rothenberg 2006 jewish yoga

8/10/2019 Rothenberg 2006 Jewish Yoga

1/19

Jewish Yoga: Experiencing Flexible, Sacred, and Jewish BodiesAuthor(s): Celia RothenbergSource: Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 10, No. 2(November 2006), pp. 57-74Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2006.10.2.57 .Accessed: 31/01/2011 03:31

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal . .

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucalhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2006.10.2.57?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucalhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucalhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2006.10.2.57?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal


2/19


3/19

more than five hundred directly relevant Web documents and Websites,3 including many newspaper, magazine, and newsletter articles withinformation about and/or advertising for Jewish yoga classes and teach-ings. For the uninitiated, however, there are many questions, including,perhaps most centrally, What is Jewish yoga exactly?, and, What are peoplegaining by participating in Jewish yoga classes?

This article delineates and explores three distinctive, although oftenoverlapping forms of Jewish yoga: Judaicized yoga, Hebrew yoga, andTorah yoga. An example of a Judaicized yoga class is explored here throughinterviews and participant observation with a small group of dedicated stu-dents in western Canada. These students work to extend the meaning of thefemale religious body beyond that of the halachically observant to one that is experienced as flexible, sacred, and Jewish. Hebrew yoga and Torah

yoga are outlined next by drawing on a few key practitioners perspectivesand their writings, as well as popular reports and descriptions. Each of these forms of Jewish yoga is an evolving system of mental, spiritual, andphysical experiences based both on yogic practices and on a variety of

Jewish teachings as interpreted by different Jewish yoga teachers.In order to contextualize the development and spread of all types of

Jewish yoga, a brief discussion of the Jewish Renewal Movement andhatha yoga in North America today will be useful.

JEWISH RENEWAL MOVEMENT

The development and growing popularity of Jewish yoga can be viewed as part of the history and growth of the Jewish Renewal Movement (JRM), a movement that originated in the United States in the early 1970s. The JRM aims to reinvigorate and reinterpret traditional

Judaism in innovative and often controversial ways. The philosophy of Jewish Renewal is most clearly articulated in the theological writings of Zalman Schachter Shalomi, Arthur Waskow, and Michael Lerner. 4

The JRM draws on the ethos of the 1960s American counterculturemovements and some Hasidic traditions in Judaism. The Hasidim arepart of a Jewish pietistic movement that emerged in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe, and whose teachings emphasize the inner state of the

worshipper and the idea that one should be attached to God at alltimes. 5 Indeed, the JRM often explicitly describes itself as a neo-Hasidicmovement. Like Hasidism, the Renewal Movement can be characterizedby its stress on religious experience through meditation, music, rhythm,and dance, rather than on revealed wisdom. Further, the JRM empha-sizes the concept of Shekhinah , the feminine Divine, and seeks toexplore embodied experiences of spirituality, both of which have a par-ticular appeal for women.

Despite the controversy it has generated in some quarters, with its rel-atively broad influence in the United States, the Jewish Renewal

Nova Religio

58


4/19

Movement has slowly taken institutional shape. The Movements head-quarters, ALEPH: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal, is in Philadelphia, andthere are increasing numbers of specifically designated Renewal congre-gations and ordained Renewal rabbis throughout North America. Elat Chayyim, a Jewish spiritual retreat center in New York, was established in1992 as a center for Jewish Renewal activities. It offers workshops andretreats on topics such as Jewish shamanism, womens spirituality, Jewishmeditation, Jewish chanting (referred to as Hebrew Kirtan 6), Embodied

Judaism (a pilates-based work out blended with the mystical Jewish teach-ings of Kabbalah), and Jewish yoga. A year later, Yoga Mosaic was estab-lished in Britain as an association of Jewish yoga teachers who exploretheir roots to see where Yoga and Judaism strengthen each discipline. 7

Jewish yoga, however, is practiced not only by those who belong toRenewal congregations, but also by some Jews who identify with main-stream or traditional congregations. 8 Diane Bloomfield, for example,author of Torah Yoga 9 (discussed in-depth below) is an Orthodox Jewish

woman, while the Jewish yoga teacher with whom I pursued fieldwork is amember of an established Renewal congregation. This crossing of denom-inational boundaries is typical of many of the practices and insights stem-ming from the JRM. Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox congregationshave been influenced by some of the Renewal Movements practices, andmany congregations have incorporated into their services selected aspectsof the Renewal Movements teachings, rituals, and insights.

