Talmud (study) consists of the Mishnah (original text or law) and Gemara, completion of the text. We emphasize the term Talmud (study) because it indicates that Mishnah and Gemara are part of a larger process of expansion of meaning that is fostered by sacred argument. In this selection, Mordechai Kaplan provides the original Mishnah and Elizheva, Adina, and Joanne in response (contributor bios). Our readers are invited to serve as tosafists, commentators suggesting other points of view.
Elizheva Hurvich
From where does our creativity come? Perhaps as creatures “created in God’s image,” we create as God created! Looking at the ultimate creation story, I see a map for creativity. Join me!
In the beginning, Elohim created Heavens and Earth. With what? Verse two reveals that the earth was “tohu v’vohu,” unformed and chaotic, with darkness, a surface, a depth, water and a spirit of God hovering. In the face of this darkness and chaos, Elohim says “let there be light,” separating light and darkness, creating the world.
Let’s imagine “unformed and chaotic” as materials to play with, to re-create into something else. Darkness serves as a metaphor for potential, something not yet revealed, something latent, waiting to be formed. We may recognize the chaos and darkness, the unknown. Standing at the border, spirit hovering, we look into the darkness, and metaphorically call out “let there be light!” aka: help me make sense of this. We need not turn away from the unknown, but lean in, find meaning in even the uncomfortable unknown.
A spark. An idea. Let go. Hover. Reconsider the materials, the letters, the ideas, the creations. We separate. We look. We name (or don’t.) We reflect and understand creation anew.
Embracing the tohu v’vohu of the world, we go into our own unformed darkness, hover a bit, reform the material in a new light and name our experience. This is not only a reflection of the Divine but is a creative act that may be a new revelation, an experience akin to Moses receiving revelation on Sinai.
May these verses illuminate for us a map for our on-going human creativity.
Joanne Fink
Often the word creativity is used to refer to those who create music, art, and literature. And yet, having been created in God’s image, each of us in inherently creative. We are each blessed with natural abilities that can manifest in myriad of ways— from a chef’s innovative recipes to a teacher’s ability to inspire a class of children with learning challenges to a teenager’s leadership in sharing her vision of protecting our planet from climate change.
Mordecai Kaplan’s quote, “Every creative act… adds to the meaning of life and is a revelation of the Divine”, encourages each of us to tap into and hone our innate gifts and talents as a personal form of creative expression. Through creating, we not only reveal the Divine Spark within us, but can also kindle the latent sparks in others.
Using our creative gifts to serve others imbues our lives with profound meaning and provides a path to connection with the Divine. Every act of intentional creativity offers an opportunity to dance with the Divine, which in turn allows us to add depth, richness and beauty to our lives and the world. Our innate spark of Creative Divine Light shines ever brighter when we purposefully engage in creative acts and become co-creators in the ever-unfolding tapestry of life.
This creative engagement is a living testament to Kaplan’s thought-provoking assertion, illustrating that creativity is not merely a personal endeavor but a Divine Mission imbued with profound meaning.
Rabbi Adina Allen
“Every creative act… adds to the meaning of life and is a revelation of the Divine” – Kaplan
Creativity is not our own genius, rather it is that which flows from and connects us to the Divine. Opening to this flow is something we can practice. The more practice we get, the more easily and easefully our creativity can emerge. When we are tapped into our creativity, acting from this place of inspiration and aliveness, it is sometimes hard to tell what of what has been created was made by “us” and what of what came into being was the work of something bigger and beyond (or deep within) us coming through.Rather than acting alone, when we create we become a vessel through which creativity flows. When we are in this place, any idea of “ownership” becomes unnecessary, and untrue. The boundaries between us and the Divine get blurry as this creative collaboration comes to the fore. In this way, creativity can be understood as an act of partnership with God. The morning prayers describe God as “mechadesh b’chol yom tamid ma’aseh b’resheit” – the one who continually brings forth the new works of creation. How else does God renew the world but through us and all living creatures? It is through our creativity that we partner with God in renewing the world. This partnership is the birthright of each and every one of us. Creativity is the place where we and the Divine meet.
