Heathen in the Holy Land: Kabbalah leader dishes on Madonna

by Aaron Hotfelder on

For previous posts from Gadling’s new “Heathen in the Holy Land” series, go here, here, and here.

The Israeli town of Tzfat, the center of the Jewish mystical tradition known as Kabbalah, is made up of an eclectic mix of devoted Orthodox Jews and free-spirited Western expats. Rabbi Eyal Riess, a resident of Tzfat and one of the leaders of Kabbalah, seems to have a foot in each camp.

A former disc jockey in Tel Aviv who “saw the light” eight years ago, Rabbi Eyal sported a full, Orthodox-style beard and wore a long kaffiyeh when we met him for a tour of Tzfat on the Jewish holiday Purim. He says he lives an Orthodox lifestyle– kosher diet, no work on the Sabbath– and our walking tour of Tzfat mostly left me with the impression that Eyal was knowledgeable about his town and took seriously his role as one of Kabbalah’s leaders. There’s nothing like the zeal of a convert, after all.

As our walking tour wound down though, after we had been through Tzfat’s Artist Quarter, the Cave of Shem and Eber (where Noah’s son and grandson allegedly studied the Torah), and to the town’s cemetery, we began to pick up hints that Rabbi Eyal might not be the austere mystic we thought we were meeting.

It started when I asked him a question based on the only thing most people know about his faith: “What do you think about Madonna being a follower of Kabbalah?”

His answer surprised me. I guess I expected him to say something along the lines of, “I’m glad she’s brought attention to Kabbalah but she doesn’t in any way represent our faith.” Instead, he was enthusiastic about her participation and he mentioned proudly that “Montel Williams arrived here in a helicopter a couple weeks ago.”

“Celebrities can lead very unbalanced lives,” Eyal said. “They need kabbalah as much as anyone else– sometimes more.” (Curiously, he said the opposite two years ago, calling Madonna “not a role model” and “just silliness” in an article about her visit.)

Because I was visiting Tzfat as part of a press trip, Eyal asked me what publication I wrote for. “A website called Gadling,” I told him.

“Do they do sales or just information?” Eyal asked.

“Umm, just… information.” I stammered. The question confused me: Was this a Serious Religious Leader or some sort of huckster televangelist?

Eyal then lamented the fact that the name of his town could be spelled so many different ways (Tzfat, Safed, Tsfat, Zefat) because it confused people who Googled the town.

When our walking tour was over, Eyal seated our group back at the Kabbalah headquarters, asked our guide in Hebrew to give him ten minutes with us, then gave us his sales pitch: “We have many programs for tourists who are interested in Kabbalah– from one day seminars to two-week workshops,” he said.

He handed out several pamphlets listing the various programs that tourists could come and waste, I mean spend, their money on. One day-long workshop was based on The Secret: It consisted of, among other things, using a “powerful computer program” to figure out secrets about a person based on their name and birthday. The cost? About US$175.

And that’s where Eyal– intelligent, personable, former-DJ Eyal– lost me. Maybe it’s a flaw in me, but when I hear people talk earnestly about things like The Secret, I turn off the part of my brain that makes me take them seriously.

With his pathetic sales pitch, Eyal was making himself ridiculous, like a bishop who gives you a free tour of his cathedral then tries to sell you a timeshare.

In the end, although I was surprised by Eyal’s embrace of Kabbalah celebrities like Madonna, he did confirm my suspicion about one thing: Those red bracelets she wears are crap.

Check out Eyal’s Kabbalah website here. More Kabbalah workshops here.

Disclosure: This week-long trip to Israel was sponsored by the country’s Ministry of Tourism. My opinions are (obviously) my own.


Spring Climbing Season Begins in the Himalaya

by Kraig Becker on

The arrival of spring means different things in different parts of the world. In northern Alaska it marks the end of the long darkness, with the returning of the sun. Further south, in the Mission at San Juan Capistrano welcomes the swallows home, while in the Midwest, the last of the winter snows give way to blooming flowers.

Likewise, each spring in the Himalaya is marked with a ritual of its own. The end of March is the beginning of the climbing season in Nepal and Tibet, a time when hundreds of climbers and trekkers descend upon Kathmandu, where they complete the final preparations for their expeditions, before heading out to their mountain of choice, where they’ll spend as much as six to eight weeks preparing to make their summit attempts.

