The BBC is broadcasting a show Jan. 13 where they have apparently filmed a senior member of London’s Kabbalah Center, Eliyahu Yardeni, making the claim that Jews who died in the Holocaust were murdered because they did not have kaballah in their lives.

There is more fun stuff in this article about this upcoming program.

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themiddle

45 Comments

  • Are these people insane? Oh wait, yes. Ok, ok, I realize that is a pretty harsh judgment of someone else’s beliefs, but I’m surprised that the leader of the organization wasn’t hit by a lightning bolt out of the clear blue sky right after that interview. I’m not saying he’s wrong…………no, I am absolutely saying he is wrong. I think this would be the perfect time for family members of camp survivors and those who were murdered in the camps to pose a violent demonstration—-in his living room. Maybe if he ties himself up with red thread, he will be unable to go to any more interviews, and thus, pseudo-kabbalah will have saved us all from evil.

  • I’m still hoping the BBC got it wrong or skewed what he had to say out of context. They have been known to do that before…

  • The only thing the BBC wrote on that issue was:

    Talking about the wartime massacre of the Jews, Mr Yardeni said: “Just to tell you another thing about the six million Jews that were killed in the Holocaust: the question was that the Light was blocked. They didn’t use Kabbalah.”

    I can see that being taken a bit out of context. There’s a reason why I chose not to post this story. But that’s just me.

  • That is just you. Even if your reporting standards are higher than the BBC’s, they get a little more traffic than Jewlicious and tend to have a powerful impact on their reading and viewing public.

    edit: sorry, wrote that in a rush and didn’t mean to make it sound short. My point is that it’s relevant because even if untrue or out of context, this is still how it’s being represented in the most powerful British media outlet, and they have an international reach.

  • You don’t want me to make you start crying again do you? Best to forget all those things.

  • CK, did you just type out something you were meaning to say out loud to Grandmuffti?

    That must have been quite a weekend.

  • No. You know the way you get about stuff that is no longer part of your life and never will be? Well, it was a hell of a weekend, full of pathos and drama and late, late nights. Muffti had his drama and I had mine, but in different places at different times, though we did manage to chat about it over some awesome huevos rancheros whilst watching creepy William De Los Estradillas on Mexican TV. Seriously TM. Don’t ask.

  • CK, after harshing your mellow last weekend (when, as you definitely recall, I asked whether you got laid), I would never consider asking you this time. No, no, no, I wouldn’t even dream of asking.

    Seriously, if it’s what I think it is, I hope you are feeling okay.

    Would it cheer you if I posted how the Arafat-admirer, Thomas Friedman of the NY Times, compares Palestinian and Iraqi militant Muslims to “Jewish zealots” protecting and seeking to protect Gaza? The common name he forges for all three groups is “militant messianists” (he’s actually also including Christians in the US who would go to Gaza to battle the pullout).

  • TM – seriously. Whether or not I got laid, do you think that would EVER get put up here? I hardly see how that would qualify as Jewlicious. I mean, yeah, I would like to think that one of Jewlicious’ goals is to encourage Jews to get it going on with Jews, but the details are sort of unimportant. As for militant messianists, how on earth is that meant to cheer me up? Who says I even need cheering up? I’m plenty cheerful, thank you 🙂

    You’re sooo wierd sometimes …..

  • I was actually wondering if maybe it was just funny in my head, and not when it was actually in print…thanks for the reassurance! When’s the next visit to NYC?
    😉

    And I do need to note that you guys talk about huevos rancheros quite a bit, both in real life and in Jewliciousland. Makes me think it’s a euphemism.

    😉

  • No. It’s not a euphemism. It’s Mexican eggs. These eggs are the Jefe de los Jefes. When you don’t have shakshouka … man I swear Mexicans are the cullinary Moroccans of North America. And the comparisons don’t end there. Just watch the inordinately large female turnout at a Mexican wrestling match and compare that to my Mom Brakha when she’s on a tear … well, never mind all that right now.

    Esther, we’ll totally chill next time I’m in NYC. Which may be sooner than I think ….

  • ARgh! I cannot understand how/why/what (and any other of those words you want to throw at it) these people are thinking! “hey guys, let’s take some mystical aspects of a great religion, screw it up, add some old superstitions, buy stock in red string, get some “personalities” on board, and watch the money roll in as we sell some tap water!” Grrrrrrrr. There’s got to be some idolatry in there somewhere—-the almighty dollar, perhaps?

  • Esther! Been reading back issues of the Dearborn Examiner? Maybe some Karl Marx?

    The god of the Jews has become secularized and has become the god of the world. The bill of exchange is the real god of the Jew.

    Oy.

  • Ummmn…the muffti kindly requests that neither TM nor CK ever use his name again. Ever. The ensuing conversations are just disturbing. But let me make a few quick notes a corrections:

    1. It was ‘walter’ de la estradillas. Not ‘william’.
    2. The Muffti had little drama. He had to endure an ex’s drama for quite a while (ironically, regarding her ex). Luckily, huevos rancheros were invovled the next day. I did get to learn the phrase ‘El Jefe de los Jefes’ which the Muffti is thinking of reinventing himself as.
    3. Esther, don’t know the huevos til you try them. If you can stomach crossing the bridge and risking your life in Jersey for a morning, the Muffti will be glad to bring you to the source of huevos.
    4. Ziva, why are you so upset? Every religion has its charlatans. At least ours don’t get on Sunday morning tv to often to preach.
    5. TM, our man ck wears Victoria Secret exclusively, always silk. But you didn’t get it from me. And he’ll deny it.