Of course, just as the JRM has not been equally well received acrossall Jewish populations, not all Jews have welcomed the evolution andgrowing popularity of Jewish yoga. Rabbi Yitchak Ginsburgh, for example,of the Gal Einai Institute of Israel has written that All wisdom must derive from the Torah. Yoga has negative energy which is connected toAvodah Zarah , idol worship, and is thus unacceptable, even if the personpracticing does not have these negative thoughts. 10 Clearly, here RabbiGinsburgh is referring to yogas historical association with Hinduism.For many other Jews, however, Jewish yoga is a promising tool that canbe used to increase spirituality, bodily strength, and flexibility. For them,

Jewish yoga does not rely on Hinduisms religious belief system formeaning. Yet it is true that many of the practices inspired by the JRM arecontroversial. For example, a Torah rave (an all-night dance typically featuring electronic music) held in Berkeley, California, was not wellreceived by all members of the Jewish community. 11 A message postedto a Renewal discussion list on the Web asked: Will Jewish Renewal . . .eagerly embrace Buddhist theory and practice and Sufi theory and prac-tice and Navaho theory and practice, but refuse to consider the theory and practice derived from Jewish sacred texts? Is ancient wisdom foundin all traditions but our own? 12

Rabbi Ginsburghs understanding, of course, represents only one way of looking at yoga and its meanings. While the focus of this article

Rothenberg: Jewish Yoga

59


5/19

is on what makes various kinds of yoga Jewish, it is important to note that there are many kinds of yogic practice that are popular in North

America today. Most of the teachers of Jewish yoga discussed in thisarticle use hatha yoga, a holistic style focusing on physical exercisespostures called asanas breath control ( pranayama ), and meditation. Asa system of physical movement, hatha yoga tones the body; as a systemof focus, balance, and meditation, it helps many people achieve agreater sense of spirituality, unity, and balance. Iyengar yoga 13 is used by Diane Bloomfield (also discussed below) and is characterized by its pre-cise focus on body alignment and often the use of props (such as pillowsor benches). Iyengar yoga emphasizes the development of strength,stamina, flexibility, balance, concentration, and meditation.

JUDAICIZED YOGA

Judaicized yoga is the broadest of the three types of Jewish yoga dis-cussed in this article. Judaicized yoga 14 classes generally place primary emphasis on yoga postures and workouts, gently blending in Jewish wordsand concepts as a frame for the yoga postures. For example, Rabbi AndreaLondon in her Reform synagogue in Chicago leads an alternativeSaturday morning service in the form of a yoga classa yoga minyan .15Rather than prayer books, specific postures for the foundational Jewishprayer (the Shma ), a borrowed posture from Hebrew yoga (Ophanim

yogas letter vav , ), and a series of yoga postures called the SunSalutation as the physical embodiment of the traditional Amidah prayerform the basis of the service. 16 The Amidah , or The Eighteen Blessings,and Shma , the affirmation of Gods unity, are traditionally offered duringa synagogue service and in the presence of a minyan as well as in soli-tude. 17 Another Judaicized yoga teacher in a conservative congregation inthe United States teaches her hatha yoga class in the back of the sanctu-ary in order to draw on energy from the Torah scrolls in the ark. This

woman also commented that she is now studying Jewish teachings forequivalents of the Chinese medical concept of kidneys, and for herown yoga classes has decided on the suggestive name LChaim Qigong.

Anna, the teacher with whom I carried out my research, integrates Jewish teachings into all of her yoga classes. A yoga teacher for many years and a member of a Renewal congregation, Anna has establisheda Jewish yoga centre, which she claims is the only one in Canada specif-ically and exclusively dedicated to the practice of Jewish yoga. Duringclasses at the center, while she uses hatha yoga postures, Sanskrit terms,and often refers to yoga teachings, she also works to incorporate Jewishthemes and Hebrew vocabulary, often drawing on teachings about par-ticular Jewish holidays and points of Jewish philosophy.

For example, Anna talks frequently about the importance of theHebrew words and concepts for breath, soul, and repentance and their

Nova Religio

60


6/19

parallels in hatha yoga teachings. For Anna, teshuva, the Hebrew termfor the process of repentance and return to ones self, is achievedthrough control of the breath. She points out to her students that theHebrew word for breath is neshimah , which comes from the root wordneshamah, which is Hebrew for soul. She then tells the class that the classichatha yoga practice of pranayama, or the practice of conscious breathcontrol, is believed to be the key for the process of pratyahara, the turninginward of consciousness. By pointing out the parallels between theseconcepts, Anna is able to substitute and integrate Jewish teachings into her yoga class, making the link between breath, soul, and return toones self explicit in the yoga and Jewish teachings. In addition, Annaoften uses the Hebrew word chai (life), pointing out and finding signif-icant its resemblance to the Chinese word chi, or life-force. In place of pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses, a mezuzah at her front door anda few Stars of David adorn her workout room.