The majority of the climbers come for Everest, the tallest mountain on the planet. But the Himalaya are rich with challenging, and high, peaks, and plenty will have their sights set on lesser known, but no less challenging, mountains such as Cho Oyu, Shishapangma, and Annapurna.

At this very moment, the worlds top climbers are arriving in Kathamandu and organizing their gear for the climbs ahead. By the first of April, most of them will be catching a flight to Lukla, a remote town in Nepal that marks the beginning of the trail that leads to Everest. On the Nepali side of the mountain there are no roads that lead to base camp, and climbers are forced to make a 10+ day hike up the Khumbu Valley to reach their eventual destination. At night they’ll stay in traditional tea houses, and the long trek helps to begin the acclimatizaion process, which will serve them well on the mountain. By the time they reach base camp, they’ll be at 17,575 feet, and their real adventure will just be getting started. If everything goes according to plan, and the weather cooperates, by mid-May they’ll get their chance at the summit, and with a little luck they’ll be home by the first of June. But until then, they’ll work very hard, concentrate on acclimatizing, and hope that before the season ends, they’ll be standing on top of the world.

Grammy winner goes for in-flight self-service?

by Tom Johansmeyer on

In-flight service took on a new meaning for Grammy award-winning singer Elvis Crespo. The Merengue singer was accused of having exposed himself to a passenger on a flight from Houston to Miami. He denies it, but it’s impossible to be sure. After all, he told authorities in Miami that he didn’t recall the incident. Crespo wasn’t arrested, and no charges have been filed.

Earlier this month, the accused masturbator married his manager … which likely supports the accusation of self-gratification in the friendly skies.

If it’s true that Crespo whipped it out, I’m curious as to why he didn’t just step into the plane’s lavatory. If it’s publicity he craved, he could have taken a quick snapshot of his handiwork and popped it onto Flickr.

Exhibit of unofficial Obama inspired art in Chicago

by Jamie Rhein on

What is unofficial Obama art? That’s what I wondered when I heard there will be a display of such art in Chicago at the Chicago Tourism Center. Basically, it’s art by any artist who was inspired by Obama’s run for president to create a video, a painting, a poster or whatever to commemorate the occasion.

This is not just any art, but good art. People whose work is represented in the exhibit sent it in for consideration. The result is more than 100 artworks. Some of the pieces may seem familiar like the Go Tell Mama series of posters or Sol Sender’s Obama ’08 logo–the one that ended up on yard signs and bumper stickers.

The exhibit is opening on April 1 and will be on display through May 31. Throughout the two months, there will be a variety of talks. You can check the exhibit website for a list of the represented artists and events.

I’m always interested to see a variety of artwork that turns on one theme. That’s when artists’ personalities and sensibilities are most evident. The variety found in human creative efforts seems to never disappoint.

Through the Gadling Lens: colour!

by Karen Walrond on

I mentioned before that when I was a new photographer, a photographer friend made me shoot only in black and white for my first few rolls of film. His reasoning, rightly or wrongly, was that “colour film hides a multitude of sins,” and only by shooting in black and white would I learn the important lessons of contrast and texture. And I couldn’t help but believe part of his motivation was his belief that black-and-white photographer was just cooler. You know, Ansel Adams-like. More … pure.

Fifteen years later, and I’m now bold enough to confess: I like colour.

I can’t help it — there’s just something about a beautifully saturated, richly-coloured image that excites me. Of course, like most photographers, I can appreciate a really good black and white image, but given the choice, I’ll shoot in colour every time. And like with most aspects of photography, there are certain tricks to composing a great colour shot — so this week, we’ll do a little colour theory and explain our colour composure works.
1. Monochromatic colour

One of the easiest ways, of course, to take an impactful colour photograph is to simply saturate the frame with one specific colour — either fill the frame of your viewfinder with your subject so that its colour dominates the frame, or “layer” the same colour: make sure that several subjects in your shot are the same colour, so that the effect is, again, a full frame with one colour. Here are some great examples:

In the above shot shared by il lele and taken in Japan, the red of this “tunnel” is the predominant colour — and so il lele ensured that the frame was filled by the strong hue. The result is an incredibly striking shot.

Similarly, in this beautiful image shared by crafterm, the strong colour green of these leaves in Australia were layered, so that green of the leaves in the foreground are layered against the green of the foliage behind. The result, even though the image is not panoramic, leaves you with a strong impression of the verdant scenery around the photographer.


