The Jewish Yoga Network is a community of teachers and students who explore their roots in yoga, meditation and Jewish wisdom. Please join our community to get involved, enjoy the free resources and come along to upcoming network events.This is one of the most popular questions that we’ve been hearing for the last few years. Here are some responses from various people, and we’ll be adding a online round-table panel discussion soon.
Here are some responses…
The Huffington Post – Click here
The Tablet – Click here
Jezebel.com – Click here
Yoga and Judaism Center – Click here
2 comments
Rivka Levy says:
Jun 5, 2016
Can anyone give me the name of AT LEAST one orthodox rabbi who has come out publicly, to say that yoga is kosher?
All of the articles that you kindly posted up here clearly suggest that yoga is NOT kosher.
Marcus says:
Jul 15, 2016
Hi Rivka. Great question. There are now many shuls who allow & endorse yoga classes to take place in their premises. It is a complex issue because ‘yoga’ is a broad term and can include non-kosher elements when practiced with Hindu chants, but there are many Orthodox Rabbis who have hired me for their congregations & communities. To pick one example, I was yogi-in-residence for many years at Jewlicious Festivals run by Rabbi Yonah Bookstein & I often teach at Pico Shul in Los Angeles. If you want sources, you’ll see in Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s intro to the Sefer Yetzirah (published by Red Wheel/Weiser) that he describes it ‘as a kind of yoga’. BUT as my Rebbe in Yeshiva taught, ‘any Am Ha’aretz can say ‘assur’..’.