Jewish Yoga: Experiencing Flexible, Sacred, and Jewish Bodies

Author(s): Celia Rothenberg

Source: Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 10, No. 2
(November 2006), pp. 57-74
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2006.10.2.57 .
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Jewish Yoga
Experiencing Flexible, Sacred,
and Jewish Bodies

Celia Rothenberg

ABSTRACT: This article delineates and explores three distinctive, although

frequently overlapping forms of Jewish yoga: Judaicized yoga, Hebrew
yoga, and Torah yoga. Each of these is an evolving system of mental, spiritual, and physical experiences based both on yogic practices and on a variety of Jewish teachings as interpreted by different Jewish yoga teachers. To
contextualize the development and spread of all types of Jewish yoga, I
begin by briefly discussing the Jewish Renewal Movement and hatha yoga
in North America today. Then, one example of a Judaicized yoga class is
explored through interviews and participant observation with a small
group of dedicated students in western Canada. These students work to
extend the meaning of the female religious body beyond the halachically
observant to one that is flexible, sacred, and Jewish. Finally, conceptualizations of Hebrew and Torah yoga are outlined by drawing on the perspectives of key practitioners and their writings.

n the past fifteen years, varieties of Jewish yoga have become popular
in North America, Europe, and Israel. Jewish yoga practitioners have
created professional organizations, generated numerous publications and courses for interested individuals, and (recently) begun to
receive significant media attention. For example, in October 2005 the
World Jewish Digest featured an article titled Where Om Becomes
Shalom, that discussed the practice of Torat haGuf, or, Torah of the
body.1 In Canada, The Hamilton Spectator recently published an article,
Jewish roots of yoga: Ophanim is based on the Hebrew alphabet,
which featured a Jewish yoga teacher in British Columbia.2 Google
searches of the World Wide Web on the topic Jewish yoga retrieved
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Volume 10, Issue 2, pages
5774, ISSN 1092-6690 (print), 1541-8480 (electronic). 2006 by The Regents of the
University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission
to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California
Presss Rights and Permissions website, at www.ucpress.edu/journals/rights.htm.

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Nova Religio
more than five hundred directly relevant Web documents and Web
sites,3 including many newspaper, magazine, and newsletter articles with
information about and/or advertising for Jewish yoga classes and teachings. For the uninitiated, however, there are many questions, including,
perhaps most centrally, What is Jewish yoga exactly?, and, What are people
gaining by participating in Jewish yoga classes?
This article delineates and explores three distinctive, although often
overlapping forms of Jewish yoga: Judaicized yoga, Hebrew yoga, and
Torah yoga. An example of a Judaicized yoga class is explored here through
interviews and participant observation with a small group of dedicated students in western Canada. These students work to extend the meaning of the
female 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 perspectives
and their writings, as well as popular reports and descriptions. Each of
these forms of Jewish yoga is an evolving system of mental, spiritual, and
physical 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 and
hatha 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 counterculture
movements and some Hasidic traditions in Judaism. The Hasidim are
part 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 all
times.5 Indeed, the JRM often explicitly describes itself as a neo-Hasidic
movement. Like Hasidism, the Renewal Movement can be characterized
by its stress on religious experience through meditation, music, rhythm,
and dance, rather than on revealed wisdom. Further, the JRM emphasizes the concept of Shekhinah, the feminine Divine, and seeks to
explore embodied experiences of spirituality, both of which have a particular appeal for women.
Despite the controversy it has generated in some quarters, with its relatively broad influence in the United States, the Jewish Renewal
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Rothenberg: Jewish Yoga

