ה׳ שבט ה׳תשפ״ו | January 22, 2026
Breathing Is Not the Problem, Confusion Is
In response to an article by Rabbi Shea Hecht, meditation expert Rabbi Aryeh Siegel addresses why our community needs clarity about Breathwork, New Age framing, and Kosher Therapeutic Tools.
By Rabbi Aryeh Siegel
Rabbi Shea Hecht raises an important conversation. He is not arguing against breathing, nor against the fact that many people today are overwhelmed, anxious, or carrying unprocessed trauma. He is pointing to something deeper and more subtle: the way simple physiological techniques are being packaged, framed, and delivered inside systems that borrow heavily from Eastern worldviews and New Age ideologies.
That distinction matters. I say that as someone with an unusual vantage point. In the 1970s, I was a Transcendental Meditation teacher. I underwent intensive teacher training, taught the technique professionally, and was deeply involved in a movement that promised relief, belonging, and personal growth. It took me years to understand how something that begins with a calm, neutral technique can become intertwined with hierarchy, metaphysics, and dependency. I do not say this theoretically. I lived it.
So when Rabbi Hecht describes the structure of certain breathwork programs, I recognize the pattern. It is familiar, even predictable. But something else in the responses to his article is also familiar: the voices of people who are hurting.
Below the article, several commenters wrote about anxiety, trauma, isolation, and pain. Some wrote that breathwork helped when nothing else did. Others explained that they did not find tools or emotional support within their families or communities. These comments must be taken seriously. The pain is real and must not be ignored.
Both truths must be acknowledged at the same time:
Truth One: Breath regulation is a legitimate, evidence-based clinical tool.
Many therapists and trauma specialists use some form of controlled breathing to regulate the nervous system. Basic techniques like slow nasal breathing or prolonged exhalations have a significant body of research behind them. There is nothing inherently problematic about this.
Truth Two: “Breathwork journeys” often add layers of meaning, identity, and spiritual structure that are not neutral at all.
This is where people get confused. A frum woman may attend a session because she feels anxious. She thinks she is learning a simple breathing exercise. Instead, she is guided into a “journey”, given language about stored trauma, energy release, somatic awakening, or tapping into inner light. The breathing is safe. The added framework may not be.
In the 1960s and 70s it was mantras, gurus, and chanting. Today it is somatic journeys, energy cycles, and consciousness work. The vocabulary changes, but the dynamic is the same. Something simple and therapeutic is blended with a worldview that subtly shapes a person’s identity, dependence, and spiritual imagination. People do not always realize how far they have drifted.
This, I believe, is the core of what Rabbi Hecht is warning about. Not the technique, but the surrounding system. Not the breathing, but the ideology. Not the relief, but the dependency that can follow.
However, a warning alone is not enough. Several commenters asked a simple, honest question: If people are suffering and struggling with anxiety, what should they do? Where should they turn? If breathing helps them feel calm and present, why shouldn’t they do it?
This question must be answered directly. Because it is the question the Rebbe himself addressed almost fifty years ago.
In December 1977, the Rebbe issued a confidential memorandum to 50 Jewish psychiatrists psychologist urging them to develop a kosher, clinically sound meditation method specifically designed to reduce stress. The Rebbe saw the pressure that young Jews were under. He also saw tens of thousands of them entering Hindu systems in search of relief. He called this a matter of urgent communal obligation, in his words, “a sacred obligation.” The work, he wrote, must be done “most expeditiously,” because delay could lead to “untold harm.”
That memorandum changed the direction of my life. First of all, I had no idea the Rebbe believed meditation could play an important role in relieving stress. I also realized that our community had a generational gap. The Rebbe called for something crucial, and it was never developed or delivered at scale. Meanwhile, New Age frameworks have flooded the frum world.
So, over the past eight years, I worked with rabbis and mental health professionals to build as closely as possible what I believe the Rebbe wanted: a therapeutically effective, halachically safe meditation technique that reduces stress without Hindu mantras, foreign initiation ceremonies, metaphysics, “energies,” journeys, or anything that resembles Eastern ideology. It is simple, calm, evidence-based, and can be learned in 15 minutes from an animation, without dependence on a teacher, a group, or an emotional hierarchy.
