In the Beginning: God as the Creative Force in All

There is a sense here that the sacred text, and the narrative of our lives, is not merely acted upon, but rather part of God working through us, the working tools of the Holy One, in ongoing creation.

There are many ways to interact with our sacred texts and weave in how we experience the Divine working through us now. One way I have worked with both young people and adults in this area is to ask them to write a “Dear God” letter, or Dear Source of Life, Friend, etc. This may be on their behalf or on behalf of a biblical or other historical Jewish personality.

A number of the psalms include dialogue with or from God. So too this exercise provides an avenue to voice what is not in a text, but is informed by it, or voice what is in our hearts, though not conventionally expressed. These may be shared in the name of a character where someone writes a letter on Sarah’s behalf: “Dear God, Abraham and Isaac have been gone for days now. I had a foreboding feeling about this trip and now I feel my worst fears may come true”. Or on a participant’s own behalf: “I have been learning the prayers lately, but have been wondering if you can hear me when I dream at night too?” A letter could be written back to the character or to the participant in a similar fashion with God’s response. These can be woven to make contemporary midrash on a biblical story or give voice to an event in Jewish history, or simply to stir the creative thinking in relationship to God in our lives. This exercise can be done by interviewing the group as a whole and asking them to be like Moshe in the Torah and “take on the role of God” for the exercise, or go into small groups and craft their own conversations with God. The suspension of judgment and deep listening to the words beneath the words becomes very important in any of these exercises.

The role creative drama can play in the classroom or sanctuary is also an extension of how God was represented to a community at large over many millennia, including the roles of Temple Priests, prophets, sages, Hasidic masters like Rebbe Nachman, and so on. The oral telling of a values-based story, whether rehearsed or spontaneous, has always been part of the role of connecting God’s presence to humanity in sacred community:

“Thus the storyteller in an oral culture assumed a special responsibility to tell the story which contained the teaching most important for the community to retain. In a sense he was a priest as well as an historian. Furthermore, while the experience was most definitely designed to be fun, there was a higher purpose involved, centering on the importance of remembrance and the transmission of a community’s most important truths.”

We can approach this in our own contexts in a variety of ways. Groups of children or adults can discuss the values that they feel are important to living a Jewish life, or the values that they experience as Godly or that God asks of a human being. Smaller groups or pairs can then choose the value they most are attracted to and in their smaller group can develop a monologue for the value they chose (compassion, tzedakah, justice, humility, etc.) and present it to the group. For example, Tzedakah may tell us why it is central to being a holy person, how it effects the person giving and receiving it, how it impacts the whole community. There can even be a dialogue or panel between the values. With more than one session, the pairs or groups can do some research about the value concept in Judaism to add to their narrative. If music is involved, songs or words with instrumental backing can be created in any style to communicate the same material.

The groups can also create sculptures around a certain Jewish value or a mitzvah. Here one person begins by striking a pose and, one by one, others take silent positions in relation to them. The observers may try to guess what Jewish values, practice or quality is being demonstrated. Different people in the sculpture can be interviewed by the instructor as to what aspect of their chosen value they represent.

The different members of the sculpture can even dialogue between themselves (e.g. if tzedakah is the chosen value, people create a tzedakah sculpture and each has a line as to what aspect of tzedakah they represent). Jewish values or practices can be replaced by ritual objects in the same fashion, that then can be given voice as to what they represent and what God-awareness or spiritual quality they strive to evoke in us- havdallah ritual objects, the seder plate, tallit, tefillin and so on). Telling the story or creating vignettes of the history of one’s congregation, school or organization, and the Jewish values it stands for, can help a group realize how it can live in, and create sacred community.

I have even used the mission statement or articulated sense of what a community stands for as a contemporary sacred text to be explored for its support of and inconsistencies with what the lived reality is for the members of the group. Even focusing on a single line such as when the Israelites are leaving Egypt “and a mixed multitude (erev rav) went up with them”, can make for a variety of vignettes or creative interchanges about who was in this mixed multitude and what were the stories behind their leaving.

I would thus encourage anyone in a teaching or religious leadership role, to point out the drama inherent in our sacred texts themselves. The act of embodying and/or telling the story whether with lines or improvised encounters is itself the “hooking up” to the Divine impulse of creation and creativity.

This can also happen by having someone give voice to God’s unspoken words in a similar text, or what they imagine to be God’s response to a current situation in the world. One of the most powerful experiences I have had using such creative drama techniques is in using the very first chapter of Genesis. Again, I have found this equally stirring whether the group is children, teens or adults. Begin by taking people backwards in time, preferably with their eyes closed feeling their place in their seat. Have them think back to when they woke up the day before, weeks, years, events in the world and the Jewish people going all the way to the Big Bang (or before the Garden of Eden depending on your theological preference). Then reading the first line, preferably with the indefinite article as the Hebrew suggests, “In beginning God created”, you might then pause and remind people they are back before time, and have permission to speak freely, “Now I want to ask You this question God. Why did You begin to create. What came before?”

The responses are often fascinating if not inspiring. You may chose to continue one day at a time through the first seven days, exploring each day from God’s perspective and from the perspective of the element or beings created. I have often taken extra time before human beings are created (Genesis One works better here as it refers to God creating male and female in the Divine image and is more inclusive of girls and boys), to ask God why the need to create humans, interview the birds, animals, fish and creeping things how they feel and what they expect of humanity. As the text is in the plural, “Let Us create human beings in Our image”, it opens up very interesting additions to this pluralistic, or inherently diverse reference to God within the Unity and Oneness itself. Finishing with God’s resting from the work of creation on the seventh day, as opposed to collapsing from having over-extended God’s Self from the work week is another opportunity to examine the balance between creativity and compassion, doing and being.

