Rabbi Gutman on Yoga and Hinduism
Rabbi Gutman on Yoga and Hinduism
Rabbi Gutman Locks has a grand understanding of Eastern faiths and their relationship to Judaism. You may have seen him helping put Tefillin on people that are exploring Judaism at the Western Wall area. The very first time I put on Tefillin may have been via the auspicates of Rabbi Locks
Someone asked Rabbi Locks of the Old City on whether or not Yoga was kosher.
The Response of Rabbi Locks:
This is an ongoing battle. We have some 30 articles pointing out the idolatry associated with yoga. The one from this week is an answer to a Jewish woman who objected to her young child being taught yoga in public school. The teacher told the little boy to imagine that he was a red doll while he was doing the exercises!
Just look at this yoga teacher’s answer and see the exact problem in his own words! He wrote that his yoga was pure, and that it is like “vinyasa yoga”.
This is what the first site I went to had to say about this type of yoga;
“The term vinyasa also refers to a specific series of movements that are frequently done between each pose in a series. This viṅyāsa ‘flow’ is a variant of Sūrya namaskāra, the Sun Salutation, and is used in other styles of yoga beside Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. The opening sequence begins with 10 Sun Salutations and then several standing postures.”
Gutman continues:
Listen well; the “sun salutation” is an old exercise still practiced in India today, and it is called “Worshipping Surya.” They changed the name to “salutation” to hide this fact in the West (and make it more palatable). “Surya” is the “chief solar deity” in Hinduism, and is called “the god who sustains the heavens and knows all who lives”.
Is this what you want your children to be doing? And when those Jews move away from your Jewish friend’s center and want to continue yoga, what books are they going to buy? What teachers are they going to have? No one, not even a non-Jew, should worship a sun deity!
The Rebbe’s letter clearly said, (yet these Jewish fans of yoga distort this over and over again): “…utterly devoid of any ritual implications.”
“Salutation to the sun god” is not devoid of ritual implications. The word yoga itself is a ritual word that refers to Hinduism, not Judaism.
Do you want your young children imagining that they are red dolls? And what will their teacher tell them to imagine themselves to be next?
[End of His Response]
The essence of Hinduism is worship, and the diversity their of worship is rooted in Idolatry. The Western world is less attuned to this for many reasons including the Solar-Worship found in Christianity and also the New Age movements loosely inspired by Theosophy. Thus, many Jewish people in the United States fall prey to the idea that it’s justifiable for their children to practice authentic Yoga.