One of my favorite bloggers posted recently about a bracelet she thinks is hot. Bossy wrote:
Bossy admits to not knowing very much about the Jewish religion or this Kabbalah stuff — for instance the 72 Names of God, and how one of those names is featured on the pendant hanging from the bracelet, which is supposed to provide specific insights to the wearer — but anyway, perhaps it is pretentious to wear something you know nothing about which is why Bossy doesn’t have one (yet), but can’t Bossy just like the thing because it’s sexy?
In the picture it’s kind of hard to see what the damn thing says, but from the words I could see I was able to search in the online concordance and find out it’s a quote from Genesis 49:22, The JPS translation of that verse is “Joseph is a wild ass, a wild ass by a spring–-wild colts on a hillside.” Other translations offer, “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring, its branches run over a wall.” The bracelet also does feature one of the Kabbalistic names of God, Aleph Lamed Daled, which, according to Berg’s (he of the Kabbalah Centre) book The 72 Names of God: Technology for the Soul, is the name that’s good at warding off the evil eye. (Berg sent us a review copy of his book–this is not something I would purchase.)
Now, can anyone explain why warding off the evil eye goes with that quote about either wild asses or fruitful boughs?
Also, I hate all things Kabbalah related, but it’s hard to argue that the bracelet isn’t totally hot. Can someone make me one that has a different quote on the pendant? How about this awesome ass-related line from next week’s parashah, “Look, I am the ass that you have been riding all along until this day!” (Numbers 22:30)
