What is Kabbalah?

Reading the Newsweek today (yes, I read Newsweek every week, and scan the New York Times every day, it's free in e-mail, everyone should get it), I saw the article on Kabbalah with the picture of Madonna (that is her name, right?). I just can't believe the 'spiritual quests' that people and celebrities are taking. Two examples are 'Kabbalah' and Scientology, the former claiming to be authentic when actually ignoring prior Kabbalistic ways, the latter beginning as a scientific experiment, and when rejected becomes a religion.

I just wanted to state the truth (or at least, my truth) about Kabbalah. Current Kabbalah under Berg and the Kabbalah Center (in my opinion) is aiming to make profit. In a phone call from the Center, I was told that there is no need for God, the power is within you. The true Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, is quite different. Isaac Luria (1534-1572) put together the Tree of God and

explained creation as the beaming of the divine light into ten special vessels...only the coming of the Messiah will bring tikkun...ending chaos and evil in the world...Luria asked his followers to follow strict ascetic purification practices, prayer, and observance of the commandments of the Torah, and to chant sacred formulas. (Fisher 256)

The only similarity between the two is the reading of the Zohar ("Way of Splendor"), although to the celebrity Kabbalist the 72 Names of God may be more important. Current Kabbalah has turned into a way to provide satisfaction with a $24 red string, possibly ignoring God throughout.