כ״ו ניסן ה׳תשפ״ו | April 12, 2026
Breathwork: What the Real Problem Is
You start hearing it in conversations, you see it mentioned in articles—breathwork, trauma, emotion code. At first, I didn’t think much of it. But recently, I started looking into it more carefully—and it struck me.
By Moshe Kesler
Recently, I’ve been noticing something that feels new in Crown Heights. You start hearing it in conversations, you see it mentioned in articles—breathwork, trauma, emotion code.
At first, I didn’t think much of it. I figured, okay—there are always these kinds of things going around. Maybe it’s just a certain type of more “modern” crowd looking for something they can feel a little more, something a bit more… “spiritual.”
But recently, I started looking into it more carefully—and what struck me was that it’s not just that crowd at all. Many of the people involved are Chassidishe Yidden. People who learn Chassidus, who daven, who come from Chassidishe homes.
And I didn’t really get it.
If Chassidus has so much to offer—and it does—then what exactly are people finding there that they’re not finding here?
The way people talk about this usually goes in one of two directions. One side is: if you were just learning Chassidus properly, you wouldn’t need any of this—which is basically saying, “if you were a little more Chassidish—like me—you wouldn’t need it.”
The other side is usually stronger. It’s not just some kind of funny spiritual thing—it’s like, what is this? This sounds like avodah zarah. This is not something we get involved in. And to be fair, that second reaction doesn’t come from nowhere. People hear where some of these ideas are coming from, and they’re not wrong to be uncomfortable.
But even with that, the more I’ve been listening to this, the more it feels like we’re missing the point—what’s really going on. At some point, I started thinking maybe this isn’t really a Chassidus question at all. Maybe we’re just looking at this wrong.
Just think about a normal day.
You wake up and you’re already behind. Before the day even starts, the phone has pulled you in—WhatsApp, messages, the noise of everyone else’s lives. It follows you everywhere. It’s there in the background while you’re learning, while you’re davening, even at a farbrengen. You see it in the way people schmooze; they’re physically there, but their minds are half-somewhere else. There is always something to take care of, someone to help, something you should be doing.
And you feel it. You’re a little on edge all the time.
So when a person is in that kind of state, it’s not that Chassidus doesn’t work. It’s that it’s very hard to access anything that needs calm, focus—even just sitting for a few minutes and thinking.
You see this very clearly on Shabbos. People are overwhelmed during the week—and then Shabbos comes, and they’re just… different. It’s not like they suddenly started doing breathing techniques. They’re just off their phones, eating a hot meal, and schmoozing with friends after davening. Nothing crazy happened. They just had some space.
And once you look at it that way, a lot of these approaches start to make more sense. They’re not crazy. They’re doing something real. They slow a person down, they take the edge off, they give a sense of relief. And honestly, when a person suddenly feels calm after being so overwhelmed, it can feel like something major just happened.
Take holotropic breathing—basically hyperventilating until your normal sense of consciousness shifts. It can feel incredibly powerful, like you’re finally going beyond yourself.
But what’s actually happening is simpler: you’re stepping out of the experience. You’re getting space. You’re finally calming down. And that matters. It’s real.
But it isn’t change.
Because a few days later, you’re back in the same life, dealing with the same pressures and the same patterns. That’s why you have to keep going back. It’s relief, but it’s not a different way of living.
This is why the Chassidic approach feels so different. It’s not interested in helping you “manage” your issues or find a temporary escape. It’s asking a much harder question: What kind of change needs to take place in me for this issue to stop being a problem?
If the issue is not the problem, but the way I relate to it, then the only real change is a change in me.
Modern culture is built on control—figuring things out, managing everything, making sure nothing feels overwhelming. Chassidus is the opposite. It’s about letting go of that control. It’s about coming in with a certain sense of innocence, with a sense that there is something higher than me that is running things—and that I’m not in control in the way I think I am.
Once that shifts, the same problem doesn’t hit the same way anymore.
I’m not saying people shouldn’t use these tools. If something helps you slow down, that’s a good thing. But they have to be understood for what they are: a means, not an end. They give a person space—and sometimes that space is exactly what you need for something deeper to finally land.