This is the key point: A kosher therapeutic method must be free not only of prohibited content but also free of systems that create dependency. Once you learn it, it belongs to you. You do not become part of a community, a lineage, or a spiritual identity. There is no ongoing initiation, no “levels,” no worldview, no metaphysical claims, and no spiritual messaging disguised as wellness.
The commenters who wrote “breathwork changed my life” are not imagining their relief. They needed help regulating the nervous system, and they found it wherever they could. But the same regulation can be achieved through clinically validated breathing sequences and simple meditation protocols that do not come from a New Age worldview. The tool is not the problem. The wrapper is the problem.
There is also a second point raised in the comments: Some wrote that the community needs to address the emotional challenges that lead people to seek healing in the first place. I agree. Strong families, healthy communication, mashpiim, farbrengens, and community connection are not optional. They are essential. But even when those needs are met, many people still need tools to manage stress. Our nervous systems are shaped by life experience, trauma, environment, and neurobiology. Torah teaches us how to live. It does not replace the physiological processes of calming the body.
The question is not whether people will seek these tools. They already are. The question is whether we can offer them a version that is kosher, safe, grounded, and free of foreign ideologies.
Rabbi Hecht is right that we must be vigilant. And many commenters are right that Jews need real tools for nervous system regulation. The Rebbe addressed both sides of this issue decades ago. He urged us to provide kosher therapeutic methods precisely so Jews would not have to choose between “unsafe” and “nothing.”
Breathing works. Therapeutic meditation works. What does not work is embedding simple tools inside systems that quietly pull Jews toward non-Jewish frameworks of meaning.
We can do better. We must do better. And the Rebbe told us how.
If anyone would like to learn more about kosher, clinically grounded tools for stress regulation, you can visit KosherCalm.org or the bilingual app at app.KosherCalm.org. The goal is not to replace farbrengens or mashpiim. The goal is to give Jews safe and effective tools that support their emotional health while strengthening their Yiddishkeit, not weakening it.
COMMENTS
this is such a sound and sensible article. thank you!
” “Breathwork journeys” often add layers of meaning, identity, and spiritual structure that are not neutral at all.”
To use this as an argument against specific practitioners leading breathwork when there has been zero investigation into whether or not these practitioners add layers of meaning, identity, and spiritual structure, is a quintessential strawman argument.
There is all this hoo ha about “it is not inherently problematic, but WHEN it is mixed with other things it becomes very problematic” and this is used as an argument against specific cases where there has been zero investigation into whether they are doing it strictly as a physiological exercise which this author agrees is not problematic and can be helpful. or whether they are including problematic elements as well.
The misdirection is very telling.
Rabbi Hecht called me personally on the phone several months ago and spoke to me for about half an hour about all the issues he has with breathwork. In that phone call he said to me explicitly that he trusts me enough to trust that I would not include anythiung problematic in my practice but that I should not do it anyway because of maaris ayin because other people do it in a problematic way.
I was not concerned about any of the other issues because I know enough to be confident that breathwork is a worthwhile physiological exercise, but I did take his concern about maaris ayin to heart and consulted with a posek before continuing to practice.
Hi,
“Neutral observer” here.
Do you (YG) want to clarify whether indeed any “journeys” are involved — context of past hurts applied — and whether you are drawing people to your private practice; or whether it’s indeed just plain breathing techniques?
I would be happy to respond to your questions if you would clarify what you mean.
1. When you ask whether any journeys are involved, what exactly do you mean by that? What defines whether or not something is a “journey”?
2. I facilitate breathwork as a private practice, I’m not sure what you mean about “drawing” people into my private practice. Can you please clarify the meaning of the question?
There seems to be a major misconception about what the term “Breathwork” in the world of somatic healing refers to. While all forms of intentional breathing can be broadly referred to as breathwork, when you see mention of breathwork sessions, it is usually a very specific kind of breathing. The breathwork sessions are not about learning a breathing technique, they involve an evidence-based physiological exercise involving breathing in a specific way that produces a powerful healing experience. It is very valuable to have the support of a trained practitioner during the exercise. Guiding and supporting people through these exercises is part of my private practice.
Does this mean I am a guru or starting a cult?
With al due respect to whomever decided that that is the case, the notion that a trained professional who is remunerated financially for instructing and supporting a client in an exercise they could technically do on their own is inherently a scammer and a cult leader is asinine.
