Making Connections: Hasidic Roots and Resonance in the Teachings of Moshe Feldenkrais [Second Edition]

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David Kaetz MnKING CoxNEcrIoNs

Roots & Resonance in the Life and Teachings of

Moshe Feldenkrais Sccorrd, Exltrtruled Editirttt

Making Connections

Roots and Resonance in the Life and Teachings of Moshe Feldenkrais

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Making Connections

Roots and Resonance in the Life and Teachings of Moshe Feldenkrais

David Kaetz

River Centre Publishing Hornby Island, Canada -3-

Copyright @ 2OO7 by David Kaetz All rights reserved. ISBN 978-0-9784014-2-9 Second Edition, first printing @July,2O14 Printed in Canada.

For information and orders: www.davidkaetz.com

Feldenkrais@, Feldenkrais@ Method,

Awareness Through Movement@,

and

Functional Integration@ are registered service marks

in Canada of the Feldenkrais Guildw of North America.

Cover photos by David Kaetz (Bioux, France).

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Acknowledgements

My thanks to the following (and many others) for their invaluable help in this project: Ruthy AIon, Carolyn Bateman, Elizabeth Beringer, Donna Blank, Mischul Brownstone, Russell Delman, Joelle Donnerer, Hana Elter, Jeff Haller, Omri Hason, Amos Hetz, Faith Jones, Deborah Kaetz, Dovid Kaplan, Rabbi Meir Kaplan, Werner Kraus, Arnie Lade, June La Pointe, Margo Mcloughlin, Alan Morinis, Michele Ofir, Robbie Ofir, Arielle Silice Palucci, Myriam Pfeffer, the late Mark Reese, Paul Rubin, Roger Russell, Rabbi Nachum Sasonkin, Rabbi ZaIman Schachter-Shalomi, Ulla Schliifke, Andrew Schloss, Chava Shelhav, Rabbi Daniel Siegel, Elinor Silverstein, Anna Jacobs Singer, Sid Tafler, Anna TriebelThome, Blandine Wong, Alicia Wilkes, David Zemach-Bersin, Feldenkraiso Educational Foundation of North America (FEFNA), Feldenkrais GuildrM of North America (FGNA), Feldenkrais Verband Deutschland (FVD), International Feldenkrais Federation (IFF), teachers, students and colleagues of the Feldenkrais Method. And, for a lifetime of passionate inquiry: Dr. Moshe-Pinchas Feldenkrais (1904-1984) >"1.

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tr ry, ahxr ilt:tt tlnr{

trtu) ltl lrafxn-)z

Whosoever reports a thing in the name of him that said it brings deliverance into the world. Pirkei Avot, 6:6. (Ialmud)

.,

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Contents Introduction to the Second Edition Preface

/

Prologue

/

11

13

/ 27

Section One: Roots

1. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 L0

The Lost World of Ashkenaz

/ 29

Spiritual and Intellectual Foundations I / 33 Spintual and Intellectual Foundations n / 37 1648 / 43 The Advent of Hasidism / 45 Pinchas of Koretz

/ 53

Healings and Teachings of Pinchas of Koretz Slavuta

/

/ 61

69

Family of Oigin Geopolitics

/

/ 75

79

Section Two: Resonance

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Listening for Connections Leaming / 91

/ 87

Organization, Awareness, and the Work of Unification Further Resonances Language

/

/ 99

L09

/ 115

Moshe Speaks

/

L25

A Tale of Two Engineers / 133 Where Worlds Meet: The Soul and the Brain Embracing Paradox

Appendix Appendix Appendix

/

/

139

147

l: Storytelling as Teaching / 149 ll: A Hasidic Story ftom Moshe Feldenkrais / 155 lll: Moshe's Ten Commandments / 159

Appendix lY: A Note on the Spelling & Pronunciation of Hebrew

Bibliography

/

163

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& Yiddish

Terms

/

161

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Introduction to the Second Edition As anyone who knew the man himself will confirm, Moshe Feldenkrais was far from religious, in the common understanding of the term. And yet those who knew him experienced in his presence and his work a great spiritual depth. In the pages that follow we look into what could be described as the spiritual shadow-i.e., unspoken but nevertheless deeply felt assumptions--of Dr. Feldenkrais' teachings. A human being has no straight lines. In us, the closest path between point A and point B is a spiral. A truly human science, and/or a truly human spirituality, would likewise have no straight lines, and thus no rigid boundary between science and spirituality. The desire to eliminate our essential curliness is the essence of self-hatred, and thus the origin of the hatred of others. A science that reiects the spiritual is equally dangerous as a spirituality that reiects science. Moshe Feldenkrais'work is so comprehensive, and has so many sources, that any effort to nail it down is sure to miss the mark. Systemic thinking holds the whole package together; selfdefence contributes a motivation and many moves; auto-suggestion informs the inner gameplan; neuroscience (Feldenkrais was way ahead of the curve on this one) and physics and engineering anchor the work in contemporary research. But none of these things quite touches the purpose of the project which they serve. If there is an intention behind the whole proiect, it would seem to be the furttrerance of human maturity. And since we are composed as mudt of wonder as we are of reason, maturitybelongs as much to spirituality as it does to science. lndeed, we could say that the very nature of maturity has to do with developing an ever more comprehensive view, whereby our tendency to split the world into irreconcilable opposites is replaced by a recognition of intenelatedness. In the Hasidic view, the healing of such divisions is known u tilckun olam, " thre repair of the world." The theme of matwity (and the notion that it has something to do with inclusivenes) was there in a letter that Feldenkrais wrote to his mother at the age of sixteen. There we find a line pregnant with the possibility of paradoxical vision: "I have gone through a lo! and taught myself to see with both eyes." The theme of maturity was there in Feldentr