Rabbi Shawn Israel Zevit: Article

Published in A.R.E.’s: Teaching about God

The Tapestry of Creation- Creative Drama and Music

- Rabbi Shawn Israel Zevit

“Praise God with harp and lyre Let every Soul praise God”(psalm 150)

The Hebrew Bible begins with a grand series of creative acts. Out of a soup of divergent energies, competing elements, and lack of distinctions, the Spirit of God washes over creative potential and with a “Let there be” mission, transforms the unformed into the manifest. Out of a “no-thing” comes a “some-thing”. The soundscape begins immediately with the crashing of waves on the newly formed shores of land. Birds are soon chirping, all variety of creeping things are creeping, and the music of life plays on. Long before the Psalmist details the instruments of the Temple band in Psalm 150, there is chorus of creation declaring its very existence.

Before the script is committed to parchment, music and theater are intertwined into the very fabric of creation itself, heightened by the original oral storytellingtradition of the Jewish people. The entire first chapters of Genesis are high drama of the first order, filled with interesting character development, poetic dialogue, birth, and death. Throughout, God is a key player with the capacity to respond to unfolding realities in the biblical drama: Adam and Eve’s exploring the forbidden fruit, Cain killing Abel, humanity not living up to pre-flood expectations, etc. Far from being confined to a pre-ordained script, Throughout the Hebrew Bible God is portrayed as the “Cosmic Improvisationalist”, dancing with the twists and turns of the very human characters that have been let loose on the world stage to search for their purpose and identity. The foundational religious value of Judaism views the creation of humanity as reflecting the Divine in each of us (b’tzelem Elohim). This prime directive should not go unnoticed in our own creative expression.

The Jewish people as a nation are born in no less a dramatic fashion, in which one of the earliest plays is scripted for rehearsal on an annual basis as an eternal reminder of the power liberation from oppression, the watermark of God on the pages of Jewish history, and the integral part that acting out a core-value story has on keeping spiritual and cultural identity alive:

God said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: Take a lamb to a family, a lamb to a household and all the assembled congregation of Israelites shall slaughter it. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly; You shall observe it as an institution for all time for you and your descendants; And when your children ask you, “What do you mean by this rite?” you shall say, “it is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord, because God passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when God smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses” (Exodus, Chapter 12)

If we believe that the classroom, the sanctuary, the community center, the home, is a place in which we engage in life-long learning, then to live a God-centered life is to actively and consciously express and participate in the sounds and music- the spontaneous and rehearsed dramas that we are constant players in. Some of us may, as Psalm 150 describes, be able to express our Divine potential with an actual instrument. Others of us can strum the chords of our own voices. Still others of us can be expressive actors for Jewish values and spiritual insights.

Regardless of how trained or skilled we may be in our own or other’s perception, every soul can express itself. Music and theater, or sound and scripted/unscripted self-expression are two of the most powerful ways to do this.

I approach both of these subjects from an integrative perspective. By this I mean my background in commercial scripted theater, ensemble work in educational and social theater, improvisation, Playback Theater , Bibliodrama , and psychodrama often blends with my work in voice, leading prayer services, singing, and composing. Rarely is my creative work in either of these areas devoid of influences or use of the other modalities. While I strive to find the truth in artistic and educational expression, I am by no means a purist in either of these fields. In fact, the more my rabbinic, educational, performance, and consulting work take me into a variety of settings, the more I feel being of service to sacred values is more fully served by finding the modality, or combination of modalities, that suits the message and the group best. Process and outcome, form and content become mutually enhancing and interdependent ways of being b’tzelem Elohim.

