Yoga, meditation and Jewish mysticism

 I am not a particularly observant Jew.  I no longer belong to a synagogue. My practice is limited to holidays and lighting candles on Friday night.  But yes, I do engage in those rituals, I need to feel the connection. The spiritual connection, and the connection to heritage and community.

Along with resuming my yoga practice, I’ve started to meditate again.   Mindfulness/meditation is inexorably linked to the practice of yoga. And both practices are linked to the culture and religious beliefs of India and other Asian cultures.

But Judaism has its own traditions.  Not just spirituality via prayer and ritual, Judaism has its own tradition of mysticism - Kabbalah.   I’ve done reading, on and off, about Kabbalah - it’s a lot more than Madonna wearing a red string bracelet.  I think I’m going to dive more deeply into it.  Just downloaded a book to my Kindle, 

And I have now (re)discovered a Jewish YouTube channel that’s amazing.  Every day (except the Sabbath, of course) they go live for about 45 minutes.  First there is a short talk about Jewish scripture, followed by a guided meditation based on that scripture. The session ends with a recitation of the Mourner’s Kaddish, one of the most important prayers in Judaism. It’s very similar to a program we brought into our synagogue about ten years ago. I join them about once a week.

They even have a weekly yoga class.  The teacher is also a Cantor, so while she’s doing the poses she’ll often throw in a bit of teaching about scripture ora Jewish holiday or something similar.   I haven’t taken her class yet, but it does look interesting. My summer yoga class is coming to an end, so maybe …