Aleph-bet Yoga (ebook)

Argumento de Aleph-bet Yoga (ebook)

Combine the ancient practice of hatha yoga with the
shapes and mystical meanings of the Hebrew letters to
enhance your physical health and deepen your spiritual life.

This unique guide shows both the yoga enthusiast and the yoga novice how to use hatha yoga postures and techniques to physically connect with Jewish spirituality.

"If you are curious about hatha yoga, Aleph-Bet Yoga provides a safe introduction to the basic yoga postures and techniques. If you are one of the tens of thousands of Jews who already practice hatha yoga, Aleph-Bet Yoga will connect your yoga to something explicitly Jewish. With its Jewish content and intent, Aleph-Bet Yoga will enhance rather than interfere with your religious identity."
?from the Introduction

As we move our bodies through the Hebrew aleph-bet, turning toward the inner meaning of the letters, we can tap into the deep connections between our body, mind and spirit.

Drawing on the sacred texts and mystical writings of Judaism, combined with the insights of yoga teacher Steven Rapp, Aleph-Bet Yoga is an East-meets-West experience for our whole selves.

Aleph-Bet Yoga makes it easy for anyone to incorporate yoga into their life, and combines the physical and spiritual aspects of Judaism. It features step-by-step instructions, photographs clearly demonstrating each yoga pose, and insightful words to inspire and guide us in connecting the spiritual meaning of the Hebrew letters to our yoga practice.

S she perfected a yoga pose demanding a balance of strength and surrender, Myriam Klotz "understood in a flash," she says, a parallel principle developed by spiritual master Baal Shem Tov, founder of Judaisrn s Hasidic movement. The principle stresses the importance of remaining both firm and supple in one's spiritual explorations. 'Once I got that in yoga through a bodily experience, I saw insights into that teaching and vice versa,' says Klotz, a yoga instructor and rabbi trained in the pro grcssive Reconstructionist movement. Over the years, she has created an art form that merges yoga and Judaism into what she calls Torat haGuf. or 'Torah of the body." The sense of discoverythat motivates a prayerful or intellectual search for the divine also might be manifested in a person's physical life, says Klotz, 41, a teacher at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, based in Northampton, Mass. Torat haGuf is what she calls a "different expression' of the same impulse. For Klotz and other yoga adherents in Jewish communities around the country and abroad, the ancient practice of yoga delivers not only physical well-being, but also a deeper connection to their faith through mind, spirit and body. "Organically, [the two traditions] complement each other,'says Klotz, who lives outside Philadelphia As a practicing Jew and as a yoga instruetor, Dayna Macy sees no conflict between the two traditions. "It does not surprise me in the least that there ane lobservantl Jews who will flnd a sympathetic partner in yoga," says Macy, communications director for Yoga Journal, based in San Franeisco. Not everyone would agree, she says. ,.I could very well imagine that an Orthodox Jew or a very orthodox practitioner of yoga [would resist a mergerJ," Macy says. For such traditions to maintain their vitality, though, they must.adapt themselves Lo the culture and time in which they live without losingthe foundation of the teach_ ings," Macy says. "Both yoga and Judaism are doing that beautiftrlly.' Practitioners of Torat haGuf and other methods of integratingyoga with Judaism speak to the obligations of Jews .to cale for our bodies as part of a continuum of overall health,, says Klotz, who has re_ leased an audiocassette ealled "Each and Every Day: Yoga and Meditation for Jew_ ish Spidtuaiii;y and ls completing a book on Torat haGuf. Diane Bloomfield, a former classmate of Kotz's, has written .Toratr yoga: FJx_ periencing Jewish Wisdom through Classic Postures" and teaches workshops in the United States, Eunrpe and Israel..Ev_ ery yoga posture [isJ a gateway to greater Torah consciousness," she writes. In each chapter, Bloomfield demonstrates how a Torah concept may be internalized and enperienced through the practice of vari_ ous yoga postures. Bloomfield explains that the concept of exodus is a living dynamic within our minds and bodies. Every "place you are tight, constricted or in pain is your own personal Eg1pt," she says. "You join the exodus from Egypt when you discover areas of tension and release them. Yoga teaches you how to leave Eg1pt." Others, such as dance therapist and yoga instructor Joyee rllolpert of Balli- ' more, have found their own common ground between Judaism and yoga. Through movement therapy and yoga, Wolpert helps clients get "geared up to make a prayer in a deeperway," she says. Jewish liturry brlms with images of physical activity, she says. *We are supposedtouse ourbreath and our body in a full prayer,' says Wolpert, who would like to start a synagogue where movement is the basis of prayer. May 23,2005 Another book, "Aleph-Bet yoga: Em_ odnng the Hebrew Letters for physical nd Spirituat Well-Being," combines hatha yoga with the shapes and meanings of Hebrew letters. Among other lessons, the book describes how to .\peave together the meaning of each Hebrew letter with the Sanskrit word for the yoga pose and a biblical phrase in meditation," according to the Jewish Lights Rrblishing website. Otiyot Ha5yot, or.,livingletters," is a tai chi-influenced form of movement that also emulates Hebrew letters. Invented by ye_ nudit Goldfarb,'btiyot Hayyot is .,the latest effort to blend the martial arts of the Far East with the spiritual letters of the Near East," wrote Alana Newhouse in a 2003 issue of the Fbrward, the Jewish weekly newspaper published in New york Just as there are mar\y forms of Judaism and schools ofyogE, there are multiple ways of intertwining the two. "One needn t be monolithic either in Judaism or in Vogo,' says Klotz, who directs a certification program in yoga and Jewish spiritualiff at a Catskill Mountain retreat center with Bloomfield and yoga instructor Ida Unger. Aleph-

"Beautifully synthesized yoga and Judaism in understandable and poetic ways. A testament to the power of yoga as a way of life to enhance any faith."
?Marsha Wenig, creator of YogaKids

"At last, a whole-bodied approach to Hebrew that not only informs the mind but opens the soul. This is not your Bubbe's aleph-bet book, but it should have been"
?Rabbi Rami Shapiro, translator/annotator of The Hebrew Prophets: Selections Annotated and Explained and Hasidic Tales: Annotated and Explained

"An intriguing, interesting and innovative concept. Using Hebrew letters as parallels to ancient yogic asansas opens exciting possibilities of intregration."
?Aruni Nan Futuronsky, director of Retreat and Renewal, Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health

"Reader-friendly, poetic, and insightful ? an excellent beginning guide for those who want to view yoga through a Jewish Lens."
?Alan Reder, contributing editor to Yoga Journal; co-author of The Whole Parenting Guide0Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 What Is Aleph-Bet Yoga?
2 Getting Started with Hatha Yoga Poses
3 Poses, Letters, and Words
4 The Aleph-Bet Yoga Series?the Proper Order of a Yoga Session
Suggestions for Further Study
Notes About Jewish Lights