The intersection of theology and creativity invites us into a relationship with the Divine that is a dynamic process, not a static conceptualization: “not for the noun God do we look. What we had experienced was not static ENTITY. So VERB and PROCESS are words that fit better.’ (Reb Zalman Schachter Shalomi)

During my years in Toronto, Canada, I was part of an ensemble that did, among other social, historical, and educational plays, performances based on biblical narratives. They were often a combination of narratives taken straight from the Hebrew Bible and brought to life by improvised images and anecdotes inspired by the texts. What struck me was how audiences on the street, in schools, synagogues, or churches, would quickly gravitate to, and be inspired by, the universal messages and human journeys of the biblical stories. God’s “role” was often of particular interest and welcome, though the key to engaging the audience who did not pay for seats in a theater was authenticity, connection and belief in the ideas being communicated. The interest and access that theater and music gave to the deep questions in people’s lives was tremendous.

My experience was that the search for God in artistic life was no longer remote or as formal as past centuries: “On the twentieth-century stage God becomes not necessarily less holy or powerful, only infinitely more approachable.” This can be seen quite clearly in Jewish writers such as Sholom Aleichem, Arthur Miller, and Woody Allen to name a few. In some cases, it is drama itself that has become the new liturgy for many people today, whether they are regular worshippers or alienated from Jewish communal life. This dramatic exploration of human-Divine encounter, or trying to give voice to new midrash about God, whether bibliodramatically from sacred texts, or improvised and scripted new plays, should be handled with some sensitivity.

Peter Pitzele spells out some of the parameters in his book “Scripture Windows”:

“There are times when a bibliodramatic scene cries out for the presence of God. Directors should be guided by their own theological scruples as to whether they will or will not bring God onto the stage. Some may rightly fear the reduction of the mysterium tremendum to the scale of play; others may feel that the personification of the divine offends their own sense of religious decorum or may offend members of the group. Others may feel that God needs to be brought into the drama so that people can find ways of being in dialogue with the divine.”

Pitzele goes on to point out, “The Bible affirms that there is a mystery working in human experience that has Divine origins and designs. As that design unfolds, we may unknowingly prove to be God’s agents. Moreover, even if we are mistrustful of providence or skeptical about a personal God, we can find, in the Bible, stories of dignity, faith, and perseverance in the face of ordeals and the unknown.”

For those not as familiar with more improvisational work outside the traditional theater and music, it is important to remember that it is only in the last century or so that Jewish dramatists found voice again in scripted works. Jewish composers had been able to find renewed expression in music through traditional cantillation, or new compositions for liturgy and folk music, while still staying connected to their Jewish roots and identity. While the performance of standard plays and musicals can be wonderful artistic experiences and community-building activities, we must also keep our focus on one of the core reasons for theater and music’s development in the ancient and modern world- to express, challenge, mirror, entertain and inspire us to our fullest humanity and potential.

Peter Brook, an English director, describes this in his analysis of Polish director Jerzy Grotowski’s ensemble work that explored a number of religious themes from a radically new perspective:

“Jerzy Grotowski, a Polish theater director, felt drama had a sacred aim. The theater, he believes, cannot be an end in itself; like dancing or music in certain dervish orders, the theater is a vehicle, a means for self-study, self-exploration, a possibility of salvation. This theater is holy because its purpose is holy; it has a clearly defined place in the community and it responds to a need...”

In the Beginning: God as the Creative Force in All

The Jewish search to express insights into Divine/Human relationship, reconcile conflicting texts and traditions, and develop new understandings and rituals in the footsteps of the “pious ones of old” are ancient forms of Midrash. The rhythms of the psalmists in the Bible, and oral storytelling of the Rabbis (later compiled in written form as aggadah in the Talmud and Classical Midrash in other collections), could be described as the Jewish people’s initial musical and dramatic forays. Using midrash in its broadest sense, music and creative drama gives us inroads across the ages to the cultural legacy of the Jewish people, expression of our current experience and visions of where and what we may yet be. The music our voices give to our souls, and the scripted and improvised narratives we develop are core educational means of embodying and conveying theological perspectives in artistic form.

As Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan writes in The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion:

“The liturgy speaks of God as renewing daily the works of creation. By becoming aware of the fact, we might gear our own lives to this creative urge in the universe and discover within ourselves unsuspected powers of the spirit. The belief in God as creator, or its modern equivalent, the conception of the creative urge as the element of Godhood in the world, is needed to fortify the yearning for spiritual self-regeneration.”