Movement has slowly taken institutional shape. The Movements headquarters, ALEPH: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal, is in Philadelphia, and
there are increasing numbers of specifically designated Renewal congregations and ordained Renewal rabbis throughout North America. Elat
Chayyim, a Jewish spiritual retreat center in New York, was established in
1992 as a center for Jewish Renewal activities. It offers workshops and
retreats on topics such as Jewish shamanism, womens spirituality, Jewish
meditation, Jewish chanting (referred to as Hebrew Kirtan6), Embodied
Judaism (a pilates-based work out blended with the mystical Jewish teachings of Kabbalah), and Jewish yoga. A year later, Yoga Mosaic was established in Britain as an association of Jewish yoga teachers who explore
their roots to see where Yoga and Judaism strengthen each discipline.7
Jewish yoga, however, is practiced not only by those who belong to
Renewal congregations, but also by some Jews who identify with mainstream or traditional congregations.8 Diane Bloomfield, for example,
author of Torah Yoga9 (discussed in-depth below) is an Orthodox Jewish
woman, while the Jewish yoga teacher with whom I pursued fieldwork is a
member of an established Renewal congregation. This crossing of denominational boundaries is typical of many of the practices and insights stemming from the JRM. Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox congregations
have been influenced by some of the Renewal Movements practices, and
many congregations have incorporated into their services selected aspects
of the Renewal Movements teachings, rituals, and insights.
Of course, just as the JRM has not been equally well received across
all Jewish populations, not all Jews have welcomed the evolution and
growing 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 to
Avodah Zarah, idol worship, and is thus unacceptable, even if the person
practicing does not have these negative thoughts.10 Clearly, here Rabbi
Ginsburgh is referring to yogas historical association with Hinduism.
For many other Jews, however, Jewish yoga is a promising tool that can
be used to increase spirituality, bodily strength, and flexibility. For them,
Jewish yoga does not rely on Hinduisms religious belief system for
meaning. Yet it is true that many of the practices inspired by the JRM are
controversial. For example, a Torah rave (an all-night dance typically
featuring electronic music) held in Berkeley, California, was not well
received by all members of the Jewish community.11 A message posted
to a Renewal discussion list on the Web asked: Will Jewish Renewal . . .
eagerly embrace Buddhist theory and practice and Sufi theory and practice and Navaho theory and practice, but refuse to consider the theory
and practice derived from Jewish sacred texts? Is ancient wisdom found
in 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
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Nova Religio
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 this
article use hatha yoga, a holistic style focusing on physical exercises
postures called asanasbreath control (pranayama), and meditation. As
a system of physical movement, hatha yoga tones the body; as a system
of focus, balance, and meditation, it helps many people achieve a
greater sense of spirituality, unity, and balance. Iyengar yoga13 is used by
Diane Bloomfield (also discussed below) and is characterized by its precise focus on body alignment and often the use of props (such as pillows
or 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 discussed in this article. Judaicized yoga14 classes generally place primary
emphasis on yoga postures and workouts, gently blending in Jewish words
and concepts as a frame for the yoga postures. For example, Rabbi Andrea
London in her Reform synagogue in Chicago leads an alternative
Saturday morning service in the form of a yoga classa yoga minyan.15
Rather than prayer books, specific postures for the foundational Jewish
prayer (the Shma), a borrowed posture from Hebrew yoga (Ophanim
yogas letter vav, ), and a series of yoga postures called the Sun
Salutation as the physical embodiment of the traditional Amidah prayer
form the basis of the service.16 The Amidah, or The Eighteen Blessings,
and Shma, the affirmation of Gods unity, are traditionally offered during
a synagogue service and in the presence of a minyan as well as in solitude.17 Another Judaicized yoga teacher in a conservative congregation in
the United States teaches her hatha yoga class in the back of the sanctuary in order to draw on energy from the Torah scrolls in the ark. This
woman also commented that she is now studying Jewish teachings for
