Marketing the mystical: A case analysis of modern-day Kabbalah

The paper is a study of an effort to disseminate Jewish mysticism to unconventional audiences. It explores the attraction of modern day Kabbalah by qualitatively analyzing the Kabbalah Centre, in Los Angeles, California. The case analysis includes ethnography of a Shabbat service, two-dimensional image analysis of a quarterly brochure, and discourse analysis of an introductory Kabbalah course. Background information is provided on Kabbalah, modern day Kabbalah as a new religious movement, and the attempts to render the modern version attractive to potential adherents. This qualitative approach seeks to provide an interpretive understanding of modern day Kabbalah and its routine connections to the “Light” at a Shabbat service. The images that are interpreted derive from humanistic, nature and geometric. The discourse serves as an interpretive tool of Kabbalah. The researcher has incorporated theoretical ideas from constructionist and postmodernist sources to analyze the efforts to market a modern day version of Kabbalah.