Shabbos and the Shabbos Project.

I think it's time to write about Shabbos and the Shabbos Project!

Four years ago the chief Rabbi of South Africa Rabbi Warren Goldstein got an amazing idea that has quite literally changed the face of the Jewish World....

He inspired over 85% of the Jewish population in South Africa, the majority of whom were not actually "religious" to keep an entire Shabbos with all its halachic ramifications! They had a Challah Bake the Thursday night before the appointed shabbos with 100s of women participating and had a Havdalah Concert with Shlomo Katz at the end of Shabbos attended by over 5000 people!!

When the rest of the world heard about what an awesome Shabbos South African Jewry had managed to pull off, they wanted in.... and thus the Shabbos Project was born!

https://www.theshabbosproject.org/en/about 

Here in New Hempstead we have been participating in our own small way and have had our own Shabbos Project Shabaton in 2014, and in 2015 and this year we are planning on combining the celebration of Shabbos with Yoga, Meditation and the total release and relaxation suggested by the yogic pose "Shevassanah" to create the 

Tiferet Movement  Shabassanah Retreat!

http://www.mysticmovement.info/Retreat.html

In our times when so many of us spend so much time on computers and talking to our friends on cell phones and through facebook instead of sharing face time, Shabbos brings a refreshing change of pace.

I must confess, I find Shabbos a most welcome reprieve from the constant allure of google, work, emails, LinkedIn  and yes I must include facebook. All of these technologies are wonderful, and I am employing the benefits of them with this blog, however, the change to my social interactions has  been very much noticed and makes shabbos so much more appreciated.

When we need to stop and remind ourselves to walk instead of drive, take time out to meditate and pray instead of continuing without pause, when sitting down to family meals with loved ones becomes more and more of a memory;  Shabbos is truly a visible and more obvious gift each passing year.  So many times I have read about internet addiction, and I believe it's a real thing and something that  adults and children are suffering from at earlier and earlier ages, but on Shabbos we unplug for 26 hours... what a great antidote ! We step away and unplug and all breathe a collective sigh of relief.

As they have always said, " More than the Jews have kept Shabbos, Shabbos has kept the Jews!"

So, if you already observe Shabbos, perhaps join in and participate in a local Challah Bake, or invite  a friend who has not yet begun the amazing Shabbos journey to join you, not just for the Challah Bake, but perhaps some challah that you might have baked, at your own Shabbos table...., and if you have not yet committed to Shabbos observance, why not try it next shabbos for Parshas Lech Lecha when so many around the world will try to keep it all together!

To participate in a Challah Bake right here in Rockland

sign up via link below

https://www.ashar.org/challah-bake-2016/

Dancing with the light, 98 years young!

I've been meaning to visit the Sunday morning yoga class of Tao Porchon-Lynch for a long time.Tao is 98 years young and still teaching!
I've had a feeling that I just had to meet her, not because I haven't had yoga teachers who have been in their older years before, because in fact two of my most favorite teachers are either in the midst of their 70s in the case of one and in their mid 80s in the case of another, but learning from someone who is still teaching well into their later 90s was just something I felt I had to experience!
I was not only not disappointed, I was totally enchanted!

Tao's  class was lovely and I really enjoyed it, but the take away went far beyond the usual benefits of deep breathing and a good stretch. In fact, the most impressive aspect of Sunday morning's experience was seeing how Tao gave of herself after the class was officially over, because  it was then that I saw her shining light and her incredible ability to give of herself and be totally present. After the class was over, Tao continued sharing small anecdotes and short teachings, musings about life and her insights and thoughts, as if she had all the time in the world and had an endless supply of energy. Tao also patiently posed with quite a few of the students, myself included, who wanted to have their pictures taken with her, and graciously signed copies of her book. What made things even more remarkable than this being at the end of an almost two-hour class, was the fact that our class starting at 10:00am was the second class Tao had taught that morning, the first had started at 8:15am!

Tao has written a book about her life called "Dancing Light", and of course all this week I have been reading it  from cover to cover, trying to discover the source of her energy and jois de vivre. The book speaks of how she grew up, her experiences in the world and how she first learnt and then began to teach yoga. 

She grew up in India amongst spiritual seekers and teachers, her uncle, who brought her up was himself a true seeker and close associate of Mahatma Gandhi. Tao was at different times a cabaret dancer and choreographer, a successful courtier model in Paris, a wine expert, a Hollywood actress as well as a beloved and somewhat famous yoga teacher. Her life seems to have been jam-packed with a number of daring and exciting things, not least of which include marching with Mahatma Gandhi and then much later Martin Luther King, saving Jews as part of the French resistance and fearlessly dancing and performing right through the Blitz bombing of London from September 1940 till May of '41.  