But part of what’s going on here is that people are trying to hold onto a very intense, very modern lifestyle while trying to avoid the internal cost of it. They look for something that will relieve the feeling without really changing the structure that’s creating it.
And that’s where the tension is. Because once the moment passes, you’re back in the same life. Same pressure. Same patterns. Same way of relating to it.
So you go back again. And again.
And at a certain point, you start to realize—you’re not trying to change your life. You’re trying to survive it.
COMMENTS
True, Slowing down is very helpful for people.
Chassidus is very important and helpful.
I personally experienced trauma and I know the amazing help that therapy gave me. It’s like a doctor. But yes Chassidus is very helpful as well.
It seems to me that the writer did not experience severe childhood trauma and therefore doesn’t appreciate the need for therapy and healing.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I think it’s important to understand how many people I know personally who in addition to Chassidus need healing. They have real trauma.
I won’t explain here what trauma is, but people who experienced it know what it is.
But there’s a good point here, that presents is essential for healing and for well-being in general.
I’m more concerned for the reader that is struggling that will feel it’s bad to use some highly impactful, kosher relaxation exercises.
All Rabbonim I’ve consulted with encouraged it, and a few said they find it helpful themselves and only enhances traditional hisbonenus and personal avoda.
Betzalel Bassman
As many writers have written in the past, Breathwork is a specific modality which gets dangerously close to Avoda Zara and poses risk to mental health (chamira sakanta).
Relaxation is always good, but you need to know and specify exactly what you’re encouraging and how it may be taken.
חכמים הזהרו בדבריכם
The breathwork that I am referring to is using breathing methods to help one relax and slow the breath. You can find this on many apps that just play relaxing sounds and or guide you to deeper breathing.
“As many writers have written in the past, Breathwork is a specific modality which gets dangerously close to Avoda Zara”
With what evidence did these “many writers” support this position?
There is breathwork being facilitated in Crown Heights on a regular basis under the auspices of the Crown Heights Beis Din, with facilitators having been individually vetted and approved by a posek who specializes in healing, on behalf of the CH BDTz.
The fact that “many writers have written in the past” that breathwork has all kinds of problems because they feel that way about it does not make it so.
. . . Yisroel Glick
Read this article by Rabbi Shea Hecht:
https://anash.org/breathwork-is-not-about-breathing/
Read this article by Rabbi Aryeh Siegel:
https://anash.org/breathing-is-not-the-problem-confusion-is/
And this article:
https://anash.org/breathwork-weve-been-here-before/
For some reason I can not reply to the comment titled “Read their articles”, so I will reply here and hopefully it will be coherent.
The “many writers” whose positions I challenged make very strong claims, effectively insinuating that many Yirei Shomaying are involved in behaviors that are “dangerously close to Avoda Zara.” This is a very strong and dengerous claim, and to make it unsubstantiated begs some serious questions.
I asked “With what evidence did these “many writers” support this position?”
The articles that are linked in the response are (some of) the “many writers” I was questioning, and they can not by definition serve as evidence for themselves.
Within the linked articles I see no evidence cited to support their positions.
I see people’s opinions and feelings. It is fine for people to share their opinions and feelings, but the fact that the people who wrote those articles think and/or feel that “Breathwork is a specific modality which gets dangerously close to Avoda Zara” does not make it so.
As far as I am aware, none of those articles were written by poskim, nor do they quote any poskim or cite any sources.
They claim, in public, with no evidence, that many in our community are involved in behaviors that are “dangerously close to Avoda Zara”, ignoring the fact that breathwork happens regularly in the community under the auspices of the Crown Heights Beis Din.
I would invite anyone who holds this position genuinely to approach it with openness and a desire to find the actual truth rather than to reinforce the position they already hold. In pursing the truth, consider the fact that no actual posek (as far as I am aware) has made any such claim, and that many say otherwise and even support breathwork i nour communities.
. . . Yisroel Glick
Breathwork is a guided practice that claims to heal trauma and promote spiritual growth. It is marketed as a neutral method for calming the nervous system and is rapidly gaining traction within the Jewish community.
But modern breathwork is not a secular or clinical innovation. It is derived directly from Eastern religious systems that treat breath as spiritual energy.
