Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri, son of Jerusalem-based kabbalist David Batzri, head of the Shalom Yeshiva, said that it is forbidden in Judaism to teach Kabbala to non-Jews such as Madonna.
"Even Jews are not allowed to delve into the secrets of the Kabbala until they have thoroughly reviewed the entire Talmud and the legal commentaries, and also scrupulously adhere to all the commandments," explains Batzri.
"But we as Jews can learn something from the interest non-Jews have in Kabbala. Even the non-Jews understand the power of the Kabbala. They are willing to come from the ends of the earth to learn it."
