Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 16, 1992 Page: 3 of 24
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IN OUR 46TH YEAR!-THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1992, TEXAS JEWISH POST 3
tone and qualities.”
Dr. Samuel Heilman, professor of
sociology and Jewish studies at Queens
College and the CUNY Graduate Center
and an Orthodox Jew, thinks places
such as Kripalu challenge, not threaten,
Judaism.
If Kripalu’s Jewish residents ‘‘are tur-
ned on to spirituality,” said Dr.
Heilman, ‘‘they are interested in religion
and are more important to the Jewish
community. They’re only ‘lost’ to a
Jewish community that hasn’t risen to
the challenge. The Jewish community
has to sink a lot more money into Jewish
education so people don’t have negative
experiences. And so that when they look
for spirituality, they have the resources
to find it within Judaism. If these people
were exposed to what Judaism really has
to offer, it would compare favorably.”
Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, a leading
modern Orthodox rabbi and president
of the National Jewish Center for Lear-
ning and Leadership (CLAL), said the
Jewish community needs a retreat center
similar to Kripalu:
‘‘There’s a missing ingredient in the
Jewish community that should have
been addressed long ago: a spiritual,
holistic approach to life that combines
the physical, spiritual and psychological
and involves exercise and eating, plus
formal study. It’s been on my personal
agenda for 15 years, but I haven’t been
able to create it.”
Does the Jewish community have an
obligation to reach out to Jewish
residents at Kripalu and other ashrams?
In many ways, they are the cream of the
Jewish crop: well-educated professionals
desiring to better themselves and their
world, spiritual seekers committed to
emotional honesty and growth. While
many Jewish leaders are pained by the
ashram residents’ ‘‘defection” from
Judaism, they also note that free choice
is an essential ingredient of the moder-
nity most contemporary jews have em-
braced. Other leaders dream of enticing
Kripalu’s Jewish residents back to the
told with the beauties of their own
heritage.
But Rabbi Steven Shaw, director of
the department of community education
at the Jewish Theological Seminary,
believes that eventually, a true seeker
who is Jewish has to confront his or her
roots. Since the Jewish tribal gathering
at Mount Sinai several thousand years
ago, he said, ‘‘there’s been a difference
in the essence of a Jew. There’s a divine
spark of Jewishness in every Jew, like a
seed waiting to be planted in the fertile
ground in which it originated and where
it grows best.
‘‘Your genes cannot be eradicated.
The way the world looks at you is
shaped by your Jewishness. You’ll never
blossom as an individual outside it.
There is no way of choosing your grand-
parents. You have come to terms with
that to become whole.”
■Seeking a spiritual holistic approach to life.
■ Getting into the cycle of daily exercises.
A Day at Kripalu
Kripalu residents and guests, also, if
they wish rise early at Kripalu. Morning
meditation begins at 5:45 a.nr., followed
by yoga at 6:40 and breakfast, which is
usually silent, at 7:30.
Guests then begin their sessions in
yoga, health and fitness, self-discovery,
or ‘‘spiritual attunement.” ‘‘Rest and
Renewal” (R & R) guests, who come for
a weekend sampler of Kripalu’s of-
ferings, go to the fourth-floor sunroom
for discussions, self-massage and medi-
tation. Next comes a group workshop on
anything from ‘‘Discovering the Child
Within” to clowning, meditation or in-
sight writing.
At 11:45 a.m., R & R guests choose
between dance kinetics (a type of
aerobics) or yoga. Lunch from noon to
1:30 is followed by free time until a late
afternoon yoga class. After dinner
comes an evening workshop on satsang
(a communal gathering with music,
chanting, dancing and a talk). By 9
p.m., most people start heading to bed.
R & R guests can spend their free time
or, for that matter, their entire day —
however they like: swimming, hiking,
walking, resting, shopping in the
Kripalu shop, reading, taking a sauna,
getting a massage or facial, or watching
videos of Kripalu guru, Yogi Amrit
Desai, speaking and answering questions
on a variety of subjects.
Ruth Mason writes frequently on contemporary
Jewish issues. This article was made possible by a
grunt from the Fund Jor Journalism on Jewish
Life, a project of the CRB Foundation of Mon-
treal and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Any
vie ws expressed are solely those of the author.
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 16, 1992, newspaper, January 16, 1992; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth753712/m1/3/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .