Britney Spears posts photo of Jewish prayer books she’s reading

Britney Spears confused and amused her Jewish fans on Sunday when she posted a photo on Instagram of a Hebrew book of Psalms alongside another Jewish prayer book, and declared in the caption that she had been reading them.

“Just bored reading Hebrew !!! Reading right to left !!! God speed little man !!! I love u !!!!” read the caption posted on Spears’s account.

Spears, 44, is no stranger to dabbling in Jewish customs and practices, having long shown interest in Kabbalah, a school of Jewish mysticism that was adopted by many new-age Hollywood celebrities in the early 2000s.

Her Instagram post was met with amusement from some fans, with one quipping on X, “I knew she was my favorite pop star of all time for a reason!”

Others appeared unsure.

“I honestly wasn’t expecting this at all!” one person wrote in response.

The pop singer has previously joked about Hebrew being read right to left, after she got a tattoo in June 2021 of the Hebrew letters Mem, Hey, and Shin.

“It’s Hebrew, it’s a language written backwards !!!!” she wrote on Instagram at the time, calling it her favorite tattoo. “It says Mem Hey Shin and it means healing !!!!” she added.

The letters do not make up a word in Hebrew; rather, they are used to represent healing in Kabbalah.

Spears was first introduced to Kabbalah by fellow pop star Madonna, whom she said in 2005 taught her about it “at a time in my life when it was much needed.”

“Through Kabbalah, I was able to look within myself, clear all the negative energy, and turn my life around,” wrote Spears, then 23.

She took a break from the Jewish mystical practice a year later, however, writing on her website, “I no longer study Kaballah [sic], my baby is my religion.”

Spears shot to international fame in the late 1990s with hits including “Oops!…I Did It Again” and “…Baby One More Time.” She faced significant mental health challenges while juggling her public career and motherhood in the early 2000s.

In 2008, Spears was put under a conservatorship by her father, James Spears, after a series of public mental health struggles. He remained in control of his daughter’s person and estate until a court dissolved the conservatorship in 2021, following a legal battle that began two years prior, with the #FreeBritney movement.

In 2017, Spears performed in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park to an audience of 55,000 fans. The concert made headlines after Israel’s Labor Party announced that it was postponing leadership primaries that were scheduled for the day of the performance.

Agencies contributed to this report.