equivalents of the Chinese medical concept of kidneys, and for her
own 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 established
a Jewish yoga centre, which she claims is the only one in Canada specifically and exclusively dedicated to the practice of Jewish yoga. During
classes at the center, while she uses hatha yoga postures, Sanskrit terms,
and often refers to yoga teachings, she also works to incorporate Jewish
themes and Hebrew vocabulary, often drawing on teachings about particular Jewish holidays and points of Jewish philosophy.
For example, Anna talks frequently about the importance of the
Hebrew words and concepts for breath, soul, and repentance and their
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parallels in hatha yoga teachings. For Anna, teshuva, the Hebrew term
for the process of repentance and return to ones self, is achieved
through control of the breath. She points out to her students that the
Hebrew word for breath is neshimah, which comes from the root word
neshamah, which is Hebrew for soul. She then tells the class that the classic
hatha yoga practice of pranayama, or the practice of conscious breath
control, is believed to be the key for the process of pratyahara, the turning
inward of consciousness. By pointing out the parallels between these
concepts, Anna is able to substitute and integrate Jewish teachings into
her yoga class, making the link between breath, soul, and return to
ones self explicit in the yoga and Jewish teachings. In addition, Anna
often uses the Hebrew word chai (life), pointing out and finding significant 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 and
a few Stars of David adorn her workout room.
During my three months of fieldwork with Anna, I attended class
twice a week. Each class was approximately two hours in duration, with
a group of eight women. In addition to observing and participating in
all 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 and
60 years of age, they are all educated professionals, including two elementary school teachers, a property manager, a legal advisor, a health
education consultant, a marketing consultant, a psychologist, and a
lawyer. 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 the
laws of family purity. At this time, none identifies herself as Orthodox or
Conservative, but all have loose affiliations with Reform and Renewal
congregations. All these women married Jews, and all have children.
Importantly, all of these women are also dedicated to being healthy and
fit through physical activity. Key aspects of fitness for them include improving physical strength and flexibility. Before taking Annas Judaicized yoga
class, each woman felt that she was more dedicated to pursuing physical fitness than an observant Jewish lifestyle. Many of these women also felt that
they struggled to find the right kind of exercise, exercise that could keep
them engaged and interested for a long period of time.
In our discussions of Annas Judaicized yoga class, participants comments centered on two broad themes: (1) critiques of traditional
Judaism for its lack of attention to the importance of the body for sacred
experience, and (2) Judaicized yogas ability to enable them to focus on
experiencing their bodies as flexible, sacred, and Jewish. Judaicized
yoga for these women is their central, and often sole, meaningful religious practice, an assertion that highlights the relevance of this
Judaicized yoga class to their religious lives.
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CRITIQUES OF TRADITIONAL JEWISH PRACTICE
Susan Sered has argued that Women whose religious lives are
constructed within the context of a male-oriented culture that neither
celebrates nor sacralizes womens bodies and concerns may lack the
language (both verbal and ritual) to express that feeling.18 Annas
Judaicized yoga adherents often expressed critiques of traditional Jewish
practices and, indeed, voiced what can best be described as an impatience with rituals and laws that, in their view, do not allow them to
experience Judaism in ways they find meaningful. Even when traditional Jewish laws are interpreted in a Jewish feminist light, Annas class
members do not find the practices of these laws compelling or meaningful. Some also argued that Judaism has no philosophy of physical
exercise of which they are aware, and that Judaicized yoga provides this
key missing element of religious experience.
All of the women in Annas class have experienced for themselves or
are knowledgeable about specific Jewish laws and practices that pertain
to womens bodies. In particular, these include the laws of niddah (family
purity) and mikveh (ritual bath), which focus on the regulation and