During my three months of fieldwork with Anna, I attended classtwice a week. Each class was approximately two hours in duration, witha group of eight women. In addition to observing and participating inall of the classes, I interviewed each practitioner in depth. All of these

women have practiced yoga for years, and they have practiced Judaicized yoga since Anna started her classes in the late 1990s. Between 40 and60 years of age, they are all educated professionals, including two ele-mentary school teachers, a property manager, a legal advisor, a healtheducation consultant, a marketing consultant, a psychologist, and alawyer. Born either in Canada or Israel, all come from Ashkenazi(European Jewish) backgrounds and families that were relatively observant in terms of keeping the Jewish Sabbath, the dietary laws of kashrut , and thelaws of family purity. At this time, none identifies herself as Orthodox orConservative, but all have loose affiliations with Reform and Renewalcongregations. All these women married Jews, and all have children.

Importantly, all of these women are also dedicated to being healthy andfit through physical activity. Key aspects of fitness for them include improv-ing physical strength and flexibility. Before taking Annas Judaicized yogaclass, each woman felt that she was more dedicated to pursuing physical fit-ness than an observant Jewish lifestyle. Many of these women also felt that they struggled to find the right kind of exercise, exercise that could keepthem engaged and interested for a long period of time.

In our discussions of Annas Judaicized yoga class, participants com-ments centered on two broad themes: (1) critiques of traditional

Judaism for its lack of attention to the importance of the body for sacredexperience, and (2) Judaicized yogas ability to enable them to focus onexperiencing their bodies as flexible, sacred, and Jewish. Judaicized

yoga for these women is their central, and often sole, meaningful reli-gious practice, an assertion that highlights the relevance of this

Judaicized yoga class to their religious lives.


61


7/19

CRITIQUES OF TRADITIONAL JEWISH PRACTICE

Susan Sered has argued that Women whose religious lives areconstructed within the context of a male-oriented culture that neithercelebrates nor sacralizes womens bodies and concerns may lack thelanguage (both verbal and ritual) to express that feeling. 18 Annas

Judaicized yoga adherents often expressed critiques of traditional Jewishpractices and, indeed, voiced what can best be described as an impa-tience with rituals and laws that, in their view, do not allow them toexperience Judaism in ways they find meaningful. Even when tradi-tional Jewish laws are interpreted in a Jewish feminist light, Annas classmembers do not find the practices of these laws compelling or mean-ingful. Some also argued that Judaism has no philosophy of physicalexercise of which they are aware, and that Judaicized yoga provides thiskey missing element of religious experience.

All of the women in Annas class have experienced for themselves orare knowledgeable about specific Jewish laws and practices that pertainto womens bodies. In particular, these include the laws of niddah (family purity) and mikveh (ritual bath), which focus on the regulation andmaintenance of family purity during and immediately after a womansmenstruation. 19 For these women, such traditional laws are insulting at

worst, and highly irrelevant to their daily lives and values at best. They see these laws as bizarrely obsessed with menstruation, unhelpful,and/or simply wrong. Rather, since these women view menstruation asnormal, natural, and empowering, religious laws suggesting that they areunclean during menstruation are significantly at odds with their own

views of their body and its processes. 20Many participants in the class set up a dramatic comparison between

the embodied feeling of sacredness they experience through Judaicized yoga and the religious experience many believe traditional Jewish menexperience through their bodies. They argue that some Jewish practicesbenefit men and disadvantage women. Participants highlighted, forexample, the damaging effects of numerous large, often unhealthy hol-iday meals for women who may gain weight. Men, they suggested, gainless weight and/or suffer fewer social consequences if they do. Othersfocused on traditional forms of Jewish prayer as male-centered in bothlanguage (e.g., male pronouns) and format (e.g., men typically lead theservice). Here, too, Jewish feminist interpretations and revisions toprayer and liturgy were viewed as insufficient by these women. Such revi-sions are not enough, numerous interviewees argued, for they do not address the more central issue that the voicing of prayer is not sufficient to experience sacredness. Several interviewees suggested that the way traditional Jews move their bodies during prayerswaying back andforthsuggests the need for physical movement in order to experienceprayer optimally, a need in which they believe and for which they feel

Nova Religio

62


8/19

they have found a more appropriate, powerful expression in their prac-tice of Judaicized yoga.