Exercise is free. Learning is free. Are all personal trainers and teachers gurus and cult leaders because they charge money to guide and support clients through things they could technically do on their own?
For the record, I also do the exact same work with Neshamos.org under the auspices of the Crown Heights Beis Din who have appointed a posek with decades of the experience paskening shaalos specifically in this field to oversee it.
… Yisroel Glick
So now we have two people, incidentally each with their own “coaching/non therapy” private practices shading a third method which may be completely legit but one that they, also incidentally, happen not to employ.
Of course using the Torah, Rebbe and Chassidus to provide validity for their non-bashing-bashing.
Oh and Chas vishalom they’re looking to put anyone down, it’s all for the sake of Hashem!
Thank you for sharing your perspective — I really appreciate you raising it.
Just to clarify: my concern isn’t with any individual practitioner, and it’s certainly not about promoting my own work by putting someone else’s down. The issue I’m raising is much broader.
When the Rebbe spoke and wrote about meditation, he wasn’t responding to “competing modalities.” He was warning about specific structures and systems that can pull people into frameworks rooted in foreign spiritual traditions. That concern exists regardless of who teaches them — including people who are sincere and well-intentioned.
My point in the article is simply that when a method is marketed to Jews as “just breathing” or “just relaxation,” yet is built on a larger belief-based system, we need to be honest about that. This isn’t “bashing”; it’s asking for clarity so people can make informed, halachically safe choices.
If someone develops or uses a method that is fully neutral, clinically grounded, and free of those spiritual frameworks, then that’s wonderful. I have no issue with that at all.
My only agenda here is exactly what the Rebbe asked for — giving people kosher tools to reduce stress without inadvertently stepping into something that conflicts with Torah.
I hope that helps clarify where I’m coming from, and I’m always happy to continue the conversation respectfully.
Would appreciate a response by Rabbi Siegel to this comment.
His original article contained no mention of Somati Breathwork or Neshamos. Astonishingly, you immediately assumed he was targeting your organization and wrote a lengthy rebuttal on a website Rabbonim have explicitly banned.
Have you considered he wasn’t referring to your practice at all?
Either way, your reaction speaks volumes: responding defensively to a general critique suggests you recognize it applies to you. Publishing that defense on a platform Rabbonim have prohibited demonstrates your disregard for their authority. You’ve effectively incriminated yourself while simultaneously showing contempt for the very rabbinic oversight you claim to respect.
looks like someone else is also going somewhere that rabonim banned ..
1. When you write “his original article”, which one are you refering to?
The original articel by Shea Hecht?
The one that says “Breathwork is not a health practice, but a form of New Age indoctrination rooted in Eastern religions,”?
The one that says :In the 60s and 70s, it was gurus and cults, Transcendental Meditation, Hare Krishnas, the Moonies . . . Breathwork is simply the latest version, dressed up as “wellness”.”?
That one?
Seems to me to be mentioning and attacking breathwork as a practice pretty cearly.
2. I submutted my Op-Ed for publication before his article was published, it was not a defense, it was an independent Op-Ed that was written and submitted with no knowledge of the Op-Ed he submitted around the same time.
3. I submitted my Op-Ed to this website first and they did not want to publish it. To me it is important to push back against statements like ““we need to look to Torah to find our healing”” which are incorrect and dangerous so I wrote an Op-Ed to explain some of why that is wrong in my perspective. When this website chose not to publish it I sent it elsewhere after discussing it with my mashpia. Apparently you would have advised me against it had you been my mashpia, it so happens to be that by השגחה פרטית you are not my mashpia . . .
This is the clarity we need on these matters. And for anyone who wonders, Reb Arye Siegel’s parnassa is not related to his expertise and commitment to helping in the realm of kosher healing.
The English video on KosherCalm.org loads a Vimeo error that the channel is private. Please fix it.
Will do
This article is so refreshing! The truth resonates, the professional tone is impressive, and the humble caring that comes through is deeply inspiring! Huge Yasher koach! May you be gebentched!!
This website is not backed by any rabbinic authority.
Now Rabbi can ever give an approval to public rechilus.
Is voicing an opinion rechilus? Is informing people about dangers not allowed?
People should speak up and share Torah based values. That’s how issues get clarified.