The pop singer Madonna has become an adherent of Kabbalah, a body of mystical Jewish lore going back to late antiquity.

* The pop singer Madonna has become an adherent of Kabbalah, a body of mystical Jewish lore going back to late antiquity. She has taken a new name, Esther, and become a thoroughly spiritual girl, most recently attending a five-day retreat with 2,000 other seekers-after-enlightenment at a luxury hotel in Tel Aviv. (Apparently a dedication to Kabbalist truth does not require much in the way of world-renouncing asceticism.) Told that his printer, on completion of the mighty Dictionary, had remarked, "Thank God I have done with him!" Samuel Johnson replied, "I am glad that he thanks God for anything." We feel the same way about Madonna, and hope that her example will inspire others to seek meaning in life at some level above the earthly or fleshly. We can't help wondering, though, why celebrities seem so often to be drawn toward the most exotic fringes of religious inquiry. Is it too much to ask that the next movie star or pop singer to get religion will go for something less colorful and New Agey--Lutheranism, perhaps?