Similar to yoga classes generally in North America, Judaicized yogais a female-dominated area of religious practice. Jewish yoga classes of all types attract significantly more women than men. Reasons for thisrange from the practical (e.g., classes are often held during the day,

which may facilitate womens attendance) to the symbolic, which is my focus in this article. Dedicated to physical fitness, students in the

Judaicized yoga class that I attended found they were able to experiencetheir bodies and selves as flexible, sacred, feminineand Jewish.Distinct from the way they feel after other kinds of exercise in which they also engage regularly, such as walking or cycling, they described feelingcalmer, at peace, enriched, and connected to Judaism following

Judaicized yoga classes. For many of these women Annas class is thehighlight of their week, and strengthens them for the coming week.

Judaicized yoga requires women to stretch and strengthen and maketheir bodies flexible, and it tells participants that these physical attrib-utes are intertwined with the experience of sacredness and Jewishness.This intertwining of physicality and sacredness is achieved primarily through doing a yoga posture within an explicated Jewish framework of meaning, whether it is a posture that embodies a key aspect of a Jewishholiday (e.g., liberation from bondage), a teaching from the Torah, orsome other aspect of Judaism.

In spite of their critiques and their rejection of a large portion of Jewish law, all of the women in the Judaicized yoga class firmly feel that they are part of the Jewish community. Born into Jewish families, they have their own sense of Jewish identity and their experience of Jewishnessthrough their yoga. They see themselves as both creatively constructinga new kind of Jewish religious experience, and at the center of that expe-rience. They do not describe themselves as peripheral or excluded fromtheir communities (a point of view which would privilege those withinthe communities), but rather at the vanguard of the creation of a reli-gious experience that is new and more meaningful for them.

Judaicized yoga provides Annas entirely female class with the lan-guage and the physical practice to express their feelings about them-selves, their bodies, and the experience of the sacred. It is interesting tonote in this regard that the women who create and participate in this

Judaicized yoga class may share in some respects a structural similarity with women in a variety of religious traditions who, rather than abandontheir faiths, have created separate spaces in order to experience that faith in more meaningful ways. Ruethers study of the Women-Churchmovement, for example, demonstrates how some Roman Catholic

women frustrated by clerical, patriarchal church institution and lead-ership have created their own religious spaces that are both more sat-isfying for them and, in their view, in keeping with their identities as


63


9/19


10/19

longer needed to deny their bodies in order to emphasize their spirit,soul, or personhood. 23

It is the attempt to achieve a flexible and sacred body that is the goalof Jewish yoga. Martin argues that the general concept of flexibility hasemerged and permeated popular North American economic, political,and scientific thinking. Qualities related to flexibility, she adds, are typ-ically framed as highly desirable for such disparate entities as workersand products, governments and bureaucrats, and bodies and immunesystems. Martin does not, however, connect this powerful metaphor toreligious experience, although flexibility is also being experienced and,in fact, demanded by religious adherents. Nor does Martin examine how and when flexibility has a specifically gendered appeal. Yet the appealof all types of Jewish yoga to women in particular extends Martinsmetaphor of flexibility to the realm of religious practice and suggests

ways in which embodied flexibility may be a characteristic of religiousexperience that is particularly desirable to some groups of contempo-rary North American women.

For Annas class, Judaicized yoga is a meaningful religious experienceand, indeed, the central (and often only) such experience present intheir daily lives. Five of the eight women attending Annas classes told methat her classes have become their only forum for participating in any kind of organized Jewish activity. As one woman stated, because of herparticipation in this Judaicized yoga class, she has gone beyond goingto synagogue after nearly twenty years of attending services. The otherthree attend organized forms of Jewish services occasionally, but not reg-ularly throughout the year. They joke that, by contrast, they religiouslyattend Judaicized yoga class and feel guiltyand emptyif they miss it.These women see Judaicized yoga as a deeply Jewish experience that extends, deepens, and authenticates that experience more profoundly than other kinds of Jewish experiences or yoga practices by themselves.

