los angeles (jps) | After enrolling such earnest Judaic scholars as Madonna, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Demi Moore, the Kabbalah Centre of Los Angeles has taken another step forward in mainstreaming its product.

The nationwide Target stores are offering the center’s prepackaged,

pre-blessed Red String bracelet, for $25.99. When tied with seven knots to the left wrist, the red thread, or bendel in Yiddish, is empowered to ward off the Evil Eye and assorted negative forces.

Target is advertising the accessory among its “super-fresh + crazy cool” Red Hot merchandise, luring the fashion-conscious with the pitch that Red String “is on the verge. Right there on the sharp end. Soon to be famous and almost too good to be true.”

The come-on proved irresistible and Target stores in Los Angeles sold out their supply within a day.

The Los Angeles Times interviewed Rabbi Yehuda Berg, co-director of the Kabbalah Centre, who said he had no control over how Target merchandises its products, but asserted that “Kabbalah should be accessible to anyone, anywhere.”

The bendel is also a bestseller at the center’s gift shop, where it costs $26, with part of the profit going to an outreach program for at-risk inner-city kids, Berg said.

All the sales and publicity are also good news for Berg’s forthcoming work, “The Red String Book,” which will be advertised in October through a giant Sunset Boulevard billboard, wrapped in red string, the L.A. Times reported.