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Yiddish Yoga: Ruthie's Adventures in Love, Loss, and the Lotus Position

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I love all things yoga and I especially love books focusing on yoga. Yiddish Yoga is an absolutey delightful little book (just a little over 100 pages) of musings on Yoga by the author (in the voice of Ruthie our main character) Lisa Grunberger.

Ruthie is an older lady who has just lost her husband - somewhat lost, her granddaugher decides to pay for Ruthie's yoga lessons. However, Ruthie has never done yoga and is skeptical - still she agrees to go.

What follows is an hilarious, touching and absolutely wonderful book of Ruthie's musings about yoga and about yoga/life in general. For example, as Ruthie learns Warrior 1 pose - she comments that she is now "a Senior Citizen Power Warrior Bubby". I loved it.

This book is an easy read, but I chose to read only a few pages a day - kind of like a daily meditation because Ruthie and her love of life was so engaging that I felt as though I needed to carry her with me on a daily basis. She will also make you want to take up yoga classes.

This book is inspirational and cute and poignant and lovely.

A writer friend of mine once said to me: "The obvious takes time to become obvious." What's obvious about "Yiddish Yoga" arrives instantly in the reader's apprehension and affection--and then takes time to become obvious: This is a Yiddish folk tale, subtly, playfully, unaffectedly drawing upon, and immersed in, the great lineages and currents of Jewish literature and storytelling. This, I believe, is the 'secret' of what is so "obvious" about it, and even those readers, Jewish or not Jewish, who know nothing of these literatures, instantly feel it. And they, we, are moved intimately, as the best of storytelling does move us, with a resonance at once intensely personal to each and universal to all. This is one of the outstanding accomplishments of the author's writing, one that is entirely expressive of the generational effect of the best of Yiddish literature and storytelling.

The author's life lineages are as much "Old World", of European Jewish worlds lost, gone, surviving and lived in memory, as they are the singularities and experimental possibilities of American Jewish life. She writes, and this is obvious too, from a profound, life-long love and respect for, and familiarity with, the elder generations in her life: family, friends, as well as the stranger, the ever-present self-defining 'other'. If there's one Jewish teaching that Ruthie knows, through and through, and though she does not speak of it (may not even be aware of it as such), it's that because the Jewish people were slaves in Egypt, we must welcome and care for the stranger. Perhaps, first of all, that 'stranger' within us, provoked and mirrored by the strange 'other'. Read the book for this kind of depth, among others, and the full dimensional powers of its folk tale will arrive in no time.

In short, in her writing, she inhabits earlier and older generations which themselves once were the full life of the Jewish people in this country but now live more in their stories and private silences of those who still know and remember.

"Yiddish Yoga" thus, and to insist on this point, is a resonant combination of the interior themes and musics of the Yiddish and Jewish literatures of its main character Ruthie's generation with (`translated' here into English and narrative) the very genius of the Yiddish language itself, one in which the most disparate, unlikely, the subversive, the deeply emotional, the penetratingly intellectual, the `foreign' and `other' merge in a humanness everyone knows like their favorite pillow. Ruthie is a character who is seriously, earnestly at play in, and who first dreams, then finds herself living in, the unexpected life and world that she discovers between two traditions, two languages. The author and her main character equally, and with receptivity to the `revelatory' capacity of pun and word-play, revel in words and language, which too is Yiddish's uninhibited delight in the ways language illuminates life. The reader's thought and imagination are provoked, while s/he is entertained and made to laugh. Laughter is prayer for Ruthie, and when the reader laughs with her, the soul claps its hands like a child and she or he is near to a moment of `Yidsight'.

Simply, subtly, lightly, playfully, anecdotally, "Yiddish Yoga" discloses something essential to all accomplished Jewish and Yiddish storytelling: the Jewish people have always been an 'in-between' people, a people of transmission and interpretation between 'others'--different traditions, peoples, modes of thought and life. Ruthie--very much herself 'in-between', after the death of her husband and the end of their life together, is an embodiment, in her character, of the singularly Jewish 'feel' for inter-faith (inter-Jewish too!)and inter-generational relations. Ruthie's character is one of possibilties, the possibilities that, in our time as much as ever, are inherent in the production of specifically Jewish literature--including especially fiction and poetry--in short, Jewish storytelling immersed in its millennia of heritage.

Indeed, sometimes the obvious takes time to become obvious.

Reader in need of the nourishment of story: take your time with what is instantaneously obvious about this book and its story, and it will impart to you so much more of the time that is yours. Generations of life and storytelling, a long Yiddish novel's worth, with self-effacing craft, and with excellent good humor and gentle satire, reach to you, in the very act of reading, through an unfailingly felicitous choice of words.

