As a Zen Buddhist, she laughs and likens the experience to that great Zen come-on: "If you say yes, I'll give you 30 blows; if you say no, I'll give you 30 blows."

Kabbalah, a complex study of Jewish mysticism, is gaining converts all over the world thanks to high-profile followers like rock star Madonna (pictured above, who chose Esther as her Hebrew name), Demi Moore and Gwyneth Paltrow. Britney Spears even popped up in one magazine spread showing a lot of skin and a telltale red string around her wrist, one of the accoutrements du jour for the celeb Kabbalah crowd.

Says Besserman, a scholar and professor who holds a doctorate in comparative literature from Columbia University and who divides her time between Hawai'i and Illinois: "I get nervous about the identification with Madonna." But she also says whatever brings people to their spiritual path is meant to be.

It's been an interesting year not only for Kabbalah, with centers springing up in major cities, but also for Besserman. She saw her name in the August issue of Cosmopolitan magazine before she headed to Normal, Ill., where she teaches women's studies at Illinois State. Now, she's putting the finishing touches on her soon-to-be-released book on feminist spirituality, "A New Kabbalah for Women," her 13th published work.

She describes Kabbalah as "received tradition, or a direct transmission of timeless spiritual wisdom." It uses the Zohar as its main text and incorporates numerology, a mandala, meditation and astrology. There's no simple definition of the Kabbalah, experts note, though it's defined in Webster's (under "cabala") as "a body of mystical teachings of rabbinical origin, often based on an esoteric interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures, or a secret doctrine resembling these teachings." (For a fuller explanation, see sidebar.)

The Cosmo article in which Besserman saw her name — between an article on women staging their own abductions and a feature on spa secrets — boils it down to "Kabbalah 101," and remarks that it uses elements of meditation, numerology, astrology, control of one's ego, connections with the natural world and positive interactions with the universe.

But not all of the press is positive. Some say the form of Kabbalah being taught in New Age-style study centers is really more of a commercial endeavor than true enlightenment.

Kabbalah lite?

Counting followers of the pop-version of Kabbalah is hard to do, though the traditional kind of study is alive and well in Hawai'i through the Orthodox Jewish group Chabad of Hawai'i.

Rabbi Itchel Krasnjansky explains that the Hasidic branch of Orthodox Judaism follows the traditional form of Kabbalah.

"Kabbalah means 'to receive.' These teachings have been received from Sinai," he said. "Chabad is kabbalistic; it's mysticism articulated in a rational, intelligent language."

Is this a different animal from the one Madonna and Britney adopted? The Kabbalah Centre, an organization of study centers based in Los Angeles that draws the aforementioned celebrities, has come under fire by some Jewish scholars, who criticize it as "Kabbalah Lite."

The center lists a Honolulu e-mail address and a toll-free number, and mentions a "satellite" center on the Islands on its Web site, www.kabbalah.com.

Kabbalah Centre coordinator Andy Behrman said the Honolulu satellite center is just at the proposal stage right now.

"People from Hawai'i take online classes," he said, but added there's no way to tell how many, because online students don't register by address.

While Chabad's Krasnjansky said he's willing to talk to people interested in learning more about Kabbalah, or even to set up a class, he put some distance between his form and that practiced at the Los Angeles center.

Old-school Kabbalah

Some say Kabbalah study shouldn't be undertaken by the unlearned. Some say Kabbalah study should only be undertaken by a Jewish person at least 40 years old. Some even have gone so far as to say only 40-year-old Jewish men well-versed in the Talmud should study Kabbalah.

The Britney-Madonna-Demi form of Kabbalah is not quite so picky. The Kabbalah Centre has 50 branches and claims 500,000 active members, and 50,000 students enrolled in classes with its 200 teachers.

At the Manhattan Kabbalah Centre location, introductory classes cost $270 for 10 weeks. A 23-volume set of the Zohar in English goes for $415. Seminars on soulmates, palm-reading, astrology or healing run about $40 each; a red strand of yarn, which has been "energized" at Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem, $26.

Rabbi Krasnjansky said those interested in studying Kabbalah at the Chabad of Hawaii can do so for free.

However, Krasnjansky explained, Kabbalah — which is "the mystical part of the Torah, the soul of Torah" — can't be viewed in a vacuum; to study Kabbalah without studying Judaism is the wrong approach, in his view.

"In order for it to work its magic, so to speak, in order to receive from this teaching and benefit from wisdom, one must see it as part of the Torah," the rabbi said. "To take just that part and discard the other is missing the entire point of the Kabbalah, just like a body without a soul is a dead. A body needs a soul to be living person; the body is the whole Torah."

Gimmicks vs. the good

Besserman, who taught English at the University of Hawai'i about 15 years ago, calls the whole red string/celebrity thing "a gimmick."

"That's a talisman, folklore," said Besserman, who is descended from Israel Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism. " ... For many reasons, it's good (Kabbalah) is out in the open. But like many things in popular culture, it's been distorted."

As a professor who also teaches women's studies, she relishes the feminine properties of Kabbalah. Her mother wanted her to be a rabbi and her father wanted her to be the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court (she went to law school at Columbia University, but ended up across the street, studying comparative literature in the English Department). As the daughter of "ethnically Jewish" parents, she wrestled with her parents' "enlightened Jewish, modern orthodox" faith.

"I couldn't stop rebelling until I started studying the Kabbalah," she said.

Two examples of what drew Besserman: Shekhinah, the female aspect of God; and the cosmic Tree of Life, which has "the fruits of the divine emancipation," which is divided into "male" and "female" halves.

Oddly, the path to her new book, which she calls "birthed by women," was just as circuitous.

She'd gotten a spark of an idea when a journalist from New York asked her, "Have you done anything on women in the Kabbalah?" That got Besserman thinking. She jotted down some notes. As time went on, she'd add a note here and there in the course of her travels to India, China and the Middle East, where she wrote about women in wartime for the Village Voice.

Later, when Besserman was pitching a different idea to her agent, the agent asked Besserman what else she had going on. She mentioned the notes in the bottom of her drawer.

"Perle, are you insane?" the agent said. "Take it out of your drawer!"

She did. The book is due in stores on Jan. 1, and is being published by Palgrave/St. Martin's Press.

And yes, Besserman recognizes that at some level, there's an advantage to having Madonna — make that Esther — discover your kuleana:

"Madonna's going to affect many more people than I can," Besserman said. "The spirit has more ways to reaching people."

Reach Mary Kaye Ritz at mritz@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8035.