Throughout her life, it seems the teachings of her uncle rang out loud and clear. From him she learnt something that we have perhaps gleaned from our own teachers of Tracht gut un zein gut- Think Good and it will be Good, and that ultimately everything works out for the good, even if that good is not apparent right away.

It is a fascinating read and I have thoroughly enjoyed it, but the part that still shines brightest for me is experiencing personally her vitality and her desire to share and enlighten students after close to four hours of teaching as if there was really nothing else quite as important...

Thank you for that Tao.. for that lesson alone, I can be eternally grateful!



To know more about my yoga, and the  classes that I offer, please check out my website: TiferetMovement.com

Take a time out!

"Harpoo Ve Dau ki anochi Elohim "
הַרְפּוּ וּדְעוּ כִּי אָנֹכִי אֱלֹהִים
46:11

A chant from Tehillim inspires me, and we often sing/ chant it during our  Tiferet Movement classes ,
Harpoo ve dau ki anochi Elokim
As "constructive" people , we are always so busy; car pools, home cooked meals, homework , housework, relationship work, etc, etc. the  list is endless , but David Ha Melech states: Be still ( surrender/ release ) and know that I am G-d.

Be still??
Who has time??
But in the stillness, in the space that we make to hear our own breath, in the space that we create when we slow down long enough to still the racing mind, in the space that we make to truly remember who we are, we can " harpoo ve dau",  we can let go of the burdens and the demands of our material lives; we can let go of the pressures of the  " have to gets " and the " have to haves",  and through slowing down and connecting to our breath and to our neshomahs, we can connect to a grander picture.We can connect to something infinite and transcendent. But if we are constantly rushing from here to there, even from one mitzvah to the next mitzvah...we might just miss the opportunity all together!

In Egypt, Pharoah kept us busy all the time, he wanted us to forget who we were, he was so dedicated to us forgetting that he wanted to cast all the boys( zachar) into the River Nile ! Zachor (slightly different vowel)  means to remember...when we take time to remember who and what we are, we enter into a liberated and "free" space, when we run around mindlessly "doing and then forgetting" , we put ourselves into Egypt-like places of subservience to our lowest selves, the selves of endlessly "getting and spending".

 So take the advice from David Ha Melech: take some time to
Harpoo vedau , ki anochi Elokim

TiferetMovement.com

Purim, ( i don't mind and I don't care...) the gift of leaving the " Mind"

So in our world there is a lot of Mind

Purim gives us the opportunity to let go of the work of having to "know" everything, decide whether we like it or don't and whether it is good or bad.

Purim is a vacation from the Rational Mind, the mind dominated by post Garden-of- Eden thinking where everything is split into polarities of right and wrong,  good and bad and evil or holy. On Purim, we transcend the Rational Mind, we move to a place higher than "sachel", to a place where we can connect above the polarities, above the distinctions, where we can see that the source of everything is in fact G-d and therefore good.

Of course this doesn't mean that all of a sudden we can condone the evil in this world, the acts of terror and bigotry perpetuated daily or feel that how we act doesn't matter...., it's just that for one 24 hour period we are given an opportunity to look at our own lives, and what G-d has put in front of us, and relate to it in an attitude of total gratitude, knowing with our non -mind, that whatever Hashem does is good and we can  transcend our own definitions of what we think that is, and trust that if He has given that to us.... it's good in a way that we do not need to understand. 

We can take it further with the people we meet. Now once again, I am not talking about the machete brandishing terrorist who may want to do bodily harm to you or anyone else,  G-d forbid, but more about a fellow Jew who may have a particularly irritating quirk or personality... relate from the place of non -judgement... he or she is in essence all good, also created in the image of G-d  and Purim is an ideal time to practice seeing this good.

The Mitzvah on Purim is to get oneself into such an expanded state of consciousness that one cannot distinguish between blessing Mordechai( the hero of the Purim story) and cursing Haman (the villain) or cursing Mordechai and blessing Haman!! That is one of the central obligations of the holiday! One can only do this by going beyond the rational mind, to a place of trust and transcendence....

It is said that joy breaks through  all boundaries.... be happy and transcend the boundaries of the rational mind!