maintenance of family purity during and immediately after a womans
menstruation.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 as
normal, natural, and empowering, religious laws suggesting that they are
unclean during menstruation are significantly at odds with their own
views of their body and its processes.20
Many 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 men
experience through their bodies. They argue that some Jewish practices
benefit men and disadvantage women. Participants highlighted, for
example, the damaging effects of numerous large, often unhealthy holiday meals for women who may gain weight. Men, they suggested, gain
less weight and/or suffer fewer social consequences if they do. Others
focused on traditional forms of Jewish prayer as male-centered in both
language (e.g., male pronouns) and format (e.g., men typically lead the
service). Here, too, Jewish feminist interpretations and revisions to
prayer and liturgy were viewed as insufficient by these women. Such revisions 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 and
forthsuggests the need for physical movement in order to experience
prayer optimally, a need in which they believe and for which they feel
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they have found a more appropriate, powerful expression in their practice of Judaicized yoga.
Similar to yoga classes generally in North America, Judaicized yoga
is a female-dominated area of religious practice. Jewish yoga classes of
all types attract significantly more women than men. Reasons for this
range 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 experience
their 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 feeling
calmer, at peace, enriched, and connected to Judaism following
Judaicized yoga classes. For many of these women Annas class is the
highlight of their week, and strengthens them for the coming week.
Judaicized yoga requires women to stretch and strengthen and make
their bodies flexible, and it tells participants that these physical attributes 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 Jewish
holiday (e.g., liberation from bondage), a teaching from the Torah, or
some 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 Jewishness
through their yoga. They see themselves as both creatively constructing
a new kind of Jewish religious experience, and at the center of that experience. They do not describe themselves as peripheral or excluded from
their communities (a point of view which would privilege those within
the communities), but rather at the vanguard of the creation of a religious experience that is new and more meaningful for them.
Judaicized yoga provides Annas entirely female class with the language and the physical practice to express their feelings about themselves, their bodies, and the experience of the sacred. It is interesting to
note 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 abandon
their faiths, have created separate spaces in order to experience that
faith in more meaningful ways. Ruethers study of the Women-Church
movement, for example, demonstrates how some Roman Catholic
women frustrated by clerical, patriarchal church institution and leadership have created their own religious spaces that are both more satisfying for them and, in their view, in keeping with their identities as
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Catholics.21 For Annas class, the language of sacredness is found in the
body; why that may be so is discussed in the following section.
THE FLEXIBLE, SACRED, JEWISH BODY
Listening to the ways in which participants describe Judaicized yoga
opens a window on how they have come to understand their practice as
a meaningful religious experience that is centered in the body. For one
woman, for example, who was perpetually bored by her familys Passover
Seder, experiencing the physicality of moving her body from a tight,
narrow position, symbolizing the Jews enslavement in Egypt, to an
open, expansive position, symbolizing the Jews freedom, finally allowed
her to experience the Passover holiday in a meaningful way. Through
Annas yoga classes, many participants feel they have found a way to
understand and celebrate the holidays (as Anna incorporates insights
and teachings about each holiday in the yoga class) and central Jewish
concepts for living Jewish lives.
One participant commented to me that Judaicized yoga acknowledges, praises, and encourages unity with a greater being; it also
encourages connection to others in the class as a meaningful community of believers. These experiences are achieved through focus on