When I shot the image of the London Eye in November of last year, above, the sky was blue with dusk, it was raining, and the blue Christmas lights in the barren trees were reflecting on the blue pavement, below. I therefore set my shutter speed and aperture to ensure that I capture the entire blue scene without the distortion of a flash, resulting in blue-saturated and moody image, above.

Finally, just to make the point that these types of shots can be captured even with human subjects, take a look at the image of my friend, Josh, above. Josh was walking through a shopping center on the island of Grenada, when he noticed that his shirt was the identical colour of an adjacent wall. He handed his camera over to his wife, and affected the pose above — resulting in a really funny shot; however, because of the striking colour, it’s an intriguing image as well.


The Colour Wheel

For photographs which feature more than one colour, a great way to ensure that your images communicate the emotion behind the image is frame the shot with the colour wheel (shown at left) at the back of your mind. A great summary of the basics of colour theory can be found at this site. Put simply, the colour wheel is basically the entire colour spectrum in circular form. Colours which are next to each other (like red and orange, say, or blue and green) are called “analogous colours” — they’re generally similar and harmonious. Colours which are directly opposite each other, like orange and blue, or purple and yellow, are called “complementary colours.”

Let’s take a look at some examples at how using analogous colours and complementary colours can affect the mood of a photograph.

1. Analogous Colours.

As I mentioned above, analogous colours are colours that are found adjacent to each other on the colour wheel. Because the colours are so close in colour range to each other, they tend to evoke a feeling of harmony, and any related emotions that might come to mind: like peace, or tranquility, or balance. What’s interesting is that these communicated feelings tend to occur no matter which colours along the wheel make up the majority of the photograph, they just have to be colours adjacent to each other.

Here are some great examples:

The image above, shared by ohad*, is particularly pleasing and soothing because the predominant colours in the image are blue and green, which are adjacent to each other on the colour wheel. These harmonious colours (together with the softly undulating horizontal lines in the photo) tend to exude a feeling of peace and tranquility — which is perfectly congruous with what ohad* named the image himself: “Magical Mystery Doors.” It’s a beautiful shot which conveys the idea of calm because it focuses on the actual colours of the image — not just the building or the doors. Beautifully shot.

I love this image shared by Willy Volk, primarily because it makes the point of analogous colours by featuring three adjacent colours on the colour wheel: green, blue and purple. This image, captured in Colorado, definitely conveys a calming, restful mood. Really well done.

And finally, just to show that these emotions can be conveyed by analogous colours, even if they’re not the stereotypical “peaceful” colours of blue and green, take a look at the following, shared by fiznatty:

Even though this photograph features the generally exciting colours of red and orange, because they fall next to each other on the colour wheel, the image also evokes a feeling of harmony — the colours don’t clash, they work together. If this image had been shot so that the harmonious colours didn’t fill the frame, the emotion and feelings conveyed by the shot would likely be totally different.

3. Complementary colours

Despite how it sounds, complementary co
lours don’t really “complement” each other. Since they fall on opposite sides of the colour wheel, they actual create stark contrasts to each other — and therefore, they tend to create an aura of excitement, or related emotions: celebration, for example, or exuberance.

Here are a few examples:

This great shot shared by thnkfast is a beautiful example about how using complementary colours — in this case, the vibrant red of the fruit against the green background — helps convey a mood of exuberance with this shot, captured in the Vancouver Aquarium. This isn’t an image that calms you. This is one that makes you happy: excited about catching this moment in nature, perhaps even excited for the butterfly in finding the nectar.

And finally, I love this shot shared by nabil.s of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. While the nabil.s says that he capture this image at 6 p.m. one evening, the shot hardly conveys a feeling of peace now that the day is ending. Rather, the startling complementary colours of orange and blue (opposites on the colour wheel) communicate that the night is just beginning — exciting things are about to start happening. A beautiful image.

Now, as always, the tips I’ve shared in this post are merely guidelines — there’s nothing that says that all of your shots must contain only analogous colours, or complementary colours … or, for that matter, any colour … they’re just thoughts to keep in the back of your mind and as part of your arsenal when composing your next great travel shots. As always, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them below, or send me an email directly at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom — I’ll be happy to address them in upcoming posts of Through the Gadling Lens.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.