HEBREW YOGA

I use the term Hebrew yoga here to include the practices of Ophanim and Alef Bet yoga, which, although the specifics of theirphilosophies differ, have in common the use of the shapes of Hebrew letters as inspiration for postures and movement. Shoshana Weinstein,a student of the Jewish mystical texts called Kabbalah, developedOphanim in the 1960s. 24 Ophanim teachers can now be found in Israel,the United States (including New York, New Jersey, Arizona, California),and Canada (including British Columbia and Ontario). 25

Zvi Zavidowsky is among the best known Ophanim instructors andcurrently runs the Nefesh Haya School of Ophanim and Prophetic JewishMeditation in Israel. Zavidowskys promotional literature claims he hasbackground in studies of religions, philosophy, meditation, martial arts,


65


11/19


12/19


13/19

Following the poem, Rapp explains in seven steps how to assume, hold,and come out of the posture.

When compared to Ophanim, Rapps Alef-Bet yoga is less specialized,and draws on a broader array of texts considered more intellectually accessible than the mystical and obscure Kabbalah. Yet both approachesshare an emphasis on the centrality of the Hebrew letters as sources of divine and physical inspiration. Although Rapp does not characterizehimself as specifically part of the Jewish Renewal Movement (he is amember of a Reform synagogue), he told me that he feels Alef-Bet yogais in harmony with efforts of the Renewal Movement to achieve arenaissance in the definition of Jewish identity. 35

TORAH YOGA

Arguably the best known Torah yoga teacher is Diane Bloomfield, who began teaching Torah yoga in 1991 and established the online Torah Yoga Association (http://torahyoga.org) in 2005. 36 Before creatingTorah yoga, Bloomfield studied Orthodox Judaism, which she continuesto practice. In 2004, she published Torah Yoga: Experiencing Jewish Wisdom through Classic Postures .37 Unlike teachers of other types of Hebrew yoga,Bloomfield developed Torah yoga through a careful meshing of classic

yoga postures with Torah teachings. She states:

It is not the external form of the posture that relates to the Torah concept.It is the consciousness and wisdom inside of you that relates to the Torahconcept . . . although I have selected a set of postures for each Torah con-cept, the study of a particular concept is not limited to the postures pre-sented . . . Conversely, each yoga posture is not limited to a single Torahconcept; any yoga posture may apply to many Torah concepts. 38

Bloomfields book focuses on seven Jewish concepts, includinghidden light, constant renewal, leaving Egypt, essential self, body prayer

and alignment, daily satisfaction, and remembering to rest.39

Withineach chapter, Bloomfield first presents how the yoga student, the yogapractice, and the Torah teachings are connected. Next, she discusses tra-ditional Torah study on the concept presented in the chapter. The finalsection of each chapter gives the student details on how to do the yogapostures in order to experience, express, and exercise the Torah con-cepts of the chapter in your own body-mind-heart-soul. 40 Ideally, oneshould read and do the exercises in one chapter each day of the week.

For example, in the chapter titled Constant Renewal, Bloomfield

begins by stating that Sfat Emet, the collected writings of Rabbi Judah Aryeh Leib Alter (18461905), the third Rebbe of the Hasidim of Gur,Poland, teaches that God creates the world every day so that every day there is an abundance of new life. He teaches that, in order to appre-ciate Gods daily gift of abundant new life, a person should perceive at

Nova Religio

68


14/19

the very least one new thing every day. 41 According to Bloomfield,doing yoga is a new experience each time one does it. She relates how

yoga can help each individual with the achievement of daily renewal,drawing on explanations from Kabbalah and rabbinic teachings for

Jewish practices such as the breaking of a glass at a wedding (all rigid,fixed vessels in the world must break so that they can transform intonew vessels42) and linking these explanations to yogas ability to turnpart of your body one way, other parts other ways, and so on. 43 The sec-ond part of the chapter discusses the relationship of Torah teachings toBloomfields theme of constant renewal. She provides brief explana-tions of perception (by drawing from Rav Kook, a scholar, mystic, poet,and the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel in the 1930s), acquiringthe perception for newness (by explaining the story of Moses at theburning bush), watching for the new moon (by drawing on Hasidicthought on the meaning of leaving Egypt for the Jewish people), andachieving abundant waves of renewal (by drawing again on the thought of Rav Kook). 44 The final part of the chapter describes the seatedmountain posture, extended child posture, downward dog pos-ture, locust posture, and cobra posture. In addition to explainingthe exact kinesiology of each posture (including position, movement,and breathing) she discusses how the various postures re-shape thebody, draw perception inward, release old ways of thinking and moving,move the body out of habitual forms and into new shapes, and renew the body via God.

Intent on making Torah yoga a way to discover and experience yourself through the study of Jewish wisdom, meditation, and yoga, 45Bloomfields practice is clearly influenced by Hasidic and other sourcesof Jewish thought and by general trends in the Renewal Movement.

