I just got this email from the Kabbalah Centre:

Dear Friend:

The Kabbalah Centre is introducing the premiere of a new Kabbalah call-in show on XM and Sirius Satellite Radio:

Yehuda Berg & Friends: Wednesdays at 6-7 PM EST

Yehuda Berg will be addressing all the topics relevant to your life: relationships, health, spirituality, astrology, career, finances, environment, and more. Each week he will invite a thought leader, role model or celebrity onto the show to talk about a specific topic and explore it from many sides.

You are invited to be part of the new show by calling in with your questions!

Please spread the word. This is the perfect way to expose newcomers to the practical side of this ancient wisdom.

Sincerely,
The Kabbalah Centre

If you want to check it out, got to Sirius. You’ll also be able to hear about Ashton Kutcher’s Spiritual Side — the Kabbalistic Side.

A few weeks ago, I was on the public radio program, Marketplace, commenting on subway advertising recruiting young men (18-35) for a lifetime commitment to be a friar. It seems in these ads were fortuitous, because in these hard times people are looking to more deeply evaluate their job alternatives and this has been a boon for the Franciscans.

Since the radio broadcast, it seems the story has what’s known in the business as “legs.” CNN did a piece last Friday.

This past weekend, The NY Post did a story called Friar Escape.

And, supposedly the Today Show is doing or may even has already done a piece on this.

If you want to know more about the friars (and their marketing) go to http://www.hnp.org.

Many thanks to Ashley Milne-Tyte for producing this piece originally for American Public Media and for keeping me updated on this continuing story…Ok, CNN and NBC, why didn’t YOU call me?

Rachel Maddow interviewed the authors of the very bestselling Left Behind books last Friday.

The authors were evidently not very happy with the edited version that appeared on her broadcast. Therefore, MSNBC has made the whole unedited version of the tape available on her web site.

It will have you look at politics and the apocalypse in a whole new light.

I just got an email from the Kabbalah Centre announcing their annual Pesach (Passover) event.

In the past, this has been a week-long event costing upwards of $5000 per person and children, of course, attend at a discounted rate. This year, Pesach is only 4 nights (maybe this is their bow to these recessionary times), but still carries a hefty price tag of almost $2500 for a couple ($2,096 if you order now at the early bird rate). This also does not include airfare to San Diego or the cost of meals which with Seders can cost an additional $1906 per person. You can only begin to guess what it would add up to for a family of 4.

A week before, I hadn’t gotten an email telling me to order my matzah for Pesach. The picture from the email appears above. The text of the email follows:

Just as Pesach cleanses your soul of layers it has picked up over lifetimes, matzah cleanses impurities and blockages that have gathered in your physical body over this lifetime.

While we make no medical claims, students familiar with the healing properties of matzah have been eating it for years. And this is not your grandmother’s matzah. Kabbalah Centre teachers and students gather before the holiday begins and bake it fresh, according to a strict procedure laid out in the 15th century by the holy kabbalist Rav Isaac Luria, The Ari.

Many ingredients go into the making of this essential Pesach tool: wheat, Kabbalah Water, ancient Aramaic meditations and songs … and a generous helping of love.

Supplies are limited. Order yours today.

• If you are joining us at the international event, make sure to add your order to your registration
• If you will be making your connection at home, order now at the Kabbalah Store

To learn more about matzah, click here.

Can I get an “oh, puleeze”? These kinds of sales tactics were bad enough in the good times, but today they are obscene.

What you will learn when you call the Centre is that they will tell you that you should eat as much matzah during Passover as you possibly can because this has spiritual benefits. This idea reminded me of when I worked on Miller Beer. I heard a boss say it was his job to sell beer until guys’ livers were destroyed. I guess the Kabbalah Centre feels the same way about their followers’ pocketbooks and possibly their waistlines. What I can say for sure is there is not a rabbi in the country — no the world — that would validate the over-consumption of matzah as a means to spiritual betterment.