Jewish Yoga?

I just got off the phone with the Marin JCC. I can't get specific with my frustrations because the internet is not private. Here is my take on Jewish yoga:

As modern Jews, particularly those of us who live in the Bay Area, we are very aware of our physical health. Many of us find peace and inner strength from exercise and movement. In my classes I hope to convey that this sense of calm is not separate from Judaism.

Granted, working out, doing yoga or dance, is not the same as going to synagogue or studying Talmud. But Jewish life has never been ONLY about studying holy texts. It has been about taking care of your family, passing on traditions, living an ethical life and celebrating community. In a world where we have become more individualistic it can feel like Judaism just doesn’t fit.

For me yoga is a great place to start thinking about mindful movement. Yoga means union. The definition of that union has different interpretations. I think it is the union of the divine spirit inside us and the physical world. It is a time to reflect about how you stand, how you sit, how you breathe. When brought into a Jewish context, one can start asking questions like: where did that first breath come from? We can acknowledge that our bodies are absolutely incredible creations. We can start to appreciate the Divine context in which we live life.

This past summer I visited Sri Aurobindo’s Ashram as well as Auroville, a community that is dedicated to living out Auribindo’s teachings, creating an ethical community that is mindful, environmentally conscious and diverse. I was expecting to find a community that practiced yoga in the way that I knew it – on a mat. However, Sri Auribindo called mindful living Yoga. When one was doing organic farming, that was Yoga. When one was preparing food for others in the community, that was Yoga. When one was contributing to the community by being a security guard or artist, that was Yoga.

Yoga was not something that was done on the mat. In some ways, that community had a different challenge: getting on the mat.

So many of us practice yoga on the mat. So many of us practice mindful movement in Pilates or dance or maybe even on the treadmill. The challenge for us is to take the yoga off the mat. I’m not saying that these followers of Auribindo were perfect – far from it. But they got the idea right. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone who did yoga on the mat spent equal amount of time contributing to the community? One could argue that meditating, praying and mindful movement IS giving to the community. But I would argue that your personal experience is only one part of the puzzle. (I am married to King of Giving and Community Outreach, Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman.) In modern Judaism, you can't get away from Tikun Olam (Fixing/Healing the World) as a core principle.

This experience in Auroville made me feel more confident to take some of the Hindu out my yoga teaching. It is not the core of Yoga. With Judaism as a viable option, we don’t need to use Hindu god stories to explain our purpose in life. We have hundreds of our own stories that are rich and confusing.

We can breathe and think about our ribs expanding, what it means to give a rib to create another being (story of Adam and Eve). We can reach our heels back into the ground and imagine Jacob tugging at our heels (story of Esau and Jacob’s birth). Jewish folktales share the wisdom we have gained through the ages, often with humor. Sometimes we take it all way too seriously.

I often need to remind my clients that there is not pot of gold on the other side of that stretch. Judaism is all about the journey, not the destination. So much of the Torah focuses on wandering, not on living in a homeland. This is something to which so many of us can relate.

So now I need to write a description of a Jewish yoga class. I think I needed to get all that out before I market myself to the JCC’s of the South Bay and North Bay Jewish community. I am putting it out there that I would like to have some offer from SF. So much more convenient.