I bless us all that we should get to this amazing "place" in our consciousness this Purim,  and take from it the ability to look with Purim eyes at all the details of what Hashem gives us year round.

Taming the Monkey Mind in the Month of Adar

The Month of Adar, according to Jewish spiritual teachings was formed by the letter "Kuf". The letter kuf has a dual nature, it is the letter of holiness as the Hebrew word for holiness is "Kedushah" beginning with the kuf, but it also has an aspect of being related to some mischief -making as the letters used to spell out kuf with different vowels spell out the word "kof' which means monkey.

In the Purim story, the anti-hero of the whole Megillah is the bad and hateful Haman, a descendant of the tribe of Amalek who we are commanded to destroy. Amalek is no longer  the name of a particular tribe or specific nation of people, but now is more of a concept that we are duty bound to eradicate whenever we find it. The negative aspects of Amalek can be connected to breaking down its name into "Amal Kof", the mischief or work of the monkey.

What is the mischief of the monkey?

The numerical value of the word Amalek in Hebrew is equivalent to the numerical value of the word "Safek" which means doubt. When we doubt the value of our own self, or the value of our actions, or the value of our beliefs or when we doubt G-d Himself, we are being attacked by Amalek.

In teachings connected to Meditation, one often comes across the concept of  the Monkey mind, this most often refers to a mind that cannot calm itself down, that is jumping from one worry to the next. The work of "meditation" is to calm this monkey mind down, the method usually suggested is, to find a comfortable place to sit and then close one's eyes and settle down by finding one's breath and then focussing on the breath to enter into a more calm, focused or meditative state.

It is interesting to note that the word for Breath in Hebrew is 'Neshimah" which shares the same consonant letters as the word for the Soul, "Neshomah". When we can connect to our inner self, our soul, through connecting to our breath, we can tame the mischievous Monkey mind and separate from that self -doubting,  G-d doubting trouble maker and enter into a more truthful and calm relationship with reality.

Being able to tame the monkey-mind is a wonderful skill to acquire and can greatly enhance our doverning (praying) too... learning to focus and not give into to the distraction of the
"Amal-Kof".

Adar Bais is a great month to work on this....

Mind Body Solutions for Stress and other Maladies

Statistics has never been my favorite subject. In college it was a required course for my psychology degree, but I was never a fan. Lately however I have been paying attention to a certain group of statistics: how many people  in America are taking prescribed medication. It's hard not to pay attention!

I quote: “Aside from the dramatic rise of medications to treat ADHD over the past decade, the use of antianxiety drugs soared between 2001 and 2010. In children up to age nineteen , the use of antianxiety medication increased 45 percent in females and 37 percent in males...In 2010, the most recent data indicated that more than one in five adults was on at least one medication, up 22 percent from 10 years earlier. More than a quarter of the adult female population is on these drugs …..Eleven percent of Americans over age twelve take antidepressants...the number of women in their forties and fifties who have been prescribed antidepressants is a whopping 23 percent.”  David Perlmutter,  MD in Grain Brain.

We are in a national crisis and it seems only some seem to notice!

So what can one do besides taking a pill to relieve stress, cure  insomnia, gain control over anxiety or   diabetes and combat depression? Well both Yoga and Judaism would look to a Mind-Body solution.

Both Kaballah and Yoga see the human being in a wholistic way, mind and body  connected, one affecting the other, so movements of the body effect the mind and  thoughts and beliefs of the mind affect the health of the body.

Judaism teaches that corresponding to 248 limbs of the body, are 248 positive actions that the body was created to do in the world. Each body part has been created to help the human fulfill his or her  purpose, for example the mouth was given  to articulate prayer and blessing, the ear to hear specific holy sounds etc.

Corresponding to the  365 arteries  and veins  in the human body are 365 negative commandments, instructions  we fulfill by not doing, i.e. holding back from an action. All of these negative commandments   correspond to something that might engage our passion or instinct…. we don’t commit adultery or we hold ourselves back from stealing….these desires correspond to the blood pathways or passions and instincts of a person.

So one form of investigation regarding out of control stress or anxiety is to look at one’s actions and try to ascertain if they are in keeping with one’s higher purpose…. are we not sleeping at night because we feel unfulfilled regarding our actions during the day…. are we stressed because we feel ambivalent about the value or morality of our actions ?

Another method of engaging the body to solve issues of the emotions or the psyche is YOGA and Yoga Therapy.