CONCLUSION

While I could find no ethnographies focussing specifically on the varieties of Jewish yoga in the anthropological literature, a few analysesof the Jewish Renewal Movement have focused on the conceptualdeficits of postmodern spiritual lives and the ways in which Jewish yogaand other kinds of Jewish practices fostered by the Renewal Movement can fill this void. Chava Weissler, for example, has argued that for con-sumers who live in postmodern societies characterized by the shatteringof grand narratives there is a hunger for the missing meta-narrative andfor lost communal bonds, or for an intensity of experience to replace

them. The result, Weissler argues, is the emergence of a Jewish spiritualmarketplace. She continues, The poetic and mythical resources of Kabbalah can satisfy a hunger for transcendent meaning. And the physicalinvolvement of meditation, dancing, or Torah yoga with an emphasison embodiment can contribute to a sense of wholeness. 46


69


15/19

In this argument, Jewish yoga is one product in the spiritual mar-ketplace that people can purchase to fill a void in their lives. 47 To a cer-tain extent I have found Weisslers argument to be true, but she does not answer the questions of what specific kind of wholeness Jewish yoga cre-ates, how Jewish yoga arrives at this sense of wholeness, and whether ornot it is unique among the variety of Renewal-inspired practices that shementions, such as meditation and informal prayer groups. Jewish yoga,

which is uniquely and simultaneously spiritual and physical, should beexamined on its own terms. Unlike prayer groups or meditation, it offers a strenuous form of physical exercise that has a specific physicaland spiritual impact on the body.

In all its varieties, Jewish yoga illustrates one of the many waysNorth American Jews have been fascinated with and drawn upon Easternreligions and are reinvigorating Jewish religious practice. Books such asThe Jew in the Lotus , Torah and Dharma , Zen and Hasidism , and Stalking

Elijah chronicle some of the diversity of Jewish experience with Easternreligions. 48 Some recent religious surveys suggest that American Jewsconstitute between 6 percent and 30 percent of American Buddhist groups, figures that even at the low end of the range significantly exceed the 2.5 percent of the American population that defines itself as

Jewish.49 This trajectory of religious combination has the potential forsignificant variation. Jewish yoga generally is a product of one suchcombination. The Judaicized yoga discussed here specifically illustrateshow this kind of innovation can reflect an important gendered dimen-sion and critical commentary on particular types of Jewish religiouspractice, as well as on yogic practices that are decontextualized andlack a relevant framework of meaning and history.

Ethnographic exploration with Hebrew and Torah yoga groups would significantly add to our understanding of the variation of womens and mens experiences with Jewish yoga. As outlined here, thenotion of embodied religious experience could prove useful for under-standing some of the experiences of these groups as well. More detailedexploration of how these groups experiences vary not only within and acrossthe different types of Jewish yoga, but also in different geographicalareas, could help us understand how specific notions of the body, thesacred, and the religious experience are being articulated by variousgroups of Jews today.

The Judaicized yoga class discussed here allows participants to expe-rience their bodies in ways that are distinctly different from other kindsof Jewish practices and forms of exercise. For these women, the practiceof Judaicized yoga resonates with their perspectives and values in waysthat neither the synagogue nor the gym does by itself. The experienceof a sacred, flexible, Jewish body is achieved neither by enacting tradi-tionally prescribed religious ritual, nor by accepting traditional religiousteachings on the nature of the body. 50 Rather, through the self-conscious

Nova Religio

70


16/19

rejection of a range of experiential dichotomiesbody versus soul,sacred versus secular, prayer versus exercise, Jewish versus non-Jewishparticipants in this Judaicized yoga class are creating a new way of expe-riencing an embodied Judaism.

ENDNOTES

1 Stephanie Shapiro, Where Om Becomes Shalom. World Jewish Digest (October 2005): 36.2 Katherine Dedyna, Jewish Roots of Yoga: Ophanim Is Based on the Hebrew

Alphabet, The Hamilton Spectator (6 May 2005): G7.3

Search conducted weekly during October and November 2004.4 Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Paradigm Shift: From the Jewish Renewal Teachings of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1993); Arthur

