"Jewish Yoga"? Contorting Body, Not Mind

Mike Boone (MontrealGazette.com, Jan. 15, 2010)

Navasana Balance pose becomes a Star of David (Yoga for Partners, photo by Dhyan).

Marcus Freed is standing religious tradition on its head -- literally. Judaism is 5,000 years old. So is yoga. It's time they started dating. Let there be Bibliyoga. Freed's website describes a hybrid form of devotion/exercise that "engages your body, mind, and spirit through a combination of dynamic movement and engaging in sacred texts."

Freed, a 35-year-old Londoner, has been developing his system over the last eight years. He's on a promotional tour that brings Bibliyoga to Montreal this weekend, beginning with what Freed describes as a "jazzed-up shabbat service" at McGill University's Hillel House this evening.

Freed is a graduate of the Universities of Birmingham and London. While doing post-grad at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts, Freed studied with yoga guru Edward Clark, who was teaching acting and movement. Freed has also spent a year studying the Talmud, Judaism's sacred texts, in Israel.

As a stubborn non-practitioner of either religion or exercise, I was a bit skeptical of Bibliyoga. I mean really, what next? Qura'pilates? But Freed is an affable fellow (who'll be moving soon to, big surprise, Los Angeles), and we had a pleasant chat when I reached him in transit, between Toronto and Kingston. More>>

(Freedstyle) "Bibliyoga" is the ultimate body-soul workout -- a way to experience Jewish wisdom through the body. Each month we choose a different Kosher Sutra to get our whole system enlightened -- today's Kosher Sutra is based around the theme of inner strength.

• YogaMosaic.org (Association of Jewish yoga teachers)
• TorahYoga.com
• Hamsa Yoga
• GentleJewishYoga.com

THE BIBLIYOGI: Marcus J. Freed is a performer, writer, and educator who developed Bibliyoga on a journey that included a yearlong spiritual retreat in the mountains of Efrat, Israel, at Yeshivat HaMivtar, where he studied enlightenment texts with three great Talmudic masters, Rabbis Chaim Brovender, Dovid Ebner, and Shlomo Riskin. Marcus has degrees from the Universities of Birmingham and London. He met his next teacher at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts, where yoga guru Edward Clark was teaching acting and movement, becoming a pupil of both spiritual and yogic studies. Bibliyoga, which is concerned with innovation connected to a tradition that stretches back 5000 years, also brings enlightenment to businesses and professional organizations through his corporate arm, Freedthinking.com.