Naomi Campbell Takes Up Kabbalah

By Debra Nussbaum Cohen October 23, 2010

Better get out your book plates, Madonna. Model Naomi Campbell wants to borrow your copy of the Zohar.

According to this JTA report, the hot-tempered supermodel has taken up study of the mystical Jewish tradition in order to calm her emotions.

Of course, she is but the latest of a (red) string of non-Jewish celebrities to take up the pursuit, much to the chagrin of traditionalists, as can be read in this New York Times story.

But for Campbell, it’s kosher. Because according to this gossip site, the British babe is 40 years old, and that’s the age at which in traditional Jewish esoteric circles, the study of Kabbalah is permitted.

But students of Kabbalah are also supposed to be schooled in Talmud and halacha, or Jewish law. And for that, Ms. Campbell may have to look somewhere else than the Kabbalah Centre.

Debra Nussbaum Cohen is an award-winning journalist and the author of Celebrating Your New Jewish Daughter: Creating Jewish Ways to Welcome Baby Girls into the Covenant. Follow her on Instagram @debranc or email her at [email protected].

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