Waskow, Godwrestling (New York: Schocken Books, 1978); Arthur Waskow, Down- to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex, and the Rest of Life (New York: William Morrow,1995); Arthur Waskow, Godwrestling-Round 2: Ancient Wisdom, Future Paths (Wood-stock, Vt.: Jewish Lights, 1996); Michael Lerner, Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation (New York: G.P. Putnams Sons, 1994).5 Simon Dein, The Power of Words: Healing Narratives among LubavitcherHasidim, Medical Anthropology Quarterly 16, no. 1 (2002): 47.6 Kirtan refers to the Hindu practice of chanting the names of God in praise and,specifically, to the term used by the International Society for Krishna Con-sciousness (ISKCON) for their distinctive practice in the Chaitanya tradition of dancing joyously while chanting the names of God. As Hindus have a variety of names for the practice of chanting and singing in praise of God, the termHebrew Kirtan suggests direct influence from ISKCON.7 The Yoga Mosaic Web site (, accessed 16 November2004) describes the groups purpose in this way:

We gather together to share ideas and ideals and to research further the many par-allels to be found in both Judaic and Yogic philosophies. Yoga maintains the phys-ical body in a fine and healthy condition using yoga postures and cleansing prac-tices. It calms the mind by use of the breathing techniques and counters stress by introducing relaxation methods. Preparing the body and the mind leads to devel-opment of ones own spirituality and complements the practice of Judaism by imbuing more meaning to the rituals of our beautiful religion and heritage.

8 See Wendy Schneider, Jewish Yoga, Hamilton Jewish News (10 May 2004), forpersonal anecdotes from reform and orthodox Jewish women9 Diane Bloomfield, Torah Yoga: Experiencing Jewish Wisdom through Classic Postures (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004).10 Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, Is Alternative Healing Kosher? The Inner Dimension: A Gateway to the Wisdom of Kabbalah and Chassidut , , accessed 10 October 2004.


71


17/19

11 Rabbi Melanie Aron, Jewish Renewal, , accessed 12 October 2004.12 Aron, Jewish Renewal.13 Iyengar yoga was developed by B.K.S. Iyengar. He is credited by many forbringing yoga to millions of Westerners through his teachings and writings.14 Other authors also use this term. See Schneider, Jewish Yoga; Nathaniel Popper,Grasping for God with Arms Outstretched: Rabbi Integrates Yoga andPrayers at Chicagos Beth Emet Synagogue, The Forward (20 February 2004),, accessed 15 October 15, 2004.15 A minyan is a quorum, the minimum number of people needed for congre-gational worship. While in the past and present in Orthodox Judaism the minyanconsists of ten men and a copy of the Torah, other Jewish denominationsinclude women in the minyan.16 Popper, Grasping for God.17 Shma is the statement, Hear, O Israel, The Lord is our God, The Lord is one(Deuteronomy 6:5). The Amidah is also referred to as the Shemoneh Esreh , TheEighteen, and is a central prayer in Jewish liturgy.18 Susan Sered, Childbirth as a Religious Experience? Voices from an IsraeliHospital. Journal for the Feminist Study of Religion 7, no. 2 (1991): 1519 Susan Sered, What Makes Women Sick? Maternity, Modesty, and Militarism in Israeli Society (Hanover: Brandeis University Press, 2000); Rahel Wasserfall,Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law . Brandeis Series on Jewish

Women (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1999).20 Even Jewish feminist interpretations of niddah and mikveh were dismissed by the women I interviewed, although they did agree that Jewish feminists hadreconstructed the traditional meanings of these laws in positive and empower-ing ways (see Jonah Steinberg, From a Pot of Filth to a Hedge of Roses (andBack): Changing Theorizations of Menstruation in Judaism, in Women, Gender,Religion: A Reader , ed. Elizabeth Castelli, 36988 [New York: Palgrave, 2001]).Reform and Renewal congregations, like the ones with which these womenaffiliate, also present liberal understandings to more traditional interpretationsand practices of these laws, though these more liberal conceptualizations pre-sented little appeal to these women. For them, the issue itselfmenstruationspecifically and family purity more broadlywas simply not religiously com-pelling. Other laws such as kashrut , or Jewish dietary laws, are similarly devoid of spiritual meaning and practically irrelevant for these womenthey have no

wish to rearrange their kitchens to accommodate the rules of kashrut . Many agreed that practicing Judaism by following laws and rules which one does not entirely understand or support holds no meaning for them and is simply apain. Although they understand how to carry out the practices, the larger questionof why such practices should be done at all remains for them unanswered.21 Rosemary Radford Ruether, The Women-Church Movement in Contemporary

Christianity, in Womens Leadership in Marginal Religions , ed. Catherine Wessinger,196 (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1993). See also Miriam Therese Winter, Adair Lummis, and Allison Stokes, eds., Defecting in Place: Women Claiming Responsibility for their Own Religious Lives (New York: Crossroad, 1994), for a dis-cussion of the Women-Church movement among a variety of Protestant women.

