How did this famous Hasidic mantra end up on Kim Kardashian’s instagram?
Image by Getty
By Irene Katz Connelly January 19, 2021
Kim Kardashian is relaxing with the help of Hasidic Jewish meditation practices. She just might not know it.
Jews scrolling through Kardashian’s Instagram story stopped short at a glimpse of clunky Hebraic font — you know, the kind pressed into service when someone wants to hawk a vaguely Jewish product without actually mentioning Judaism. Squinting closer, they discerned an animal-skin pouch that rightly belongs somewhere in the Harry Potter universe and a glossy card with the phrase “na nach nachma nachman meouman.”
Uhm @kimkardashian
We need to talk. pic.twitter.com/Fj96CZAVTj— Mordechai Lightstone (@Mottel) January 19, 2021
That tongue twister will look familiar to many in the Hasidic world. A kabbalistic-style meditation devised in the early 1900s, it’s popular among members of the Breslov Hasidic movement. There’s even a small Hasidic sect known as Na Nach that takes its name from the meditation. But what was the mantra doing on Kardashian’s feed?
In fact, the reality TV star was showing off an amulet created by haute Los Angeles jewelry designer Jacquie Aiche, whose “Blesslev” collection is inspired (maybe, sort of, tangentially) by Breslov practices. Branded as “a daily source of gratitude” and “an amulet of protection,” items from the collection retail for as much as $615 and look like something a village crone sewed to ward off the bubonic plague. With each purchase comes a printed version of the mantra with instructions to spend 15 minutes each day chanting it in “a quiet and comfortable place.”
Aiche is Jewish, and reportedly designed the collection in conjunction with Sylvain Sellam, a French mystic who follows Breslov teachings and offers spiritual consultations at Aiche’s Los Angeles studio-cum-atelier. But even as they promote the Breslov meditation, marketing materials for the Blesslev collection gloss over its Jewish origins. Describing the mantra as “kabbalistic,” a term many may not associate with Judaism, the Jacquie Aiche website emphasizes that belief in the protective power of amulets “transcends the border of religions.”
So, to anyone tempted to spend their entire stimulus check on a Kardashian-certified talisman that vaguely piggybacks off Jewish tradition, we have one thing to say: save yourself $614 and buy one of the red string kabbalah bracelets, which carry the ringing endorsements of Madonna and Michael Cohen. If it protected them, it’ll protect you.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
