Climbing Masada - On Becoming a Yoga Teacher by Cole Imperi

Every yoga teacher can pinpoint moments when they ‘became’ yoga teachers. It happens again and again, each moment unique and different from all the others. And each moment usually brings some kind of lesson with it.

I had my first real ‘I’m a yoga teacher’ moment in a place I didn’t expect yoga to even really exist.

In February of 2011, I went to Israel for about two weeks on a Birthright trip. It was me, forty-some American 20-somethings, six Israeli 20-somethings, two group leaders and one tour guide. Oh, and one bus driver. The trip was intense. We literally crammed the entire country of Israel into just a few days: The Negev Desert to the Dead Sea, Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, Jaffa to Tsfat, the border with Gaza to the border with Lebanon and Syria. My expectation was to travel--to see the country and maybe possibly squeeze in a 20-minute practice each day. I packed my favorite yoga mat after all.

The second night of the trip, we all stayed in a big tent out in the Negev desert. Bedtime came after a camel ride, dinner and a midnight hike into the desert. 4 AM came really early the next morning and we all made our way out to our bus for a short drive to Masada.

Masada is a very special place. First of all, it’s incredibly powerful and intimidating. It’s on top of a rock plateau, overlooks the Dead Sea and is about 1,300 feet high. Which is really high considering the Dead Sea is the lowest point on Earth and only about a 2 hour walk away. I’m not going to describe the history here but I will give you a link to the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masada. What I will say is that it’s an important site in Jewish history. And I’m a Jew. And it was my first trip to Israel. And I would be graduating from my 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training program a week after I got back from Israel.

6 AM came and we all made it to the top of Masada to witness the sun rise. It was beautiful and powerful.

Just a few minutes later, one of the Israeli’s on the trip asked me to teach some yoga. I was amazed by this request primarily because I had only mentioned I taught yoga in a very casual way, you know.... ‘I’m Cole, I own a creative agency in the USA and I teach yoga.’ That kind of way.

So I did. I taught yoga on top of Masada.

Our series of Sun Salutations flowed into some dynamic Chairs and then some. We started as a group of 6 or so and by the end, we were nearly 30. The top of Masada was alive with deep breathing and movement. That morning, we all digested the importance of Masada and our trip (which had really just begun) a little easier. Exploring and coming to understand your Jewish identity is heavy stuff and that morning, I think yoga made it a little more manageable for us all. I saw yoga bring our group together and I saw it bring people closer to Judaism in a way I don’t think anyone expected. Almost everyone was new to yoga that morning, but you sure couldn’t tell.

For me, I saw firsthand that my belief in the connection between Judaism and Yoga is in fact very real and very natural. Something this incredible only comes naturally. I learned, in this moment, that yoga can in fact strengthen your connection to Judaism. This very important lesson came packaged with my first ‘Oh my gosh, I’m really a yoga teacher’ moment. I’ll never forget it.

Email: info@coleimperi.com

Phone: 513.549.5399

Website: www.ColeYoga.com or www.YogaJew.net