Across Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, breath is understood not merely as air, but as a bridge between the physical body and spiritual forces. When breathwork arrived in the West through the New Age movement, it preserved this worldview largely intact, even as the language was softened and rebranded.
In Hinduism, breath is tied to prana, a life-force believed to connect a person to a higher spiritual reality. Breathing practices known as pranayama are used to influence this energy. Modern breathwork systems openly adopt this framework. Even mainstream breathwork practitioners teach that breathing draws in energy and can produce altered states of consciousness, healing, and spiritual elevation.
Some systems go further and explicitly reference kundalini, a Hindu spiritual energy said to lie dormant within the body. Breathwork is taught as a way to awaken it. At that point, it is no longer a therapeutic technique but a religious exercise drawn directly from Hindu theology.
Buddhist traditions play a similar role. Certain practices, especially in Tibetan Buddhism, rely on intense breathing techniques to induce trance-like states and powerful spiritual experiences. Modern breathwork intentionally mirrors these methods, guiding participants toward non-ordinary states of consciousness.
In Taoist systems, breath is used to circulate chi, the body’s spiritual energy, through inner pathways. Health is understood in terms of proper energy flow. Modern breathwork borrows this framework wholesale. Instructors speak of releasing blockages, restoring balance, and opening pathways, incorporating techniques modeled on qigong.
These strands were blended together and repackaged by the New Age movement in the 1960s and 70s. Eastern religious concepts were presented as universal tools for personal growth and healing. The popular breathwork systems now entering the Jewish community emerged from that period.
Even in more mainstream forms, breathwork is often presented as a shortcut to transformation. Participants are told to expect emotional catharsis, visions, ego dissolution, or access to higher levels of consciousness. These are not incidental ideas. They are the defining features of the religious systems from which breathwork is derived.
None of this means that slowing one’s breathing cannot be calming, or that awareness of breath has no benefit. But modern breathwork, as it is taught and marketed in the Jewish community today, is not neutral. It carries a worldview rooted in eastern religion.
In response to the comment “ Breathwork is rooted in Eastern religions” (because I cannot respond to it directly for some reason):
This is a well written response that obviously involved substantial effort to put together. I respect that very much.
I started writing a detailed response to point out the shortcomings and flaws, but did not finish it yet (it will take time to write properly).
What I can respond meanwhile, is that all the specific flaws and shortcomings aside, this argument is ultimately still the personal opinion of the person who wrote it. The primary contention of the comment is not entirely unreasonable as a personal opinion, but it remains that; a relatively well written personal opinion with no citation of halachic sources to support it as halachically viable.
The fact that it is the opinion of the author of the comment that breathwork is problematic does not make it so.
Unless of course the author of the comment is a posek. I’m confident that it was not written by a posek, first and foremost because if it was they would surely have put their name on it.
The Beis Din of Crown Heights allows breathwork to be done under its auspices. There are MANY other contemporary poskim that also allow breathwork.
If the author of these comments feels that they know better than the Beis Din of Crown Heights and all the other Poskim that allow it, let them put their name to that claim.
Or at a minimum at least cite references in Halacha for the validity of their arguments, or cite other reliable poskim who take that position.
(If I have the time I will continue working on my response to address the specific flaws in the arguments of the comment).
. . . Yisroel Glick
The fact that Breathwork is an important part of Eastern religions is not an opinion – it’s a fact. You can check it up online (I don’t want to link to the avoda zara sources).
The only question is whether you can take the breathing without the avoda zara, and that is what some rabbonim permitted. Yet, there is no denying that the risk is there.
Some frum programs promoting Breathwork were recently shown (based on their own documentation) to be using in conjunction with Breathwork practices that are clearly avoda zara related.
You can say that you are different, but don’t change the facts.
Re: “Don’t put your head in the sand”
Thank you for looking out for me. My head is not in the sand and I do not plan on putting it in any sand any time soon.
I am aware that intentional breathing is practiced in multiple idolatrous religious. I do not deny that nor have I ever. It may also be the case that intentional breathing as a “thing” made its way to eh western world very much in the form of avoda zara.
That does not mean that any intentional use of breath is avoda zara.
The position that breathwork is problematic is an opinion.