-- Robert G. Margolis

The page format remined me of "Haikus for Jews," with a few short paragraphs per page or two, and then on to the next topic. It makes for an easy read, and let's you jump in and jump own when time permits to cotinue the story. The author of this slim book takes yoga concepts and translates them into the fictional mind of a Jewish widowed woman who is 72.

It is a well meaning book and includes a glossary of Yiddish terms followed by a glossary of yoga terms. The author is the daughter of an Israeli mother and Austrian Jewish father and she grew up on Long Island. Her character, Ruthie, was red haired, big bosomed and svelte. She is recently widowed and feisty yet depressed. Her granddaughter has purchased a year of yoga classes for her. Will Ruthie use it to overcome grief and learn to embrace the present?

With each new yoga lesson, Ruthie translates the yoga concept into a culturally Jewish idea. But, I must admit, at first, I found the language unnatural. It is as if someone throws the word matzo ball and kvetch into a sentence and thinks it will be funny and Jewish. At first I could not connect with the story and book, just as Ruthie could not connect with yoga. For example, after her first yoga class, Ruthie says that she hasn't moved like that since she LOIFED to a Loehmann's 50% off red tag sale. After sitten zazen Indian style with crossed legs she wishes for a Percodan. Um.. I think that unless you grew up watching comics in the Catskills, the jokes are not initially going to work for you.

Her teacher is a nudnik named Sat Yam, formerly Sam Lupinsky. Instead of wearing a yoga thong, she wears a blue and white velour sweat suit from Macy's that she and her late husband bought for their trip to Israel. Ruthie remembers Kapala (skull) cuz it sounds like keppeleh (little head). She joins her index finger and thumb (or ego and Brahmin unity) and tries to be humble. Yet she is not so humble when a substitute yoga teacher arrives 20 minutes late, and instead of apologizing, the sub teacher merely says it is a test of student patience. As you can see, the story grows on you with each chapter.

Ruthie relates asana to yahrzeit candles, and a vriksasana tree to an apple tree in the Fall of the Jewish holidays. During camel pose ustrasana she thinks of the Negev. For Garudasana, she things of a twisted braided challah. As the year progresses, we wonder if she will accept her husband's death, empty his closet, open herself to meeting other men for friendships, or even make peace with her estranged sister. A unique read that put yoga into an understandable perspective

"Yiddish Yoga," by Lisa Grunberger is a gift book everyone should buy for their grandmother, or anyone, Jewish or not.

"Yiddish Yoga" is not about how or why to do yoga yet when you finish it, especially if you are a grandma, but not necessarily so, you will want to run out and start yoga lessons. The book does not proselytize and yet has a stronger effect than any reasons I have heard for why one should do yoga. "Yiddish Yoga" is deep and light at the same time. It's personal and adorable. Being a grandmother myself, I loved it.

Ruthie is a recently widowed New York City Jewish grandmother. She is given a year's worth of yoga lessons as a gift from her granddaughter, Stephanie. Ruthie gently pokes fun at her Yoga experience with its various expressions and rituals. And at the same time Ruthie's year-long journey with yoga inspires us.

Ruthie takes the reader through her year of yoga sessions with her constant humorous comments in Jewish slang about what she is confronting, both in the new learning and missing her husband. While Ruthie kvetches about her struggles she also absorbs the yoga philosophy as she grows in strength physically and emotionally.

The book is about 100 small pages with approximately a chapter a page. One can read it in one sitting, or a page a day. Both methods would be good. There are charming illustrations through out.
At the end Ruthie tells us that she has signed up for Yoga Teacher training in the Catskills in a hotel where she used to vacation with her husband, telling us that she has come full circle.
Here is a sample from a short chapter.

"VIRABHADRASANA I: Warrior I
Sammy teaches that the warrior asanas are especially powerful for women.
As a Democratic activist, living with osteoporosis, having raised a family, and now taking on yoga, I think of myself as a very powerful, capable woman. Eine shtark frau, Harry always said. A strong woman.

So when Sammy says, `Don't be a worrier, be a warrior!' I breathe into that with my whole neshome, my whole soul.

I'm a Senior Citizen Power Bubby!"

The books is a mix of yoga and yiddish expressions. Besides being humorous as well as inspirational, "Yiddish Yoga" has an extra gift of two Glossaries. There is a Yiddish Glossary with 56 expressions from A to Z. Beginning with:
"AZOY: So, thus, if you eat too many bialys before you do yoga, you will get a stomach ache -- azoy."

and

"ZAFTIG: To have a little something to hold on to, as my Harry used to say; to be a little plump."
The Sanskrit / Yoga Glossary begins with:
"ADHO MUKHA SVANASANA: Downward Dog Pose. For an older dog, I sure have learned new tricks. Make sure you're making the letter V-shape in this inversion. (If you pick up your leg, it's called the Fire Hydrant Pose.)

