It's YogaDance at Chabad
by Reb Akiva at Mystical Paths
We've gone on a bit in the past about serious concerns with yoga. Most people have heard of yoga and associate with a stretching and positional exercise system, while perhaps knowing that it has an Indian/Hindu history. It's rather popular among women, with rumors of youthful results.
What most people don't realize is yoga is a Hindu (Indian religion) based positional worship system that clearly and directly involves avodah zarah - idol worship by Jewish standards. It involves a series of stretching exercises, associated breathing methods (for the purpose of focusing Hindu bodily spiritual energies) and associated (Hindu) meditations for bringing one to Hindu godly consciousness and invoking Hindu deities.
There are a few who claim to have created kosher yoga systems, as well as a number of orthodox Jews that teach yoga (the assumption being they wouldn't teach anything inappropriate). In both cases one is relying upon an exercise expert to extract all forms of idol worship from a foreign religious system that is based upon it.
In Chabad news this past week, it was publicized that a U.S. Chabad house had a session of womens "YogaDance" with a "yoga teacher, personal trainer, lifeforce yoga practitioner for anxiety and depression and Kripalu Certified YogaDance instructor". Now I'd never heard of Kripalu YogaDance, so I did a quick google to learn more. Wish I hadn't...
Kripalu Yoga is an inquiry-based yoga methodology that promotes the awakening of the life force (prana - Hindu life energy system). Using classic asanas (body positions), pranayama (breath and fluid control), meditation (Hindu style), and relaxation techniques, Kripalu Yoga increases awareness of body, breath, and mind and encourages natural alignment.
Off the mat (it's a full Hindu oriented spiritual approach), this inquiry-based approach to life also encourages natural alignment and increased awareness-of our thoughts, words, feelings, and actions. In this way, Kripalu Yoga is the inquiry of optimal living.
Kripalu Yoga emphasizes the mechanics of yoga (proper breath and alignment) as well as the inner, spiritual dimensions of yoga practice (alignment of Hindu life energy and striving towards the Hindu methods of connecting with the Hindu gods).
Founded in 1965 by Amrit Desai (as the Yoga Society of PA) and later called Kripalu. Desai, aka "beloved teacher", is a native of Halol, India, where he met guru (guru is a Hindu priest) Swami Kripalvananda for whom Kripalu is named, and who followers believed was the 28th incarnation of (Hindu god S), the supreme god of Hinduism. During the 1970s, Desai established ashrams (Hindu temples) run by mostly unpaid followers in Sumneytown, Pa., and nearby Summit Station.
Kripalu acquired its property in 1983, and soon after, Kripalu legally became a religious order. Residents took vows of celibacy and obedience to Desai. Desai left in 1994 due to illicit activities with (opposite gender) members, and the organization became a non-profit charity in 1999.
- A word on the path of yoga. "The eight limbs of yoga are, in order, the yamas (restrictions), niyamas (observances), asanas (postures), pranayama (breath work), pratyahara (sense withdrawal or non-attachment), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (realization of the true Self or Atman, and unity with B (a Hindu god)).
- A work on "asnas", yoga positions. "Surya Namaskara, a primary asna, or the Sun Salutation, is a form of worshiping S, the Hindu sun god by concentrating on the Sun, for vitalization."
Kosher yoga? Yeah, right. Is avodah zarah (idol worship) batul b'shishim (nullified by 60:1, a way of covering a kashrus-kosher mistake with food)? (No.) Do you think there's no hint or touch of the Hindu source in kosher yoga or any other form presented by even a religious Jewish practitioner?
I'm sure those selling this material to Chabad houses and religious Jewish communities honestly believe they've koshered it and are bringing only the benefits. But clearly Hinduism is wrapped tightly and throughout all aspects of yoga.
If you want stretching exercises, try Pilates. If you're Jewish, stay away from yoga.
7 comments:
I've always had a problem with this cognitive dissonance. Thank you for speaking against it. Kol Hakavod!
I really think that this "Generic" way of describing yoga is bullshit. I agree, Yoga is based on Hinduism and Hindus are from far the world champion of avodah zarah. But there are several ways of doing Yoga. Sure, and I agree again, if you're Jewish, stay away of the mystical /meditative Yoga; You can find a lot of Jewish way of meditating; Ask your Rabi. But Yoga is also the most precious way of exercising, call it gym/stretch/sport/... it's the 1 hour per day best gift for your body (not your mind). 5000 proven years of experience/practice is better that all these new/fancy/californian based stuff like pilates/aerobic and other crazy shtouyot.
