Op-Ed Response: When Healing is Jewish, Even if it Doesn’t Look Familiar

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of CrownHeights.info. The topics discussed in this article are controversial and readers should consult a competent Rabbinical authority regarding all religious matters.

by The House of More

We’ve seen the recent article raising concerns about the spiritual practices at The House of More. We understand the desire to protect the sanctity of Jewish tradition. We share that same desire. It’s what drives us. But honoring Torah means being honest, thoughtful, and careful. Not just with rituals. With people.

So allow us to clarify what we do, and more importantly, why we do it.

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This Is Jewish Healing, Rooted in Our Values

The House of More exists to help people come back to life emotionally, spiritually, and sometimes even physically. Many of the Jews who walk through our doors are holding trauma, disconnection, shame, or disillusionment. Some are deeply observant. Some haven’t stepped into a shul in years. What they have in common is this: they’re searching for something real.

We use tools like breathwork, music, stillness, movement, and sometimes even cacao to create space for that search. These are not religious rituals. They are modalities which act as vessels. And when you fill those vessels with intention, healing, and the presence of fellow Jews committed to another’s well-being, they don’t lead you away from Torah. They lead you back to it.

We don’t invoke foreign deities. We anchor our work in values that are deeply Jewish: truth, inner work, returning to G-d, honoring each soul’s journey.

The concerns raised by the author are questions we ask ourselves, and we will continue to ask them. We’ve made changes before, and we will continue to make changes to improve ourselves and the community we’re building.

At the same time, it isn’t accurate or particularly Jewish to treat this as an open and shut case. Jewish tradition holds nuance, and our halachic voices have wrestled with this nuance for centuries. There has always been tension between avoiding anything tied to avodah zarah and making space for healing, even when some of the tools come from outside the Jewish world. For those who want to understand that complexity, we recommend this short piece that gathers the views of leading halachic authorities and the range of opinions they offer on healing modalities with non-Jewish origins: https://en.yhb.org.il/revivim1109/

This is not the space to address every claim made in the op-ed, especially when many were based on research shaped by assumptions that misrepresent who we are and what we do. For example, the article suggests that our breathwork ceremonies include Hindu or Buddhist practices, such as mandala drawing. That is simply false. Our breathwork is rooted in contemporary therapeutic approaches. Similarly, references to deity invocation does not reflect anything that happens in our spaces.

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We Are Not Pretending. We Are Reclaiming

Let’s be honest. Jewish tradition is filled with movement, chant, meditation, fasting, solitude, ritual, community, and emotional release. Many of these tools, now seen as “Eastern” or “alternative,” were ours long before they were labeled elsewhere. We are not borrowing. We are reclaiming what has always been ours.

And when people leave our spaces feeling closer to their own soul, their family, their Creator, can we not call that Jewish?

One example cited in the article is our use of cacao, pulled from a women’s gathering held on Rosh Chodesh Sivan. The author points to the presence of this substance as supposed evidence of avodah zarah, without acknowledging the actual context or intention of the evening.

This was a Rosh Chodesh gathering, led by two Jewish women, held in a women-only space. A gathering marking the beginning of the Jewish month of Sivan. Cacao was used not as a ritual object, but as a supportive tool. Its physical properties are known to increase blood flow, support nervous system regulation, and help soften the body into a more open, grounded state. In a physical setting, it can help participants move into deeper connection. That is why it was there.

To take the presence of cacao and use it to label the entire gathering as idol worship is more than misleading. It is dishonest. It ignores the intention of the space, the leadership of the women who held it, and the Jewish framework it was grounded in.

That logic would be like pointing to a Shabbat kiddush and calling it a Christian Eucharist simply because wine is used. We know better than that. Context matters. Intention matters. And so does integrity.

The article also references a concert once held in our space, featuring the musician Shimshai, and uses that as proof of spiritual confusion. In doing so, the author reaches into the past to highlight a single event led by a performer who does not reflect the current direction or values of the House of More. A phone call could have clarified that in several minutes.

Today, the House of More serves a nearly all-Jewish community. We hold regular minyanim. We are known for Selichot services and Lag B’Omer drum circles. Our programming centers Jewish prayer, Jewish learning, and Jewish healing. But like any living community, we have grown. The leadership has grown. The participants have changed. The purpose of the space has evolved, with a Rabbi on staff and a spiritual foundation deeply rooted in Torah and tradition.

Yes, at one point, Shimshai performed here. His music once resonated with the broader spiritual community that was gathering at the time. He is not a religious figure, and the event was not framed as a service or ceremony. Shimshai is a singer who draws from many traditions and has sung Hebrew psalms and Torah verses alongside other world music. Even at the most interspiritual, the concert included no prayers to other gods, no invocations, and no rituals from other religions.

Communities change. What made sense in one season may not belong in the next. That is not contradiction. That is growth.

Using a concert from a year ago to discredit a Jewish community in 2025 is like walking into a Hasidic farbrengen and dismissing it because the same room once hosted a performance of secular Yiddish theater songs sung by women. Different time. Different context. One does not erase the other. But using the past to distort the present is not truth-seeking. It is laziness dressed up as vigilance.

If we are going to ask questions, maybe they should be asked of the author and the platform that published this. Where is their Rabbinic support for releasing an anonymous letter full of factual inaccuracies, emotionally loaded buzzwords, and no visible effort to verify whether it accurately reflects the people, practices, or leadership of this community?

This is not just about tone. It involves halacha. If someone is going to speak in the name of Torah, then truth matters. So does accountability. Halachic integrity is not just about what you critique. It is also about how you do it.

We are not hiding. We are here. If the goal is truth, ask. If the goal is understanding, listen. We are open to conversation. But we will not remain silent while people distort who we are.

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But More Than Anything: Let’s Not Lose the Mensch for the Message

This is the part that hurts most.

If you’re truly concerned about protecting Judaism, don’t forget the Jew. The article called out one individual by name, repeatedly, and harshly. This is someone who has given his life to supporting others after walking through fire himself. You acknowledge researching him for a day online. Is that really enough to know the heart of a man?

To question methods is fair. To raise halachic concerns is even admirable. But to judge a fellow Jew so brazenly, without conversation, without firsthand understanding, is not the Torah we believe in.

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Let’s Talk. Let’s Learn. Let’s Heal

We’re not here to fight. We’re here to serve. We’re not claiming perfection, only that we are doing the real work, with real humility, to help bring healing to the Jewish people in a time when it’s never been more needed.

We welcome questions. We welcome critique. What we don’t welcome is condemnation without curiosity, and rejection without relationship.

If you believe our work is flawed, talk to us. Visit. Ask. Learn. Help us become better.

Because this isn’t about breathwork or cacao. It’s about whether Judaism can still be a home for the next generation’s longing, pain, and hope. If we lose that, we lose more than a ritual. We lose the Jew.