Yiddish Yoga is an easy read that packs life lessons that are almost subliminal.Yiddish words and phrases are explained, so that no one says "I wish I knew what that meant". Ruthie's adventure helps her get over her grief always as a step forword. Grieving or not, Jewish or not,everyone who reads this book will be glad they did.

I liked it. Being Jewish and doing yoga regularly made it easy to identify and enjoy this mini memoir.

The book is hilarious. I'm a 66 year old grandmother with a granddaughter named Stephanie too. I've been doing yoga for about 10 years and teaching it for the past 6 (at a YMCA - nice place for Om Shalom). My students don't know much about Hebrew and think Shalom is a legit Yoga term! Your book found it's way into a yoga studio in Fairhope AL and a dear friend bought me my copy. Bless you for bringing Yiddishkeit to the mat. I suspect I'll be reading excerpts to my classes instead of Rumi poetry during Savasana. Laughing is good yoga too.

This petite gift book is priceless! - charming, witty, fun while at the same time being stimulating on an intellectual and spiritual level. I highly recommend it for anyone who knows anyone with an east coast Jewish sensibility. You will find yourself chuckling all the way along, and sometimes laughing out loud.

It will be a treat for the mature crowd who has joined into the yoga circle in such large numbers these days. The progression of the story's protagonist, bubby Ruthie, from grieving widow to a person at a place of peace and renewal through her year of yoga practice will speak to many. Yet the book is not at all saccharine or overly-sentimental in this regard. After all, it is told in first person vignettes from the hero of the story - a pragmatic, down-to-earth, NY Jew with a wry and ironical sense of humor, so it remains light, though touching throughout.

The book should also appeal to the younger generation of yoga enthusiasts who wish to connect with their Jewish roots (and find a treat, perhaps, for an older relative). This connection is made extremely easy, through the brief glossary of Yiddish terms at the back of the book. A goy, myself, who spent quite a bit of time in my earlier days in Long Island among a secular Jewish family, had very little need for the glossary at all. Which is to say that the book is highly accessible. On the other end of terminology, just as convenient, is the guide to yoga terms.

What make the vignettes so charming are Ruthie's internal monologues in which she links her Jewish culture with the (at first) alien language and practice of yoga. We find this happening very often through Ruthie's linkages of the concepts and language of Judaism with those of the Sanskrit roots and meshing of philosophical values. Her description of Tapas (burning zeal) is a good example of Ruthie's stream of thought, making the concept intelligible to her and humorous to the reader: She goes from learning the Sanskrit `tapas,' to a hearing mistake, `topless,' and points out we are not speaking of Spanish noshes - `tapas.' P. 46: "In yoga tapas means to have a burning zeal in practice, to be enthusiastic for health. And by the way, the word `enthusiasm,' it turns out, originally meant receiving the breath of God."

After all, at the core, one might say that so much of Jewish humor is rooted in the history of the Jewish people facing a world of hostility and rejection, with the response of dignity and resistance to that oppression through an acceptance of the suffering of life by turning the situation on its head in practical, anecdotal humor about the situation. It is not hard for Ruthie to find an analogy in the Eastern philosophical concepts of acceptance and being in the present she finds in her yoga classes: According to her teacher -
" `Yoga is not about self-improvement; it's about self-acceptance.' He teaches that violence and awareness cannot co-exist. When we are forcing, we are not feeling. Conversely, when we are feeling we cannot be forcing."

For example, by juxtaposing Ruthie's acceptance of her indulgence in food in her light way, she turns the stereotypical asceticism of yoga on it's head: "toxic, schmoxic - God wants me to be a temple for chocolate." The book celebrates life through the acceptance of ordinary pleasures, meshing Ruthie's pragmatic sensibility with the yogic ideals of acceptance and being in the present.

Delightful, whimsical illustrations capture the energy, liveliness and dry wit of Ruthie as she tangles with what at first seem to her as completely meshugana - foolish and crazy - yoga poses. She later finds these as an access route to emotional states of vulnerability and healing: pp. 54-55 "My old body feels like a new blessing. Life is full of unexpected twists and turns - a sad, joyous braid" (like a challah loaf - relying once again on her food-connection).

In sum, it's a book not to be missed. The author's background in yoga, religion and performative writing make for a uniquely erudite and down-to-earth page-turner that will have you laughing all the way and gaining unexpected facts about languages and cultures. The book is one of human compassion and growth, dealing with the healing of the body and spirit, the overcoming of grief, and mending of family relations. In the words of Ruthie, p. 95, "we are all each other's gurus, aren't we?"