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Who is Diane Bloomfield?
Diane Bloomfield is the creator of the Torah Yoga ® approach. She teaches throughout Israel, Western Europe, and North America. Israel has been her primary residence since 1984, but she also spends time each year with her family in St Paul, MN.
Diane has spent many years learning and teaching Torah, both in yeshivas and privately. Her recent studies focus on the teachings of Chassidic Rebbe S'fat Emet, the visionary first Chief Rabbi of Israel Rav Kook, the Maharal, the Piaseczner, and contemporary Torah masters in Jerusalem Marc Kujawski, Michael Tuviano, and Aviva Katan.
Diane currently studies Torah regularly with Rav David Ben Ezra, Rav Eitan Pizon, Rav Shmuel Elikan, Rabbanit Chagit Elran, and Rav and Scribe Dov Laimon. She often gives Divrei Torah at Shabbat services and shiurim in Jerusalem (sometimes in English, sometimes in Hebrew), has taught the Torah Yoga Corner on Israel National Radio, and teaches Torah from Jerusalem online.
Diane first studied Kripalu yoga and yoga teacher training at the Kripalu Institute in Massachusetts. She then practiced Bikram's yoga for over a decade, and became a Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapist, certified by Michael Lee. She is now a certified Iyengar yoga instructor in Hebrew (or English) here in Israel, and continues studying and teaching with senior Iyengar instructors.
The Torah Yoga ® curriculum has been under development since 1990. Diane teaches regularly at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. Her Torah Yoga book is published by Wiley (Jossey-Bass) in both softcover and Kindle formats.
Why Did She Create Torah Yoga?
Diane says: "It was a teaching by the Chassidic master S'fat Emet that helped me to understand how yoga deepens and enlivens my connection to Torah....
S'fat Emet teaches that the Torah is black fire written on white fire. One way to understand this is that the black fire is the spoken letters of the Torah, and the white fire is the silent breath between and around them....
I spent many years speaking the letters of traditional Torah study. I immersed myself fully, and did not want to be anywhere else. However, in time, from inside the letters, I could no longer see the words, or understand their meaning clearly....
For me, the black fire had become noisy and crowded. My whole being longed to move into quiet space....
In my search for breathing space, I began to study yoga, which moved me into the white fire. From there, the black fire became clearer and more meaningful again. And so, the Torah Yoga ® approach was born...."