WHAT ARE THE 72 NAMES OF GOD?
• ARE ALL HASIDS KABBALISTS? • IS KABBALAH LOOKED DOWN UPON? • WHAT’S THE ZOHAR? • WHAT ARE THE SEVEN HEAVENS? Why the Red String? My family is of Italian origin (parents are first-generation American). Babies in my family have been wearing a red string on their arm or pinned to their sweater or carrier for as long as I can remember to ward off the evil eye or “Mal Oche.” Is there a connection to Madonna and other celebrities who follow Kabbalah and wear a red string? For celebrities like Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Madonna-and even Madonna’s daughter Lourdes-it has become fashionable to wear a “Kabbalah” bracelet made out of braided red string to protect them from “the unfriendly stare and unkind glances,” as the Kabbalah Centre (where the string sells for $26 a length) puts it. Surprisingly, though, this tradition is not explicitly from Kabbalah. Many Mediterranean cultures wear red to ward off the evil eye. There are biblical traditions associated with