Yoga ,Tai Chi, and Qigong are all at least borderline avoda zara (to the best of my knowledge). That does not mean that one can not practice physical exercises that are practiced by these disciplines. As far as I am aware it is the position of every serious posek who specializes in matters of alternative healing (I have asked multiple such shaalos of multiple poskim) that movements and exercises that are practiced by, and even originate from, these disciplines may be practiced as physical exercises with no intention beyond them being physical exercise.
Intentional breathing as a physical exercise to promote physiological healing is no different. If there are facilitators who are doing it i a problematic way that means that there are facilitators doing it in a problematic way, it does not mean that breathwork is problematic.
You write that “the risk is there.” What risk are you referring to – specifically?
I studied and trained to facilitate breathwork. The entire training was focused on physiology and the practical implementation of intentional breathing. It is a physical exercise like any other.
Is it possible that some facilitators may have trained and/or are practicing in ways that are halachically problematic? Of course it is (there are teachers and shopkeepers, and business people etc. etc. etc. who practice their proffessions in ways that are halachically problematic). If that is your concern, then suggest that people be cautious and do their due diligence rather than fear mongering and making egregious generalizing public insinuations like “modern breathwork, as it is taught and marketed in the Jewish community today, is not neutral. It carries a worldview rooted in eastern religion.”
I invite you to take a moment to slow down, let your heart rate calm, and think, rationally, about the insinuation you are making, and whether the Baal Shem Tov would be in such a rush to make such public accusations.
Not wanting avoda zara to make its way into our community R”L is apropriate and virtuous. making such public insinuations without apropriate evidence is not.
Transcendental Meditation is absolutely avoda zara. The halachic prohibition of Transcendental Meditation is associated with a very specific part of the practice and it is very simple to separate the therapeutic component from the avoda zara component and practice a version that has equal therapeutic benefit without any halachic concerns. There is substantial clinical data of the therapeutic effectiveness of the general practice of mediation practiced in TM without the avoda zara component.
The Rebbe literally pleaded for frum mental health professionals to create a kosher equivalent and make it accessible so that the people who stood to benefit from the therapeutic benefits of that style of meditation would be able to.
There is a rapidly growing body of clinical data showing incredible therapeutic benefits of breathwork. It is being made available in our community in a way that is halachically appropriate and there are people making it accessible that have been vetted but serious poskim machmirim who specialize in this field of halacha.
If you have genuine questions, pick up the phone and speak to someone who practices breathwork under the auspices of the Crown Heights Beis Din. If you would like to make a time to talk, I’d be happy to make the time, you can schedule a discovery call with me at calendly.com/rabbiglick.
If you have concerns about the way specific practitioners or programs are practicing it, I invite you to raise those concerns with the appropriate party rather than making egregious insinuations in public.
One last invitation if I may, if you feel confident about the position you are taking and making these comments in public, perhaps include your name in your comments.
. . . Yisroel Glick
There are specific approaches to using the breath in the words of the holy Tzaddikim. See the series of Maamarim beginning in ים החכמה תשס”ו. People should utilize the words of the refined righteous tzaddikim and have bitachon that all techniques which a Jewish person needs are contained therein.
Yes, if the only reason one needs therapy is because their life is too busy , then this article is great perhaps.
However, in most cases it’s far beyond just sitting back. Actually, just sitting back and thinking, can cause more trauma to some!
Should they feel wrong going for therapy, or is the issue just with breathwork?
Are we still pushing the idea that if Chassidus didn’t solve your issues, traumas, etc. then the problem is “you” and make them feel that therapy is not a Daas Torah path?
Rabbonim are trying to erase this stigma, and are working to normalize therapy in the Frum world. I hope it’s the same in CH (Of course, we need the proper Daas Torah professionals).
I like.
Thank you for the article and sharing your thoughts.
Here are mine: Let’s face it -a lot of teenagers and married couples go to “mashpiim” to solve their issues ,put in deep work to find the answers through avoda and dont find it.
This could be because of a multiple reasons. Not a good mashpia (there is such a thing !) or the person/couple is not ready to grow, or they need another way.
My mashpia told me not to learn chassidus because I was just not open to its message yet.
I would learn and have chassidus reinforce “my message” and it was impossible to see what chassidus was even saying.