This can lead us to develop a theology of creativity- where we do not only see music, theater and all the arts as wonderful creative skills we possess, but the very ongoing expression and reflection of the Source of All. While this has general implications in every culture, there are specific implications in Jewish cultural life. However, this necessitates a playfully serious approach to music and creative drama. More than plays for the various Jewish holidays (though these are important and wonderful opportunities to draw young people and adults into the religious and cultural aspects of Jewish Peoplehood) we need to look for opportunities to invite spontaneity, personal stories, melodies, vignettes, role-plays, interactive video, etc. into interactions beyond the art classes or year cycle celebrations.

Marilyn Price, an educator and puppeteer describes this movement from pure cultural to inspiring Jewish spiritual endeavor the following way:

“There are those who fear the Jewish arts are ‘arts and crafts’ from the days of lanyard key rings and bottle cap menorahs. If that is the case, we must rethink the ways we connect arts to Judaism in meaningful and substantive ways- the arts are basic in helping nurture our Judaism. They make understandable the often wordy and intricate concepts of Judaism. They make pleasurable and memorable the ways we pray and the way we learn. They might help an artist whose art is Jewish just because she was born a Jew be transformed into a Jewish artist who does Jewish art.”

There may be no more powerful way for people in a generation of spiritual seeking to experience the possibility of a Divine Presence in their lives than in the intersection between creative expression, Jewish identity, religion and culture.

All the World is a Divine stage-Creative Drama

There is, in a stream of Jewish tradition, the idea that the Torah itself is a blueprint, or almost a script for creation and exploration of life as we know it:

“The Torah declares: I was the working tool of the holy One, Blessed be God consulted the Torah and created the world, while the Torah declares, IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED ( Genesis 1:1), BEGINNING referring to the Torah, as in the verse, God made me as the beginning of God’s way (Prov.VIII,22).(Beresheit Rabbah, Chap.I,1).”

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 judgement 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.

“Creative drama appearing as a dynamic method in education at the turn of the century, deals with developing personality and character, allowing the child to use their own inner resources to develop their talents and sense of individuality and originality. Creative drama guides and encourages the child to express and give out their interpretation of what has been put into them. In addition it offers techniques that can be used in the teaching of factual subjects. Serving as it does both aspects of education, the putting in and the giving out, creative drama then becomes a necessity and not a luxury.”

This means a shift, as I described earlier, from an emphasis only on the theatrical production end, to also integrate creative dramatic moments in prayer, educational settings, board meetings, and so on. Any place a spiritual consciousness can be reflected, can itself be the moment of creative potential realized.

Singing a New Song- Sound and Music

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

“Ilu Finu Maleh Shirah Kayam
Were our mouths filled with song_
We would never have sufficient praise for You
Abundant one our God”

In the first act of creation as articulated in Genesis, Chapter One, God is portrayed as bringing the creative idea into manifestation by giving voice to that impulse. Everything needs a “let there be…” to leap off the drawing board into being. We human beings are not the only ones who mirror this by giving voice in sounds, words, and song in our soul’s response to simply being alive and the many experiences a lifetime holds. 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.

Similarly, finding a variety of places to give expression to our voices (in song, chant, poetic reading, humming a note, choral singing, prayer services, etc.) creates a variety of opportunities for both the gifted singer, composer or musician, and the less vocal or more musically challenged to find their place in the sound-scape of the community.

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.

Rabbi Bob Gluck, a contemporary composer states:

“Pre-modern Jewish music is substantially folk tradition. Inherent in the life of folk traditions, is its oral means of transmission. Even when there are traditional melodies or notated scores, we are still asked to find our own voices in relation to the present moment of bringing the notes of a composition, or the sounds and songs of praise and longing, challenge and loss: Paradoxically, even though the singer endeavors to sing his tale the same way every time, it is impossible. This makes sense if we remember that the tale is not a text that has been memorized, but the experience of an auditory moment which cannot be objectively recalled or referred to a particular story exists in all its variations as voiced by all its tellers in all their recitations. In oral culture the story is constantly being recreated.”

