March 4, 2006 -- JERUSALEM - Madonna is shopping for a posh Israeli home to be a center for the study of the mystical Jewish text of kabbalah - in a town where some believers think the Messiah will return to earth.

Residents, and their real-estate agents, in the Galilee town of Rosh Pina say representatives of the Material Mom have been looking for renovated stone villas and checking out high prices.

Shiri Hazkin, daughter of a well-known Israeli singer, said she has been contacted by Madonna's people several times recently about selling her five-bedroom, 100-year-old home.

"I don't want to sell this house," she said. "But for Madonna . . . "

The area, named after the Hebrew word for "cornerstone," was founded by Zionist pioneers in the 19th century and backed by Baron Edmund de Rothchild.

Today it's a fashionable community of pricey homes used as weekend getaways for wealthy Israelis.

Madonna - who has adopted the Hebrew name Esther - made a much-publicized trip to Israel in 2004 to check out kabbalah sites and named one of her recent album's tracks "Isaac" after a 16th-century kabbalah rabbi who lived near Rosh Pina.

Her interest in Rosh Pina was piqued because, according to some kabbalists, the Messiah will return to Galilee by going past a wadi, or gully, in the town.

All of the properties her representatives inquired about look out on the gully.

Real-estate dealer Avi Ben-Porat said: "They came to my office two or three days ago. They were looking for an old, authentic house which looks out on the wadi, to be bought for a public figure."

"But in the course of the conversation, they said it was Madonna who wanted it for a kabbalah center," he told the newspaper Yediot Achronoth.

Neighbors in Rosh Pina gossiped about the prospect of Madonna knocking at their door to borrow a cup of sugar.

They also said they've been getting big-money offers they wouldn't refuse.

But Hazkin's home seems to be the front-runner. Hazkin said she's asking $1 million.

"I thought they were joking, but then I heard from neighbors and real-estate dealers that they were approached, too," Hazkin said.

Madonna, born Catholic, has not converted to Judaism but has extensively studied kabbalah and reportedly observes the Jewish Sabbath.