I want to acknowledge that there are different comfort levels each of us may have with setting up these scenarios or taking on the task of giving voice to God. Only do what you and your students or participants are comfortable with. At the same time I have done these exercises with groups ranging from interfaith, multi-faith, orthodox and self-professed atheist with moving and stimulating results on each occasion. Both children and adults are able to express and reflect on the beliefs they hold about a Higher Source in the universe, how that does or does not align with their actions in the world, and what it tells them about who they long to be Jewishly, and as a human being.

Singing a New Song- Sound and Music

“Shiru L_Adonai shiru shir hadash_
Sing to God, Sing to God a new song”

Somewhere between singing a new song and acknowledging the very limits of our voices to express the infinite wonders of life is a soundtrack to life that all can participate in. Giving voice to the musical score of Jewish tradition and creative contemporary interpretations and compositions provides a continuum of options for inviting a creative musical environment in learning situations. A niggun can begin a text study session. A piano or guitar can underscore a reading or meditation. A choral piece can serve as a group building exercise. It is also important to remember that the Jewish way of transmitting wisdom and spiritual truth from generation to generation was aided by chant, trop (cantillation for the Torah and Haftorah), and nusach (melody lines for liturgy).

The Psalms, themselves musical poetry, can be a wonderful tool for seeing the breadth and depth of thought and emotions expressed about God in our tradition. Taking Psalm 145 for example, known as the "Ashrei” and creating new melodies to it; or using the Hebrew acrostic formula to create an English acrostic based on what participants feel most grateful for; or chanting the line that begins with the same letter as their Hebrew or English name, are all ways of creating personal connection with an ancient gift. One can also set the group a task of taking an existing Psalm or prayer and using it as a foundation for writing a new version reflective of our own experience of God. A traditional, contemporary, or new melody, chant or vocally created sound-scape can then be added.

Here is an excerpt from my interpretation of Psalm 27 that I then set to music. It uses both translation and interpretation interchangeably:

When pressures and perspectives of a cynical world
Threaten to bring me down
I ride the wave of undying faith
And its lies that finally drown
For one thing I ask
For one thing I long
To build Your house with my life
To see the beauty in every smile
And the light in every night

You are my light and my salvation
Of whom shall I fear
You are the stronghold of my life
Of whom shall I be afraid
I will look to You
My God

Psalm 150, which itself is a list of ancient musical instruments and sounds used to praise God, could be sung with the addition of all the sounds and instruments children or adults associate with inspirational song today. We could take a contemporary song that most inspires us or has emotional memory attached to it, and re-write it to be a song that reflects a moment of sensing God’s presence.

Bringing a musical expression into every learning situation helps to deepen the remembrance and transmission for the generations to come.

Renewing Creation Each Day

An important thing to remember is that creativity is the art of self-expression, but creativity is not the possession of artists. Each human being, a spiritual being in his/her own soul journey, is a creative spark awaiting more kindling. These approaches, with some encouragement and clear, simple directions can be made accessible to young and old, novice and veteran alike.

Whatever approach you take, do your homework before, and trust in the development of you own style of leadership. We may have a strong bias in favor of a particular interpretation of a passage and what we hope or want people to get from the experience. All this is important, but in the moment of the creative encounter, as in any artistically alive and spiritual moment, being present to what the relationships and dynamics in the room are calling out for is our job. The insights, healing, enjoyment and challenge people will receive depends on this “teaching of presence.”

It is an imperative that is central to our understanding of our religious civilization: to foster the human creative impulse. There is no doubt that creativity is a key to our search for Godliness.

We yearn to participate in the perpetual renewal of creation, as we pray in the first blessing before the Shema: “Hamehadesh betuvo bekhol-yom tamid ma’aseh vereysheit” the One who renews Creation’s work each day.

May these words and thoughts help inspire and support you to move beyond the page into the plays and sounds of the Soul of all Creation waiting within in you for expression.

Bibliography

Bolton, Rabbi Liz, “Toward a Jewish Theology of Creativity”, The Reconstructionist, Vol. 62, No.1, Spring/Fall 1997

Brook, Peter, The Empty Space, Penguin, England, 1980 edition.

Eisenstein, Judith K., “Heritage of Music”, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York, 1972.

Fox, Jonathan, Acts of Service: Spontaneity, Commitment, Tradition in the Non-scripted Theater, Tusilata Publishing, New Paltz, 1994

Gluck, Rabbi Bob, “Jewish Music or Music of the Jewish People”, The Reconstructionist, Vol. 62, No.1, Spring/Fall 1997.

Kaplan, Mordecai M., The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion, Wayne State Press, Detroit, 1994, (Originally published in 1937 and 1962).

Kol Haneshamah: Shabbat Vehagim, Dr. David Teutsch, Editor, Jewish Reconstructionist Press. (www.jrf.org) 215-782-8500.

Lepkin, Biela, Creative Drama in the Hebrew School, Pinat Hasefer, Haifa, Israel, 1978.

Pitzele, Peter A., Ph.d., Scripture Windows: Towards a Practice of Bibliodrama, Torah Aura Productions, LA, 1997/8.

Price, Marilyn, Gesher Vekesher, “Fine Arts- Fine Schools”, Vol.6, No.1, p.1, January 1997.

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Schiff, Ellen, “From Stereotype to Metaphor: The Jew in Contemporary Drama” State University of NY Press, Albany, 1982.

Zevit, Rabbi Shawn, “Heart and Soul”, Radioactive Productions, Philadelphia, 1998. (Available at www.cdbaby.com/zevit1)