breath control, meditation, stretching, holding positions that are challenging, and at times assisting one another with achieving a posture.
Another woman described Judaicized yoga as revelational, instructing
her in a new way of believing in and experiencing God. Annas classes
are in many respects ritualized, following a typical format each week in
which each step of the class is invested with meaning. Breathing, working through a series of postures, meditating, and chanting are typical
steps. A third participant commented on the class as the most meaningful form of ritual in which she has ever participated, and still another
argued that Judaicized yoga was a form of spiritual centering that
shaped her views of God and religion in all aspects of her life.
Anthropological studies of the body demonstrate that ways of understanding and experiencing the body are always historically and culturally
specific. Of particular relevance here is Cynthia Ellers argument on the
celebration of the body among contemporary religious feminists and
Emily Martins outline of the notion of the flexible body.22 Eller outlines how nineteenth-century womens religions argued for a disconnect
between women and their bodies; womens bodies were seen as separate
from womens spirits and souls. This strategy allowed women to deny the
very groundthe female bodyupon which their inequality was understood to stem naturally. Feminist spirituality movements in the late
twentieth century, however, celebrated the female body and its association with nature as a source of strength and empowerment. With birth
control and greater economic and social opportunities, women no
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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 goal
of Jewish yoga. Martin argues that the general concept of flexibility has
emerged and permeated popular North American economic, political,
and scientific thinking. Qualities related to flexibility, she adds, are typically framed as highly desirable for such disparate entities as workers
and products, governments and bureaucrats, and bodies and immune
systems. Martin does not, however, connect this powerful metaphor to
religious 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 appeal
of all types of Jewish yoga to women in particular extends Martins
metaphor of flexibility to the realm of religious practice and suggests
ways in which embodied flexibility may be a characteristic of religious
experience that is particularly desirable to some groups of contemporary North American women.
For Annas class, Judaicized yoga is a meaningful religious experience
and, indeed, the central (and often only) such experience present in
their daily lives. Five of the eight women attending Annas classes told me
that her classes have become their only forum for participating in any
kind of organized Jewish activity. As one woman stated, because of her
participation in this Judaicized yoga class, she has gone beyond going
to synagogue after nearly twenty years of attending services. The other
three attend organized forms of Jewish services occasionally, but not regularly throughout the year. They joke that, by contrast, they religiously
attend 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 their
philosophies 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, developed
Ophanim 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 and
currently runs the Nefesh Haya School of Ophanim and Prophetic Jewish
Meditation in Israel. Zavidowskys promotional literature claims he has
background in studies of religions, philosophy, meditation, martial arts,
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naturopathic medicine, and music. He began to practice Zen meditation
at age 15, followed by immersion in the teachings of Gurdjieff and the
Sufis for 20 years.26 Zavidowsky fits into a broader social trend encompassing Jews who turned to Eastern religions and only later in their lives
to Judaism. These individuals have both drawn from and contributed to
the Jewish Renewal Movements practices and philosophy. Ophanim,
translated as angels of form, is explained by Zavidowsky:
It [Ophanim yoga] works with only a few postures in a specific order
based on the earliest Jewish mystical text called the Sefer Yetzira (the
Book of Creation/Formation) . . . We call the postures of Ophanim
sacred because they are more than just useful exercise forms. They are
the physical manifestations and embodiments of angels, messengers or
messages originating in the Will of the Divine Source. To do the postures
is to practice an expressive language of the body which (re)enacts letter
by letter the ongoing structure of the world and harmonizes the soul
with the larger creation.27

