NORTHAMPTON, USA, January 2, 2009: Students at the Lander Grinspoon Academy in Northampton are mixing their Torah with yoga these days. The monthly “Torah yoga” class, taught by yoga instructor Amy Reed and religious educator Judi Wisch, explores Jewish concepts through classic yoga poses, prayer, passages from the Old Testament and themes from the Jewish calendar. In the third session, the students sat in a traditional yogic posture with their eyes gently closed, taking care to inhale through their noses then exhale the same way. Instead of chanting “Om,” they sang “shalom,” harmonizing on the last syllable, then holding it. Wisch had begun by leading the participants in a morning prayer, drawing passages from the Old Testament and themes from the Jewish calendar. Reed, a Belchertown yoga instructor, would take over 20 minutes later, guiding the group through poses meant to amplify the concepts Wisch had laid out. According to Hadassah Magazine, a publication of the charitable Zionist organization, Torah yoga was first officially practiced by Rabbi Myriam Klotz, director of yoga and movement practice at The Institute for Jewish Spirituality in New York, and a Torah scholar, Diane Bloomfield, who wrote a book on the subject in 2004. Titled simply “Torah Yoga,” the book explains that while yoga is often linked with Hinduism, the meditative spiritual exercise can be applied to teachings across the theological gamut. “With yoga, I discovered that the wisdom of Torah was also inside me,” writes Bloomfield.
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