Jewish Kabbalah & Kundalini Yoga

[Guest guest]

By Cindy Mindell

 

STAMFORD - The Zohar teaches, “If fire does not burn intensely, tap the wood, and it blazes forth. To the same effect, if the light of the soul does not burn brightly, tap the body, so that the light of the soul should blaze forth.”

 

It is an ancient belief that the body houses a soul, or a divine spark, that can be awakened through certain actions. The Kabbalistic teaching is echoed in Kundalini yoga, considered the “yoga of awareness,” an awareness that G-d is a part of us and we are a part of G-d, say Raema Salmon and Jackie Tepper, instructors of Neshama Yoga, Tepper's brainchild.

 

Just as Kabbalah guides a Jew to connect with G-d through prayer of the body, mind, and soul, so Kundalini uses meditation, breathing, and physical exercises to unite the divine spark in each of us with the greater divine. Jewish scholars point to “shukkling,” the rhythmic swaying that brings the body into active prayer, as an example of the body-mind-soul connection.

 

One Saturday morning last October, Salmon and Tepper introduced Neshama Yoga to the world, as part of Temple Beth El of Stamford's Synaplex. Fifty people braved a near Nor'easter to begin their Shabbat with a unique session of Kundalini yoga infused with Jewish spirituality. They came to pray with body, mind, and soul.

 

Tepper and Salmon created Neshama Yoga n neshama is Hebrew for “soul” -- as another way for Jews to deepen their spirituality and connect with G-d. The combination of breathing, meditation, chanting, and physical exercise offers a much different experience than a traditional prayer service, the instructors say. They will teach a second class at the February 10 TBE Synaplex Shabbat.

 

The instructors met two years ago in a Kundalini yoga class in Stamford. Salmon was the teacher, Tepper was a first-time student, a woman fighting for her health after having been diagnosed with severe mercury poisoning and a neurological disorder. “I knew from five minutes into class that this was it,” Tepper says. “I started feeling energies moving around my body, and blockages gotten through. I felt really good just breathing.” The experience meshed with Kabbalah and her Judaism, Tepper says, and though she didn't quite understand the connection, “the seed was planted immediately.”

 

Salmon is a certified Kundalini instructor who began her training in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1994, the year Nelson Mandela was released from prison. “Growing up as a white South African, and as a Jewish white South African, I was very cloistered,” she says. Kundalini plunged Salmon into an integrated world n her teacher was African-American, and within weeks she herself was teaching students both black and white. “The experience unleashed the openness and acceptance of others,” she says.

 

Tepper began teaching last year and is working toward her Kundalini certification. Both women plan to take Neshama Yoga across the U.S. and beyond. In the meantime, they will continue to offer their unique fusion of yoga and Kabbalah at Temple Beth El's Synaplex.

 

Participants are guided through a set of physical exercises, technologically derived by Kundalini yogis to achieve a specific purpose, Tepper says, like detoxification, opening the heart center, or releasing inner anger. A layer of Jewish spirituality helps to detoxify the spirit, Salmon says. The class includes special breathing exercises, and chanting in Hebrew and English.

 

“Kundalini brings you deeper into your religious beliefs, whatever they might be,” Salmon says.