There are twenty-seven Ophanim posturestwenty-two of which

are letters and five of which are the final forms of specific letters
mirroring the Hebrew alef-bet, or alphabet. According to Zavidowsky,
a basic set of Ophanim postures to be done daily consists of five constant postures and two others that should be chosen according to
the calendar month and day, although other postures may be done
as desired.
The Hasidic inspiration for Ophanim yoga is also clear in Zavidowskys
philosophy. The specific source for Ophanim yoga is the Sefer Yetzira,
which, according to Zavidowsky, is a text that relates how the world was
created and is maintained via Hebrew letters. Part of the Kabbalah, the
Sefer Yetzira is of particular interest to Hasidic Jews. Simon Dein explains
that Language in the Kabbalah has a metaphysical reality of its own.
The letters mediate between the sefirotic world28 and the material
world, and permit operations that bridge the gap between the human
and the divine. Words are more than descriptive, they are an integral part of the
reality they describe.29 When individuals fall ill, for example, Jews belonging to the Lubavitcher sect of Hasidism are often advised by their rabbi
to check the letters of their religious texts. If words of the religious texts
are damaged (e.g., their writing is flawed), physical harm may come to
the owner of the texts. The recommendation [of the rebbe] that one
check religious texts sets up a formal correspondence between the
words of a text and the physical state of the body.30
Zavidowsky does not emphasize the examination of the written
Hebrew text for better health, but rather the physical experience of
becoming the Hebrew letter by moving ones body into its shape. Through
the physical experience of being a Hebrew letter, one connects both to
the higher spiritual realm and the inner realm of the bodys energies
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without the mediating text. In this case, therefore, the letters do not simply correspond to physical and sacred realities, but rather the body itself
becomes the letter that is at once physical (corporeal) and sacred (as a
Hebrew letter).
A second example of Hebrew yoga is Alef-Bet yoga, described by
Steven Rapp in his book, Alef-Bet Yoga: Embodying the Hebrew Letters for
Physical and Spiritual Well-Being.31 Rapp began teaching yoga in the late
1980s, and developed Alef-Bet yoga, which is now taught at workshops,
seminars, and in courses offered particularly on the east and west coasts
of the United States. Like Zavidowsky, Rapp refers to Jewish mystical
teachings in explaining Alef-Bet yoga, commenting, In the Jewish mystical tradition, the Hebrew letters are considered the divine instruments
of Gods energy, holy vessels carrying the light of God. For centuries,
mystics have read, written, and meditated on the letters in ways that they
hoped would bring them closer to the Divine.32 Rapp, however, integrates a broader array of Jewish sources and yogic teachings in his
approach compared to Zavidowsky, who focuses primarily on the teachings of Jewish mysticism.
In his book, Rapp systematically integrates the traditional meaning
of each Hebrew letter with the meaning of the Sanskrit word or common name that is typically used to describe the corresponding hatha
yoga posture. For each, Rapp presents a poem that he has written that
brings together the meaning of the letter, the name of the yoga posture,
and a phrase containing the particular letter.33 These phrases come
from the Hebrew Bible, Hebrew prayers, and Jewish mystical writings.
Rapp does not recommend doing the postures in the order of the alphabet, but rather in a particular order that corresponds to the usual order
of a standard yoga session. For example, Rapp explains that the Hebrew
letter hay is the symbol for taking. The corresponding yoga posture
is prasarita padottanasana, or the extended-foot posture. Rapp then
includes an excerpt from the daily prayer book that reads, Blessed are
You, God, who restores souls to dead bodies, first in Hebrew, then in
transliterated Hebrew, and finally in English. This particular passage is
followed by this poem:
The body
Without a soul
Lies lifeless,
Nothing to behold.
But with each waking,
Our bodies reunite
With the souls
That animate.
A delicate balance,
Like a hand
Just touching.34

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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 approaches
share an emphasis on the centrality of the Hebrew letters as sources of
divine and physical inspiration. Although Rapp does not characterize
himself as specifically part of the Jewish Renewal Movement (he is a
member of a Reform synagogue), he told me that he feels Alef-Bet yoga
is in harmony with efforts of the Renewal Movement to achieve a
renaissance 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 creating
Torah yoga, Bloomfield studied Orthodox Judaism, which she continues
to 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 Torah
concept . . . although I have selected a set of postures for each Torah concept, the study of a particular concept is not limited to the postures presented . . . Conversely, each yoga posture is not limited to a single Torah
concept; any yoga posture may apply to many Torah concepts.38