Nova Religio

72


18/19

22 Emily Martin, Flexible Bodies: Tracking Immunity in American Culture from the Days of Polio to the Age of Aids (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994).23 Cynthia Eller, Twentieth-Century Womens Religion as Seen in the Feminist Spirituality Movement, in Womens Leadership in Marginal Religions , ed. Cather-ine Wessinger, 18892 (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1993).24 Ellen Umansky, Twisting Your Body To Tap Into the Energy of the Divine,The Forward (12 May 2000), , accessed20 January 2006. David Elharar made this statement in an interview with EllenUmansky. Weinstein then taught Elharar and Zvi Zavidowsky. Elharar wrote abook about Ophanim, but the book is currently out of print and of limitedavailability.25 Twelve Ophanim teachers and their locations are listed at , accessed 10 October 2004. Zavidowsky currently teaches Ophanim at Nefesh Haya (living soul/breath) School of Ophanim

and Jewish Prophetic Meditation in Israel.26 See , accessed 10 October 2004.27 See , accessed 10 October 2004.28 The Sefirotic world refers to the names, qualities, and attributes of God.29 Dein, The Power of Words, 51, n.6.30 Dein, The Power of Words, 54.31 Rapp, Aleph-Bet Yoga , 12.32 Rapp, Aleph-Bet Yoga , 12.33 Rapp, Aleph-Bet Yoga , 13.34 Rapp, Aleph-Bet Yoga , 30.35 Steven Rapp, personal conversation with author, 4 November 2004.36 Bloomfield describes the Torah Yoga Association in the following passage: Weare offering an online site where students interested in Torah Yoga can findteachers, teachers can find students, and teachers can also offer sample Torah

Yoga teachings and receive feedback. There will also be a bulletin board wherestudents taking Torah Yoga classes can write personal responses to the classes.

We plan to have annual conference/teach-in/get-togethers. Eventually we hopeto have streaming-video Torah Yoga classes online so students can continue to

learn Torah Yoga from Diane and other teachers even from a distance (Bloom-field, personal correspondence with author, 19 May 2005).37 Bloomfield, Torah Yoga .38 Bloomfield, Torah Yoga , xv.39 Bloomfield, Torah Yoga , xiv-xv. These concepts all deal with aspects of the self,rather than with a community-centered vision of Jewish ritual and practice. Thisis an interesting lead for further research on this style of yoga.40 Bloomfield, Torah Yoga , xv.41 Bloomfield, Torah Yoga , 23.42 Bloomfield, Torah Yoga , 24.43 Bloomfield, Torah Yoga , 24.44 Bloomfield, Torah Yoga , 2340.45 Bloomfield, Torah Yoga , xi.


73


19/19

46 Chava Weissler, The Jewish Marketplace, Shma , , accessed 14 November 2004.47 Interestingly, there is also an increasing array of items in the Jewish market-place for women to buy. A September 2004 article by Anne Rasminski in The Globe and Mail , Canadas largest newspaper, was entitled Kosher knickers?Kabbalah bracelets, faux mitzvahs and Jewcy couture: Everythings coming upMoses; a picture of pink bikini underwear with Jewcy printed on its front wasabove the article title (L1, L6). As Rasminsky points out, the list of Hollywoodcelebrities and rock stars who have gone public with their interest in Judaism,sitcoms with Jewish content, and merchandise with a Jewish theme is at an all-time high.48 Roger Kamenetz, The Jew in the Lotus: A Poets Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994); Judith Linzer, Torah and

Dharma: Jewish Seekers in Eastern Religions (Northvale, N.J.: J. Aronson, 1996);Harold Heifetz, Zen and Hasidism; the Similarities between Two Spiritual Disciplines .(Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Pub. House, 1978); Roger Kamenetz, Stalking Elijah: Adventures with Todays Jewish Mystical Masters . (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco,1997).49 David Roper, The Turbulent Marriage of Ethnicity and Spirituality: RabbiTheodore Falcon, Makom Ohr Shalom and Jewish Mysticism in the WesternUnited States, Journal of Contemporary Religion 18, no. 2 (2003): 171.50 See Louis Jacobs, The Body in Jewish Worship: Three Rituals Examined, inReligion and the Body , ed. Sarah Coakley, 7189 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

Nova Religio

74

rothenberg 2006 jewish yoga

Documents