Hester

What is it with people and their Kabbalah names lately? And it's not just celebrities - there are those among us who have gone over to the Pi side. But what mystifies me - more than the numeric name of God - is where do people come up with these names? Is there a website with a Kabbalah Name Generator on it somewhere - like those Tolkien fansites where you can get your Middle Earth Hobbit/Elf names? As someone recently said to me, if thousands of years of Brilliant Jewish Mystics can't get the numbers right, what makes Madonna think that she can?

True, when I was a very mystical pre-teen, I wanted to change my name too. To - and I kid you not - Marilyn Kennedy. What the f*** was I thinking? Somehow I thought I could right the wrongs, thwart the CIA plots, and re-write the sad pill-soaked/gunshot endings of the past by creating a persona that would meld the brightest parts of two tragic American Icons. As if the ghostly love child of these lost children could rise - from the wintery grave of CANADA. Puh-leeze. I was thirteen years old and desperately lonely, bordering on delusional. What's everyone else's excuse?

N.