Fed up with the dismissive treatment the media has given (guilty!) to the Kabbalistic practice of wearing a red bendel to ward off the kenina hora (evil eye), a Pittsburgh businessman has independently produced a short film to cleanse our current perceptions of last year’s most popular accessory. Instead of sneering at the gaggles of Midwestern Madonna-wannabes, Shlomo Perelman, owner of Pinker’s Judaica Center, believes Jews need to educate themselves about the significance of Rachel’s tomb and reclaim this ancient tradition as their own. “It’s been co-opted by Hollywood types and it’s been adopted by mass-market, New Age people,” he says. “It’s not being linked at all to Judaism.”
In the film the narrator reminds us that the “authentic” red string is “not Kabbalistic magic, it’s a way to connect, to have Rachel in mind as we go about our daily lives.”
To watch the short, informative and inspiring film at Judaism.com, click here.