Music was intimately tied into the practice during both Temple periods. Even after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 c.e. when instruments were no longer part of a lost Temple ritual, the very chanting of the Torah, prayers, niggunim (wordless melodies), mantra-like intonation of Talmud study continued the unbroken musical pulse of the Jewish people’s yearning to express an individual and collective response to the acts of hallowing life. Judith Eisenstein wrote:

“The people gave the music life, and the music in turn pulsated in the people, passing from parent to child, and from land to land. The joys and triumphs, the tenderness and warmth, the agony and sorrows, the prayer and protest, which were shared by Jews and made them one, were poured into music; and where they are still felt, that process continues today. When we live for a moment with that music, we are touching the pulse itself, and our own is quickened in turn.”

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

Midrashic Moments- Putting art and spirit into action

Let us look at an example of how to put creative drama and music into action so that our theology and artistic expression become partners in co-creating new expressions along with our heritage of old. I am using the Book of Ruth from the Hebrew Bible as an example because God is actually absent as a character. This gives us room to bring God’s voice into the scene, or discuss where we think a Higher Source is operating behind the scenes, or through the characters themselves who see no burning bushes, hear no voices, and make no cultic sacrifices. This also gives us the opportunity to open discussions throughout the creative process as to how we experience and understand God in our own lives.

The Book of Ruth is traditionally read during Shavuot, the spring Festival of Weeks, a first fruit and harvest festival that was later linked by Jewish sages to the revelation of the Torah. It is one of the most beautiful and richly woven wisdom stories in the Hebrew Bible, and is one of the few biblical texts that sets women explicitly at the forefront of the story. It is also a story about faith across many cultures and religious expressions.

A creative drama and music process can work well for any size group, though groups of more than 12-15 should probably be broken up into smaller size groups with parallel or different assignments. You may want to write some lines down, have photocopied texts available for bouncing ideas off of, and have a variety of instruments, percussion pieces, even household or classroom items that produce sound available.

1. Spend time familiarizing yourself with the text with which you are working, even if you have studied it in the past. In this case, of course, the text is the Book of Ruth.

2. Prepare hand-outs of the text well ahead of time. Depending on the time you have, number of sessions, and size of the group, divide the book into narrative sections (say between 6-10 sections). If you are scrambling at the last minute for material, you will interrupt the flow of the process. Be sure to have more than enough copies. 3. Plan your introduction. If the group is not already familiar with improvisation you may want to take a few minutes to explain the process. Be sure to let participants know that they can control their level of participation and that they may choose to be an observer instead of a participant at any point in the program. You may also want to provide some context, especially if the program is to be used as part of a holiday celebration.

4. Plan your warm-up exercises. Most groups will require some warming up. This can be done in a variety of ways. For example, you may want to ask the group if they are familiar with creative drama or music, the Book of Ruth or the festival of Shavuot. Alternatively, simple improvisational games, such as asking participants to say their English or Hebrew names along with a gesture, or to adopt a pose of biblical character with which they are familiar, or to create a story by having each participant add one word or sentence can be helpful. While people do this, the musicians and/or vocalists can add their soundtrack to the images.

5. At least a few minutes before the start of the program, be sure to check out the set up of the space. You will need space for as many break-out groups as you decide, as well as a space in which the whole group can convene and watch each others’ presentations.

The Program

1. Welcome the group and introduce them to the process. Take time to answer any questions or concerns that the participants may have.

2. Do the warm-up exercises that you have selected.

3. Divide the group into break-out groups of a minimum of 3 people each, and provide each participant with a copy of the text.