  • Muffti, I only bring up your name in the best circumstances. You know, you should really encourage CK to wear better quality panties.

    So what is El Jefe de los Jefes?

  • Ahem. El Jefe de los Jefes means “The Boss of Bosses.”

    Victoria Secrets panties are for soccer moms. Muffti ought to really control his wild imagination.

    My apologies for the walter / william confusion.

    muffti – didn’t we have a bull semen conversation with someone when i was there? i don’t recall ever telling them we were joking. Uh oh ….

  • The Muffti and ck indeed did. Muffti only told one of the young ladies the truth; the other can remain blissfully ignorant. Knowing her, I suspect a cocktail party sometime soon will be regaled about the uses of bull semen in their coffee creamer etc…

  • CK: I didn’t mean to say that I’d been immersing myself in Marxist literature or that I’ve gone over to the dark side. I had some cultural flash equating the term Mammon with a culture that became obsessed with money. Phew. My head hurts.

    And BTW, Muffti, Jersey don’t scare me, not a whit. (Conversations about bull semen, on the other hand…)
    In case you forgot, I grew up there (to the extent that I grew up anywhere) and went to college there…as the saying goes, mi alma mater es su alma mater. Or something like that. I know I’m going to get slammed by semantics if I keep typing, so I’m stopping. Right now. I swear.

  • “mammon” is just ‘money/wealth’ in Hebrew. It’s the Christian Testament that ‘personalized’ it into Mammon, as if it were some kind of pagan deity or supernatural force.

  • The Muffti recalls. But most NYCers who share your background have developed a fear for Jersey. When I asked why, the said ‘coz we grew up there and know how crappy it is!’ Anyhow, any day you want to have huevos from genuine mexicans and watch some horoscope prediction from our favourite hombre Walter (de los estradillas), say the word. It’ll be my treat.

  • Oh, I know each group has charlatans. It’s just that each time I read the sort of hokum (yes, I thought that might be a fun word to throw in) for which the Kabbalah center (and disreputable establishments of its ilk in all religions) is responsible, it does remind me of evangalists and snake oil salesmen back to eternity (no, I wasn’t there…it is just the idea….). This is a stupid and even elitist thought, and I apologize before the utterance, it is just: c’mon, we’re Jews, shouldn’t we be better than that? Maybe it isn’t even that—to make it less elitist: shouldn’t supposedly religious people of whatever faith/belief/persuasion be better than that? It just takes religion back into the drivel of politics, money, or superstition—–it makes a mockery of religion in my mind. Sorry for the sillyness, I just figured if you all read my rants and had the kindness to ask, you deserved the answer.

  • Oh yeah, the other reason I’m irritated is because they are (or supposedly are, or might be) saying that people died in the camps because they weren’t spiritual enough—-that kind of let’s blame the victim idea ticks me off no matter what group espouses it! Thanks for “listening.” I’ll go back to semi-lurking and laughing at discussions of panties and Mexican egg dishes!

  • I declare a Fatwa on……….. Eliyahu Yardeni..

    He must die…He must die…The fake rabbi of goyim refugees!

    This pig should be kept in a frozen state…

    Obey the fatwa!

    sheik & stones

  • screw u!!! im a kabbalah lover!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and hes a great kabbalalist!! hah

  • hi again, i think that was very harsh let me say it in a nice way, i think people should have their own beliefs and no one should be judging!!!!!!!

  • i’m glad to see kaballah has brought you such inner peace and coolheadedness. i think you’ve met your exclamation quota for the month.

  • hi again, i just think that you should take this website off, how would you feel if someone wrote that about you…BELIVE YOUR OWN BELIEFS!! OK? SO DONT JUDGE OK? GOT ITT??? THINK ABOUT IT ALL OF YOU!!

  • hi!!!
    i love hashem 2!!!!
    i think that u should take this website off..veryyy rudeee!!!!!!!!!!!!! ok???
    take it offfff!!!!
    BELIVE WHAT YOU WANT!!! U WANT ME TO TELL YOU AGAIN!!! I DONT THINK U DO OK???

  • I’m so glad the popularization of Kabbalah among the masses has brought into the Jewish fold so many luminaries such as our friend no name, who are without a doubt the modern bearers of the Maimonidean standard of uncompromising rationalism and unshakeable religious conviction. True enough, once I feared that the Kabbalah Centre was naught more than a transparent network of charlatans, snake-oil vendors and unscrupulous capitalists who prey upon the inherent guile and desire for belief of the masses – but through my contacts with devotees like no name, well, if I may be given dispensation to resort to a familiar and well-worn old trope, “I was blind, but now I see.”

    So yes, let us remove our blog which serves only as a negation of God and man’s holy mission and leave the pressing work of bringing the redemption (may we merit it soon!) in the capable hands of no name and the holy gedolim of Kabbalah.