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Moshe Feldenkrais refers to the humility of learning, when he is endorsing the textbook on Functional Integration

 “I know this man; I know where he comes from,
I know his intelligence, I know his knowledge
and I think it is an important book for you to read.”
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Modified: 16 December 2025

Endorsement of one of the two textbooks in basic theory of the Feldenkrais Method

In the early summer of 1973, during a lecture for theatre director Peter Brook and Teatro Campesino, Moshe Feldenkrais makes a point by telling a story. He speaks about the humility in learning and about knowing one’s place in this respect

To clarify this, he refers to the master–pupil relationship in the rabbinic tradition. He describes how a master, a rabbi, conducts himself when a pupil presents a book he has written and respectfully asks for the master’s approval.

The rabbi then give his haskama (הסכמה), [MF uses the term Asmachta (אסמכתא). However, it is not the correct term for what he intends to explain (EL 250502)]

Haskama denotes an approbation or endorsement. The rabbi–teacher does not write a lengthy introduction, thereby refraining from overshadowing or diminishing the content of the book itself.

Historically, the tradition of haskamot dates back centuries and has served to maintain the integrity and quality of Jewish literature. It has also functioned as a means to prevent the circulation of incorrect or misleading material.

The rabbi–teacher does not write a long introduction, Moshe Feldenkrais explains. Instead, he writes only:

 “I know this man; I know where he comes from,
I know his intelligence, I know his knowledge
and I think it is an important book for you to read.”

Ten years later, Moshe Feldenkrais gave his own haskama (הסכמה) to a long-term scholar of his work, Yochanan Rywerant, from the first Tel Aviv training, who had written the first book on Functional Integration and the Feldenkrais Method.

Moshe Feldenkrais does not write a lengthy foreword. This appears to be consistent with his deeper understanding of humility, learning, and knowledge. He writes plainly, exactly as he described in the lecture.

He writes only what is essential—nothing less, nothing more.

Extract from a lecture in which Moshe Feldenkrais speaks about humility and his ancestor Pinchas of Koretz.

In the early 2000s, Helen Workman, a teacher in Canada, sent me a clip from the lecture and asked me to use it to clarify its meaning and relevance in relation to the foreword of the book The Feldenkrais Method: Teaching by Handling.

She told me she was concerned that Y.R.’s book was not routinely introduced to students of the Feldenkrais Method in North America. In a North American context, where lengthy forewords are customary, the brevity of Moshe Feldenkrais’ foreword was often read as nonchalance rather than as a deliberate form of endorsement. Being familiar with my contributions to Feldyforum, a discussion forum for Feldenkrais teachers, she thought I might have some relevant reflections to offer on this matter.

The book in front of you
should be reread several times.

- Moshe Feldenkrais
"Yochanan was a teacher of physics in one of the best schools of Israel. He was at that twenty-eight years running. Later he joined the Feldenkrais School. He worked thirteen and a half years within close quarters in the same room in which I worked.

He has his own "handwriting" like all the others. Everyone learns the method without imitating his teacher. Yochanan is not imitating anybody.
The book in front of you should be reread several times. That way you are likely to get most of the goodness of the book. Good Luck."
Foreword by Moshe Feldenkrais 1983

The Feldenkrais Method, Teaching by Handling

by Yochanan Rywerant
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On the meaning of handwriting and imitation

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It is known that Moshe Feldenkrais did not conduct any trainings after the publication of the book. We can speculate about how he might have used it; however, what can be stated with certainty is that the book constitutes a cornerstone of Classical Feldenkrais.

There is no reason to assume that Moshe Feldenkrais’ praise and endorsement of the book was an indirect gesture of neglect, nor that it was intended to marginalize the book or its content in the future.

Over many years, I have made repeated inquiries among influential trainers and others, asking how it came to be that Moshe Feldenkrais’ call was never integrated into the curricula established by the TABs.

I have never received any substantiated explanations or reasoned arguments—only silence.

One of the motivations for writing the book in the first place was to establish a common language in order to train skilled, independent practitioners more effectively, and to enable meaningful research and description of Functional Integration (FI).

Thomas Hanna (1928-1990) met Yochanan Rywerant in Berkley.
Later he organized the San Francisco training, the only complete training by Moshe Feldenkrais in USA.
Yochanan Rywerant was MF's assistant on both occasions.
A deep friendship developed between the two men. He encouraged the book to be written and wrote a preface. If I can not make my points clear enough with my writings , this preface will broaden your view.

Extracts from the preface

"In The Feldenkrais Method: Teaching by Handling, Yochanan Rywerant has devised a framework for understanding an immensely subtle and elusive technique for human change.

Rywerant has successfully created the architectonics for understanding a major area of human cybernetic functioning and, in so doing, has effectively established the vocabulary for a new area in the field of nonverbal communication. Feldenkrais, the inventor of this new area of Functional Integration, is also its most brilliant practitioner, as well as its most inspirational and intuitive teacher. What Rywerant has accomplished is to have taken this intuitive clarity and worked it into an ingenious intellectual framework that makes sense of the technique's elusive subtleties. He has succeeded in removing the mystery from a method that creates impressive improvements in the motor system with a remarkable economy of means."

"Through his work at the Feldenkrais Institute, as well as his own private practice, Yochanan Rywerant has become thoroughly experienced in the theory, practice, and neurophysiological foundations of Functional Integration. Thirty years of acquaintance with Feldenkrais have imbued him with a lucid vision of the precision and care necessary for the successful practice of Functional Integration. It is this same vision that informs the pages of this book and offers the reader an authoritative account of the Feldenkrais system with all of the exactitude and subtlety that Feldenkrais demands."

The whole preface by Thomas Hanna

Published by the consent of  Eleanor Criswell Hanna
PDF

"Rywerant's conception of the "manipulon" as a basic unit of nonverbal communication is at the heart of this cybernetic theory. And his discussion of the different types of manipulons gives a comprehensive description of the discrete ways in which "handling" can communicate information to the brain. His discussion of the functions of the brain and the central nervous system are clear and very much to the point; this clarity allows us to understand how the manipulatory sessions prescribed form and way of proceeding."

Pinchas from Koretz

An article in Jewish Gen about Pinchas from Koretz, Moshe Feldenkrais' ancestor, Baal Shem Tov's disciple.
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