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REI - Recreating, Exploring, and Inventing (same title, different article than 2 weeks ago!)

10/06/2021 02:57:28 PM

Oct6

Houston didn’t need another reform synagogue.  While certainly there were exigent circumstances which led to its founding, the driving force which birthed CSK into existence was the desire and yearning to utilize Jewish tools for deep and personal expression of oneself and one’s community. Our commitment to not owning or occupying a single building wasn’t first and foremost a financial decision, it was a spiritual one that ensured the notion of portability.  It manifests the idea, central to Jewish tradition, that everything changes.  The Jewish stories most commonly told from week to week are not those revolving around a fixed temple structure in Jerusalem, but those about the Israelites on the move for 40 years.  The Mishkan, the portable sacred structure that the Israelites shlepped through the Sinai, was built with this ease of movement in mind. Think REI, but instead of “Recreational Equipment Incorporated,” it’s “Recreating, Exploring and Inventing” the ways in which humans express the uniquely divine image in which each of us is created.

Back in 2015, in an effort to reimagine what Shabbat can look and feel like on a Saturday morning, CSK launched Shavat Vayinafash, a three-hour Shabbat morning that incorporated yoga, meditation and Torah study.  Shavat Vayinafash morphed into The Kosher Pretzel, “Yoga, meditation and introspection with a Jewish twist and a nosh.”  Starting on Shabbat morning, October 9th, from 11:00 a.m. - 12:00  p.m, CSK and Yoga2Gather’s Rochelle Mannigel are pleased  to announce the next iteration of CSK Shabbat morning expression: Shabasanna

Shavasana is Sanskrit for “corpse pose,” and it is in yoga the fullest expression of quiet and repose.  Perhaps it isn't an accident that “Shabbat,” or as it is often articulated, Shabbes, points to a similar goal: to rest and re-soul.  Shabasana will be quite different from any of the yoga programs we have offered in the past. This yoga WILL NOT be one that will provide you with a physical workout.  Our slogan for this is, “Less Strain, More Gain.”  This yoga practice will channel the most important lessons of Shabbat – retreat, reflect, and renew.  This yoga practice does not benefit from workout clothes or even from  being in the studio (although you are welcome to do both).  All you need for this yoga practice is an internet connection and a place to lie down, along with blankets, pillows, and anything else you find that makes you comfortable and free of strain. 

So please join Rochelle Mannigel and me on Saturday, October 9 at 11:00 a.m. for this very beautiful Shabbat practice which requires nothing of you other than your presence.  Shabasana – “Less Strain, More Gain'' is  a Shabbat practice your body--and spirit-- won’t soon forget! 

 

                                                                 

 

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784