Stretching Toward Truth, A Torah-Aligned Perspective on Yoga and Movement-Based Healing

Why This Matters
In today’s wellness culture, many Torah-observant Jews find themselves exploring practices like yoga for health and healing. But yoga is not just movement—it is rooted in spiritual systems foreign to Torah. This presents serious halachic and spiritual questions.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe addressed this growing trend as early as the 1970s. His guidance remains deeply relevant: while therapeutic movement is beneficial, it must be free of any spiritual elements—Eastern or even Jewish—to preserve clarity and kedusha.

What’s the Problem with Yoga?
Yoga’s roots lie in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist religious traditions. Its postures and sequences—like the Sun Salutation, Cobra, or Warrior pose—were created not as neutral stretches but as spiritual expressions directed toward various deities. Even if practiced with no such intent today, these movements remain problematic.
This touches on Avodah Zarah (idol worship) and Chukos HaGoyim (imitating non-Jewish customs). The Rebbe made it clear: intention alone doesn’t make a spiritually charged act permissible. Form matters. So does origin.

The Rebbe’s Clear Guidance
In private letters and public addresses, the Rebbe pleaded for kosher alternatives to TM and yoga. He emphasized that:

• Therapeutic practices are permitted only if entirely free of spiritual or religious symbolism.
• Even Jewish, mystical overlays should be avoided.
• Professionals have a sacred duty to offer kosher, clinical, options—movement and meditation stripped of spiritual elements.

One key insight. The Rebbe asks that we even remove Jewish philosophy from exercise or meditaion. Practices designed as“Jewish yoga” or “Kosher Yoga” can be more confounding than helpful. The Alef-Beis are holy vessels of Divine expression—not shapes for physical imitation.

A Kosher Path Forward
The Rebbe encouraged the development of value-neutral tools for calm and regulation. Clinical systems like Herbert Benson’s “Relaxation Response” meet this standard: no rituals, no mysticism—just effective, health-focused methods.
When movement is needed for health, choose:

• Neutral terms: “Side Stretch,” “Floor Twist,” “Hip Opener.”
• Avoided poses: Sun Salutations, Cobra, Goddess, Warrior.
• No chanting or mantras—even if translated or simplified.
• No mystical intent: Movement is for refuah (healing), not ruchniyus (spiritual ascent).

Frame the body as a kli kodesh—a vessel for serving Hashem—not a tool for altered states or spiritual experimentation.

In Conclusion
Yoga, as practiced in its conventional forms, is not kosher. Not because movement is forbidden—but because confusion is dangerous. The Rebbe called this a matter of pikuach nefesh—saving spiritual lives. The clearer our tools, the safer our souls.
Torah encourages strength, health, and calm. But the path forward must be one of clarity, clinical grounding, and halachic fidelity. Let us stretch—not toward confusion, but toward truth.

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With Gratitude,

Rus Devorah