4. Instruct each break-out group to develop a scenario with enacted scenes, dialogue and sound-scape, from one of the narrative points. For example, you could ask each group to develop 3 or 4 tableaux (still images, like embodied photographs) and present them in sequence, with perhaps one line spoken by a member of the tableau, and others singing a song or playing instruments that support the context of the scene. The group might also create a short scene around the narrative, and provide the dialogue. This does not have to be limited to the setting of biblical text. For example, a group may decide to present their scene as a newscast: This just in: Ruth and Naomi sighted at border of Israel! Allow only 10 or 15 minutes for this work. I like to avoid lengthy time periods that create a production mentality and rob spontaneity. This is not about being stellar; rather, it is about being present. If there is not enough participants to the number of groups you want, or there are participants who are shier and do not want to be up n action, you can plan to simply read the missing moments from the text provided.

5. Reassemble the whole gathering and have each group present their work in sequence. In this way, the entire story is re-enacted and can be experienced in a more creative way than a straight reading might allow. 6. Take the time to debrief afterwards. What insights did you get from the text? Where was God in this story? What Jewish values and beliefs about God’s unfolding in our lives does the text convey? I you were to give God the last word, what would God’s message be? How did the creative drama, music and/or song bring the story to life, convey new meaning, and engage you in the message of the book of Ruth

You may also want to revisit the text to see what the spontaneous encounter brought to your understanding of the text, as well as process what the creative approaches unlocked in everyone’s sense of the wisdom about God and human beings in our sacred texts and tradition.

And God said: “Let there be!”

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

Rabbi Bolton is a congregational rabbi, cantor, voice teacher, and opera singer, as well as the Director of Liturgy and Music for the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation.

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

One of the world’s most famous directors gives us the distillation of his knowledge and experience of theater. He took at a variety of approaches from the high-end productions on Stratford-on-Avon, to spontaneous street performances.

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

A leading Jewish composer and champion of music in Jewish congregational and cultural life in the 20th century. Judith was the daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan and married to Rabbi Ira Eisenstein, a founder of the Reconstructionist movement.

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

Playback Theater is totally improvisational. The objective is to act out, using mime, music, as well as spoken scenes, the personal stories of the audience, playing back the stories of audience members. Developed by Jonathan Fox, the first performance took place in 1975.

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

Rabbi Bob Gluck,, is a composer and music teacher, composes in electronic media, often working with archival sounds from traditional Jewish music as raw material.

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

Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983), ideological founder of Reconstructionism, was a towering figure in North American Jewry. His unusual combination of theology and common sense led him not only to construct new approaches to Judaism geared to our time, but to devise practical expressions as well. He was a champion of creating dynamic Jewish art and developing Jewish artists as one of the highest expressions of Godliness in the world.

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

Jewish liturgy- morning service, translations, transliterations, commentary and explanations of the various prayer services that can help with the understanding and development of creative responses in worship.

Lepkin, Biela, Creative Drama in the Hebrew School, Pinat Hasefer, Haifa, Israel, 1978. Published with the help of the Multiculturalism Program of the Secretary of State, Canada.

Biela’s book was a forerunner of books on creative expression in teaching that moved beyond arts and crafts to see creative drama and music as core expressions of the Divine spark in every human being. It is a practical book with games and exercises for a multiplicity of Jewish settings and holidays.

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

Peter Piztele, coming from a background as a therapist and psychodramatist developed a structured process called Bibliodrama as a form of role-playing in which the roles are taken from biblical texts. It is a form of interpretive play. It can be called a form of Midrash.

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

Jewish Reconstructionist Federation. Puppeteer, storyteller, school principal, consultant. Gesher Vekesher is the newsletter of the education department of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation.

Schachter-Shalomi, Rabbi Zalman, “Paradigm Shift”, Jason Aronson, INC., New Jersey, 1993.

Reb Zalman is one of the most innovative and inspiring rabbis in the Jewish world today, and a founder of the movement for Jewish Renewal. Paradigm shift is a record of his major teachings that includes contemporary thinking about God.

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

A comprehensive study of the Jew in modern theater, tracking the evolution of the Jewish persona on stage from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century.

Zevit, Rabbi Shawn, “Heart and Soul”, Radioactive Productions, Philadelphia, 1998. A collection of 15 original songs based on the psalms, liturgy and life. (Available at www.cdbaby.com/zevit1)

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