As a child, I longed for an embodied connection to Judaism.

I was envious of boys who had a Brit Milah, a physical reminder of their Jewish ancestry and the covenant G-d made to Abraham. When I was 18 years old and wrapped tefillin for the first time, I was struck by the powerful sensation. I loved feeling the leather straps on my arm and the impression they left after taking them off, which reminded me of my Divine connection throughout the day. It felt like an intimate physical connection to G-d, one that I had been yearning for all my life. It was the most compelling, transformative spiritual practice I had ever experienced.

That is, until I found yoga.

My journey into yoga as a daily practice began with a 21-day challenge. Before I knew it, so much had opened in my life. I was more grounded, centred, and in touch with my body and physical self than I had ever been. I opened spiritually and had mystical experiences, including feeling energy inside and around my body. I found a community of people connected beyond words. I was spending time in my own skin in a way that felt spiritually nourishing.

I wrestled with the integration of yoga with my spiritual practice as a Jewish person. While I didn’t feel any inherent contradiction, I also couldn’t say there was alignment either. I wanted to talk about how I experienced yoga and Judaism in my personal spiritual life, but I never found a place to have such discussions. I knew that I was not the only Jew practicing yoga, and I wondered how others navigated their Jewish and yoga spiritual lives.

I decided I wanted to study yoga in more depth and figure out how to integrate these two important spiritual parts of my life. I found a teacher from India who teaches decolonized yoga, or real yoga, who is not just focused on asanas (the poses), but rather on yoga’s philosophy and way of life. Last fall, I registered for their 2-year 500-hour teacher training and have been on a learning journey ever since. My knowledge of yoga philosophy is still in its early stages, but what I have learned so far is inspiring, innovative, and renewing my Jewish spiritual life.

Yoga literally means union, referring to the harmonization of the body, mind, and soul. Both yoga and Kabbalah have taught me that we are not only our bodies. We are souls having a human experience. The practices in yoga are intended to support a way of living, much like our daily practices of kashrut and blessings. From my perspective, how we live as Jewish people is more important than what we believe, regardless of our views on G-d, Torah, and ritual. Judaism is full of embodied practices such as lighting candles, eating symbolic foods, drinking wine, shaking the lulav, hearing the shofar, and even the choreography of our services. These practices are designed to wake us up so we pay attention. They bring ancient wisdom into physical reality. Our bodies become the temple, and we feel the Divine presence within us. Judaism and yoga align in these ways.

Although yoga comes from Hinduism, I’ve learned that it is not a religion, but a spiritual way of life available to anyone. Perhaps this is why it is so appealing to many Jews who do not resonate with synagogue life or traditional observance.

Yoga is a spiritual way of life that is embodied and accessible with many Kabbalistic synergies and daily practices. I believe we have an opportunity to be Jewish renewers and explore Jewish spirituality outside of mainstream religion. Weaving yoga with Jewish approaches is one way of supporting secular Jews to find their way back to Judaism and strengthen their Jewish identity, or to help religious or cultural Jews who are searching for deeper meaning find their way back to spirituality.

In light of this vision, I am creating Jewish Third Space, a global retreat-based movement designed to integrate Jewish teachings with transformative embodied practices. The initiative is intended to be an exploratory spiritual playground for Jewish people who are hungry for spirituality but who are not finding it in religion or non-Jewish spiritual spaces. This is a third space: a place between Judaism and secular spirituality.

The first pilot retreat will be in Vancouver, and it is currently being planned as an integration of yoga and Jewish approaches to strengthen Jewish seekers’ sense of belonging, connection, and healing.