Bloomfields book focuses on seven Jewish concepts, including

hidden light, constant renewal, leaving Egypt, essential self, body prayer
and alignment, daily satisfaction, and remembering to rest.39 Within
each chapter, Bloomfield first presents how the yoga student, the yoga
practice, and the Torah teachings are connected. Next, she discusses traditional Torah study on the concept presented in the chapter. The final
section of each chapter gives the student details on how to do the yoga
postures in order to experience, express, and exercise the Torah concepts of the chapter in your own body-mind-heart-soul.40 Ideally, one
should 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 appreciate Gods daily gift of abundant new life, a person should perceive at
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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 into
new vessels42) and linking these explanations to yogas ability to turn
part of your body one way, other parts other ways, and so on.43 The second part of the chapter discusses the relationship of Torah teachings to
Bloomfields theme of constant renewal. She provides brief explanations of perception (by drawing from Rav Kook, a scholar, mystic, poet,
and the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel in the 1930s), acquiring
the perception for newness (by explaining the story of Moses at the
burning bush), watching for the new moon (by drawing on Hasidic
thought on the meaning of leaving Egypt for the Jewish people), and
achieving abundant waves of renewal (by drawing again on the thought
of Rav Kook).44 The final part of the chapter describes the seated
mountain posture, extended child posture, downward dog posture, locust posture, and cobra posture. In addition to explaining
the exact kinesiology of each posture (including position, movement,
and breathing) she discusses how the various postures re-shape the
body, 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,45
Bloomfields practice is clearly influenced by Hasidic and other sources
of 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 analyses
of the Jewish Renewal Movement have focused on the conceptual
deficits of postmodern spiritual lives and the ways in which Jewish yoga
and other kinds of Jewish practices fostered by the Renewal Movement
can fill this void. Chava Weissler, for example, has argued that for consumers who live in postmodern societies characterized by the shattering
of grand narratives there is a hunger for the missing meta-narrative and
for lost communal bonds, or for an intensity of experience to replace
them. The result, Weissler argues, is the emergence of a Jewish spiritual
marketplace. She continues, The poetic and mythical resources of
Kabbalah can satisfy a hunger for transcendent meaning. And the physical
involvement of meditation, dancing, or Torah yoga with an emphasis
on embodiment can contribute to a sense of wholeness.46
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In this argument, Jewish yoga is one product in the spiritual marketplace that people can purchase to fill a void in their lives.47 To a certain extent I have found Weisslers argument to be true, but she does not
answer the questions of what specific kind of wholeness Jewish yoga creates, how Jewish yoga arrives at this sense of wholeness, and whether or
not it is unique among the variety of Renewal-inspired practices that she
mentions, such as meditation and informal prayer groups. Jewish yoga,
which is uniquely and simultaneously spiritual and physical, should be
examined on its own terms. Unlike prayer groups or meditation, it
offers a strenuous form of physical exercise that has a specific physical
and spiritual impact on the body.
In all its varieties, Jewish yoga illustrates one of the many ways
North American Jews have been fascinated with and drawn upon Eastern
religions and are reinvigorating Jewish religious practice. Books such as
The Jew in the Lotus, Torah and Dharma, Zen and Hasidism, and Stalking
Elijah chronicle some of the diversity of Jewish experience with Eastern
religions.48 Some recent religious surveys suggest that American Jews
constitute 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 for
significant variation. Jewish yoga generally is a product of one such
combination. The Judaicized yoga discussed here specifically illustrates
how this kind of innovation can reflect an important gendered dimension and critical commentary on particular types of Jewish religious
practice, as well as on yogic practices that are decontextualized and
lack 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, the
notion of embodied religious experience could prove useful for understanding some of the experiences of these groups as well. More detailed
exploration of how these groups experiences vary not only within and across
the different types of Jewish yoga, but also in different geographical
areas, could help us understand how specific notions of the body, the
sacred, and the religious experience are being articulated by various
groups of Jews today.
The Judaicized yoga class discussed here allows participants to experience their bodies in ways that are distinctly different from other kinds
of Jewish practices and forms of exercise. For these women, the practice
of Judaicized yoga resonates with their perspectives and values in ways
that neither the synagogue nor the gym does by itself. The experience
of a sacred, flexible, Jewish body is achieved neither by enacting traditionally prescribed religious ritual, nor by accepting traditional religious
teachings on the nature of the body.50 Rather, through the self-conscious
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rejection of a range of experiential dichotomiesbody versus soul,
sacred versus secular, prayer versus exercise, Jewish versus non-Jewish
participants in this Judaicized yoga class are creating a new way of experiencing 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, Downto-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex, and the Rest of Life (New York: William Morrow,
1995); Arthur Waskow, Godwrestling-Round 2: Ancient Wisdom, Future Paths (Woodstock, 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 Lubavitcher
Hasidim, 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 Consciousness (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 term
Hebrew Kirtan suggests direct influence from ISKCON.
7 The Yoga Mosaic Web site (<www.yogamosaic.org>, accessed 16 November
2004) describes the groups purpose in this way:
We gather together to share ideas and ideals and to research further the many parallels to be found in both Judaic and Yogic philosophies. Yoga maintains the physical body in a fine and healthy condition using yoga postures and cleansing practices. 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 development 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), for
personal anecdotes from reform and orthodox Jewish women
9 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, <www.inner.org/responsa/
leter1/resp49.htm>, accessed 10 October 2004.