What about all those that are teaching chassidus that are not balanced in their own lives?
I am not upset that they teach but rather bringing out that learning chassidus alone without a system to integrate it into life and without the deep service to bring into life doesn’t change the person day to day either.
Over this pesach the maggid shiur in a shul I visited who was teaching all the Mamorim was insensitive to people to the point that three people left shul…..
Can we be a little real here and see that there is great room for growth within the chabad system?
Aren’t there kids going through Chabad schools where chassidus is taught that are just not connecting and chassidus is just another layer they don’t connect to?
Is the person writing this article really present to how hard people try to connect to chassidus?
Is there knowledge regarding the extreme pain and difficulties that people are facing when they try a modality ?
Do you know if they speak to their mashpia or rov?
What they tried ?
How many people cant learn chassidus because they never felt genuine love from people that learn chassidus ?
There is so much assumption here about why people go to breathwork ..you could probably ask 10 people why they go to breathwork and get 10 different answers.
Maybe ask this question to people that have gone to do breathwork and actually understand their relationship to breathwork and chassidus instead of talking on their behalf..
“How many people cant learn chassidus because they never felt genuine love from people that learn chassidus?”
Very well said. In my humble opinion, I believe that this is the core of the issue. Go ask people how their experiences were when they were teenagers in yeshiva etc.
Chassidus cannot just be taught as a subject. It must be shared as a lifestyle. If one did not receive positivity from should-be role models when they were younger, one cannot blame them when they are older.
This is something that’s missing from these breathwork-chassidus discussions. We need to talk about what our kids are told/taught/shown when they’re in school, yeshiva, seminary etc. The years that life foundations are set. This is a preventive measure in all senses, both in presenting the beauty of chassidus (which btw includes presenting the beauty of torah, mitzvos, and yiddishkeit in general, something that could use improvement as well. If the kids feel that we’re just trying to “keep them frum” or “chassidish”, that often receives much pushback, whether in the moment or years later), and in identifying those in need of medical intervention – let it be therapy, breathwork etc. – and giving them what they need.
With all due respect to the commentors, the author doesn’t mention therapy at all in the article. (Ctrl+F and see “therapy” only appears in the comments.) Therapy is different than alternative healing modalities.
I hear that. But it mentions trauma etc.
It seems to me that the intention is to the whole parsha of therapy as he says: “breathwork, trauma, emotion code.”
I may be wrong, but I understood that he is making light of the idea of trauma and its healing etc.
Is the real problem that as a community we have not put up strong fences with regards to social media and technology use?
so ideas from the world are seeping into our heartsand minds at record speed
and the stress of being pulled in so many directions without first beign firmly anchored in Torah and a Torah perspective on life and a Torah based identilty and way of thinking.
do all the sichas and horaos about television no longer apply today?
איפה מדובר אודות ענין זה בספר ים החכמה תשס”ו?
I am horrified at the idea that there’s a big possibility that someone reading this article, who really needs help, will now refrain from reaching out because there’s such a simple solution and professional help is probably not needed.
“They just need to relax a little more” and all will be good. Of course that is not the case, and their issues will just worsen.
It’s these types of articles that continue to hold up the barriers of the stigma of professional help within our community. Do the Rabbonim agree for these articles to be posted?
The 17 year old, 27 year old, 37 hear old, who are not in a healthy place, might just continue suffering because of articles like these.
No, they will not read it all and make an informed decision, some will just stay away from getting help, embarrassed to even bring it up, and just suffer some more…
This is classic left tactics. Raise an example of someone with unique needs as a reason why a practice should be spread to general society. That’s how you end up with a sick nation.
Many therapists reinforce generally healthy people’s sad or crazy thoughts, by validating them, when they should be teaching them to ignore them and get on with productive living. There are good therapists, but they are few and far between.
Classic left? Are you in denial? Do you realize how many Chabad, Satmar, Litvish, etc. Rabbonim are pro therapy these days?
Of course you have to ensure the professional holds our values, Daas Torah, etc. But these days, the common belief is to bring the person to a better place, to make them emotionally and mentally healthy, and not just “validation”.
Yes, there are some who might make the problem worse, but one usually finds a therapist through referrals, like from their Rov, their Mashpia, trusted friends, etc.