Go to class of power yoga, go again twice and then review your blog.
Leon
Nice to see the author also gets the cognitive dissonance/insanity of Jewish Yoga. There is even Christian Yoga, doggie yoga, nude yoga, wine yoga, etc.Some argue that yoga is not a religion and they are right. The various Yogas are the progressive religious/spiritual disciplines of Hinduism and sects. For example, Bris is not a religion but is ethically inseparable from Judaism. To call a circumcision a bris is as misrepresentative/dishonest as calling stretches/postures, Yoga.
Check out a discussion 'Is Yoga Kosher' on Chabad.org where this theft, distortion, exploitation of sacred Hindu practices are shamefully tolerated.
yoga is benign avodah zorah getting power from hindu deities, as the ramban and ramchal explain in there commenteries there are elohim achairim in this world . but to be honest I find it a benign avodah zorah far away from the christian avodah zorah which is agressive in taking souls away from Hashem jew and bnei noachim . so all in all id prefer a jew take from hinduism or buddhism or sufism then from xtianity which is tottaly uncircumcised God help us . all yoga postures have to do with deities. is there a way one can call it klipas nogat do the sun stretch but not associate with the sun as a deity . I think thats ok . Please dont be overly judgemental and strict healing is a tottaly forgotten art in judaism and people have to get it from somewhere !
question: are there any yoga stretches that are not a.z. or, have counterparts in 'basic stretching'?
for example, there's a 'cat-cow' or 'sun-moon' stretch that is very good for the lower back, very safe. on all fours slowly arching and then caving the back.
is it possible to do this stretch w/o being ch'v, a.z.?
As a former pagan - yes, an actual idol worshipper - I agree with Rabbi Akiva. If you want a more or less stationary form of exercise, then try pilates or aerobocize, etc.
I can't imagine that someone who is frum would even think about joining a "Kosher Yoga" class. Who has that kind of time?
Anyway, I suspect that this is largely a BT phenomenon - keeping something from the "good old days," which gets rationalized and de-paganized and repackaged as some sort of outreach gimmick.
Yes, I've heard it argued that Mosheh got the idea for the Ark from the portable shrines used by the Egyptians; ergo, anything that was originally pagan can be made kosher and sanctified to HaShem. If that be the case, then why not just do everything that the Nations do provided you put a Jewish spin on it? Get a "kosher" tatoo! Put a "hanukkah tree" in your home this December! Etc., etc., etc....
Where does one draw the line? When does one stop acting like a non-Jew and start behaving like a Jew?
Rabbi Gutman Locks has much discussion of similar issues in his books, particularly the one on meditation, in which he suggests some postures based on the letters of Torah and I think other things as well. He also suggests, and has explained on this blog before, that postures from qigong or yoga can be OK as long as they are 100% separated from any religious context.
The American Sephardic Rabbi Ariel Bar Tzadok approves of qigong and Asian martial arts despite these concerns, because today they are normally completely secular. The Chabad Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh says that even tai chi may bring in impure energies. He is strongly opposed to putting the term "Jewish" in front of any foreign practice like Yoga. He's coming up with his own Jewish paradigm and technique of energy healing and such. There's also the martial art Abir, which is said to be based on Yeminite fighting traditions, and which might be used for stretching or meditative purposes (maybe that's what this "ancient Hebrew meditation" is):
http://lazerbrody.typepad.com/lazer_beams/2009/11/native-sounds-of-heaven.html
I'm not a rabbi, but it seems to me that if someone is an observant, G-d-fearing and righteous individual, and he is teaching some movement or stretching technique that he does not call by Yoga or anything, but which may be based at least in part on yoga or qigong moves, but does not transmit any of the foreign ideology, then this seems probably OK. Is this right?
Maybe I'm wrong, but there does not seem to be anything unkosher about the general philosophy found in Chinese medicine and Yoga philosophy that the movement of life-energy in the body is an important thing that relates to such things as our physical and psychological health (and even our spiritual awareness). Chassidic and kabbalistic literature is full of references to various kinds of life energy or spiritual energy. But that doesn't mean that it's right to teach their philosophy wholesale.
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