By engaging the body in conscious movement and in breath work,  we can relieve  stresses and tensions we may be experiencing even if we don’t fully understand the causes of them.

Some people have spent years in conventional therapy and are simply either tired of talking about their problems or are finding that talk therapy is no longer helpful or is just not addressing the issue at hand. Yoga therapy can be a very helpful alternative.

Many clinical trials have shown and proven that Yoga and Meditation can be even more effective in treating many of the conditions mentioned above than medication.

While exerting ourselves physically and taking our mind off our problems and getting connected to our breath and movement , we release the stress and tensions that have lodged themselves into our bodies

For me personally I feel Yoga has been my own “medication of choice”. In order to combat the stresses of everyday life, Yoga  always leaves me feeling more relaxed and less stressed than when I began.

For many,  a regular yoga class may be all that one needs to get the varied benefits of Yoga, however for some suffering from more complex issues, or those contemplating taking a medication for stress, anxiety or insomnia, (just to mention a few examples) , a yoga therapy session with a qualified and dedicated Yoga Therapist may be just the thing needed!

Call for a free consultation:

917 821-0694

Bracha Meshchaninov,

RYT 500 and Certified Yoga Therapist.

For a list of all classes check :TiferetMovement.com

The Holy Hug

 Just because I felt I wanted to add some further musings on Sukkot:

After all the "work" of cleaning out our garbage on a soul level and coming to a place where we are ok with who we are and in relation to our inner selves, our souls and with G-d....Sukkot offers us an amazing opportunity.... to be in a truly Holy Time and while sitting in the sukkah, to be in Holy Space....

If we view Sukkot as an opportunity to live the way we always wish we could;

being positive

accepting ourselves;

seeing the good in all that happens to us;

loving ourselves and loving G-d( cos we fixed all the bumps in the relationship right..)

loving others as true "sistas" and brothers...because we see their Divine spark

etc, etc,....then Sukkot becomes a little idyllic  Garden of Eden, and for just a week we practice being and staying in this ideal state.

What does living in Gan Eden feel like? It is feeling our dependence on G-d, feeling our true essence and feeling what's it's like to be nurtured and constantly in the embrace of G-d!  The holiday offers us a little time capsule, in the romantic analogy, it's the Honeymoon week ( with G-d as our Partner)  where we are free from our normal obligations to be able to focus on the goodness of everything,  and our ability to be "in flow"  as part of that picture... and all that can only happen after all the work that came before! ( No Honeymoon without a Wedding!)

Kaballah teaches us that the greenery used as a covering on top of the Sukkah is a manifestation of all our prayers and hard work of Yom Kippur... and being in the Sukkah, entering into the Divine Hug that we spoke about, is the experience of where all that hard work brought us!

It's my favorite holiday, and one of my peak experiences of it, is the Women's gathering in my Sukkah, which I do every year as I love it so! It's our chance to share, sing and learn and be together!

All of us coming together in a spirit of unity is also part of the ideal vision of how it should be all year round. On Sukkot we get this special opportunity to really create a template that hopefully can serve as an inspiration and guide  for the whole year that follows.

Our teachers compared the high holiday season and the month of Tishrei to the experience of going to the market place and stocking one's basket with all the necessities of spiritual service we will need in the year to come...

Rosh Hashanah we gather the Subservience and Commitment that will serve us for the whole year, on Yom Kippur we acquire  the experience of  intimacy and feel the ONEness with our Creator and on Sukkot we stock up on joy.  The Sukkot holiday  allows us to experience the pleasure of living and feeling what it's like to be in a perfected relationship.On Sukkot we get to feel the closeness of having dropped our  baggage, resentment or blocks that we may have experienced before the work of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. On Sukkot because we have worked to be in touch with our real true selves, we can authentically  experience the intimacy of feeling surrounded and "Hugged" by Hashem. The  sukkah is also an experience of feeling  nurtured and taken care of by Hashem as it is a  recreation of the clouds with which G-d protected us on our 40 year hike through the desert (while we were wandering towards the land of Israel).

So, before it's over, I encourage you to stock up your baskets and backpacks and really soak it all up, because there are only a few more days left  of this holy opportunity. The Sukkah itself is the ideal place to experience all of the above, but the time is auspicious too, so where ever you happen to be, connect to the holy opportunity of the moment and feel the joy, feel the harmony, be in sync with your higher selves and with G-d and just enjoy that sublime pleasure!!

Sending love and of course hugs... 

With blessings,
Bracha.