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11

Rabbi Melanie Aron, Jewish Renewal, <www.shirhadash.org/rabbi/990205renewal.html>, accessed 12 October 2004.

12

Aron, Jewish Renewal.

Iyengar yoga was developed by B.K.S. Iyengar. He is credited by many for
bringing yoga to millions of Westerners through his teachings and writings.

13

14

Other authors also use this term. See Schneider, Jewish Yoga; Nathaniel Popper,
Grasping for God with Arms Outstretched: Rabbi Integrates Yoga and
Prayers at Chicagos Beth Emet Synagogue, The Forward (20 February 2004),
<www.forward.com/articles/173>, accessed 15 October 15, 2004.
15

A minyan is a quorum, the minimum number of people needed for congregational worship. While in the past and present in Orthodox Judaism the minyan
consists of ten men and a copy of the Torah, other Jewish denominations
include women in the minyan.

16

Popper, Grasping for God.

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, The
Eighteen, and is a central prayer in Jewish liturgy.

17

18

Susan Sered, Childbirth as a Religious Experience? Voices from an Israeli

Hospital. Journal for the Feminist Study of Religion 7, no. 2 (1991): 15

19

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 had
reconstructed the traditional meanings of these laws in positive and empowering ways (see Jonah Steinberg, From a Pot of Filth to a Hedge of Roses (and
Back): 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 women
affiliate, also present liberal understandings to more traditional interpretations
and practices of these laws, though these more liberal conceptualizations presented little appeal to these women. For them, the issue itselfmenstruation
specifically and family purity more broadlywas simply not religiously compelling. 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 a
pain. Although they understand how to carry out the practices, the larger question
of 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 discussion of the Women-Church movement among a variety of Protestant women.

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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. Catherine 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), <www.forward.com/articles/3587>, accessed
20 January 2006. David Elharar made this statement in an interview with Ellen
Umansky. Weinstein then taught Elharar and Zvi Zavidowsky. Elharar wrote a
book about Ophanim, but the book is currently out of print and of limited
availability.
25 Twelve Ophanim teachers and their locations are listed at <www.angelfire.com/
pe/ophanim/teachers.html>, 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 <www.angelfire.com/pe/ophanim/bio.html>, accessed 10 October 2004.
27 See <www.angelfire.com/pe/ophanim/Ophanim.htm>, 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: We
are offering an online site where students interested in Torah Yoga can find
teachers, teachers can find students, and teachers can also offer sample Torah
Yoga teachings and receive feedback. There will also be a bulletin board where
students taking Torah Yoga classes can write personal responses to the classes.
We plan to have annual conference/teach-in/get-togethers. Eventually we hope
to have streaming-video Torah Yoga classes online so students can continue to
learn Torah Yoga from Diane and other teachers even from a distance (Bloomfield, 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. This
is 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.

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46

Chava Weissler, The Jewish Marketplace, Shma, <www.shma.com/jan04/

Chava.htm>, accessed 14 November 2004.
47 Interestingly, there is also an increasing array of items in the Jewish marketplace 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 up
Moses; a picture of pink bikini underwear with Jewcy printed on its front was
above the article title (L1, L6). As Rasminsky points out, the list of Hollywood
celebrities 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 alltime 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: Rabbi
Theodore Falcon, Makom Ohr Shalom and Jewish Mysticism in the Western
United States, Journal of Contemporary Religion 18, no. 2 (2003): 171.
50 See Louis Jacobs, The Body in Jewish Worship: Three Rituals Examined, in
Religion and the Body, ed. Sarah Coakley, 7189 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1997).

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