Response for the Kaplan and Creativity Talmud Page
Rabbi Bob Gluck, November 5, 2023, revised March 5, 2024
Mordecai Kaplan reinterprets the traditional concept of God as creator as the attribute of human creativity. He articulates this in several ways, among them: “the continuous emergence of aspects of life not prepared for or determined by the past.” (The Meaning of God in Jewish Religion, 1937, 62). In the decades following Kaplan’s death, it has become common practice for writers to describe creativity as the potential everyone holds to make spontaneous choices throughout the course of our daily lives. To offer one example following this perspective, walking down a street or a path can involve constant decision making shaped not only by habit, muscle memory, and our environment (like the need to avoid walking into a tree), but by constant spontaneous innovation. Certainly, creativity is an attribute of all human beings.
Kaplan viewed artistic endeavors to be a heightened instance of creativity. Kaplan spoke of the creative artist as “creator par excellence.” (Meaning of God in Jewish Religion, 1937, 77). While Kaplan understood the Arts to be an integral part of Jewish civilization, he lacked a deep understanding of artists and artistic expression. For Kaplan, the value of Art was in its potential to enhance and enliven Jewish life. Kaplan also took note of the tendency of Jewish creative artists to not engage in Jewish communal life. He wondered how their expressivity might be marshalled in service of an aesthetic revitalization of Jewish life.
I am a musical composer and pianist as well as being a rabbi. As much as I am interested in creative Jewish living in a broad sense, my primary interest in ideas about creativity is understanding and furthering artistic expression. I don’t believe that Kaplan understood a lot about the motivation and processes involved in creative artistry, although he recognized as early as 1934 that there was an aspect of artistic endeavor that is solitary rather than communal. To this point, he acknowledged that “certain types of Art, chiefly literature and sculpture, require very little direct and immediate social cooperation toward their production.” (Judaism as a Civilization, 202)
For me, composing music is the kind of solitary endeavor that Kaplan speaks of, albeit social in its performance. Kaplan no doubt learned more about these dynamics from his daughter, musicologist and composer Judith Kaplan Eisenstein. Musical composing is distinct from other activities or ways of being in my life. It is one that entails craft, intensive shaping and reworking material, which hopefully resolves into a sufficiently organic whole. In this sense, it is very much akin to literature, which involves multiple drafts of text, and sculpture, which entails multiply building up materials and then carving them back.
The individualized aspect of composing is a means not an end since performance is a social activity, between performers and between performers and an audience. Composition and performance are social in their needs for communities to sustain and support their creative endeavors. The fuller realization of Mordecai Kaplan’s vision of an aesthetically enlivened Jewish community requires not only engagement of artists to serve Jewish communal life, but movement on the part of Jewish communities to gain nuanced understandings of the realities and resource needs of those who dedicate their lives to the solitary and social aspects of artistic expression.
Response for the Kaplan and Creativity Talmud Page
Rabbi Bob Gluck (November 5, 2023, revised March 5, 2024)
Mordecai Kaplan reinterprets the traditional concept of God as creator as the attribute of human creativity. He articulates this in several ways, among them: “the continuous emergence of aspects of life not prepared for or determined by the past.” (The Meaning of God in Jewish Religion, 1937, 62). In the decades following Kaplan’s death, it has become common practice for writers to describe creativity as the potential everyone holds to make spontaneous choices throughout the course of our daily lives. To offer one example following this perspective, walking down a street or a path can involve constant decision making shaped not only by habit, muscle memory, and our environment (like the need to avoid walking into a tree), but by constant spontaneous innovation. Certainly, creativity is an attribute of all human beings.
Kaplan viewed artistic endeavors to be a heightened instance of creativity. Kaplan spoke of the creative artist as “creator par excellence.” (Meaning of God in Jewish Religion, 1937, 77). While Kaplan understood the Arts to be an integral part of Jewish civilization, he lacked a deep understanding of artists and artistic expression. For Kaplan, the value of Art was in its potential to enhance and enliven Jewish life. Kaplan also took note of the tendency of Jewish creative artists to not engage in Jewish communal life. He wondered how their expressivity might be marshalled in service of an aesthetic revitalization of Jewish life.
I am a musical composer and pianist as well as being a rabbi. As much as I am interested in creative Jewish living in a broad sense, my primary interest in ideas about creativity is understanding and furthering artistic expression. I don’t believe that Kaplan understood a lot about the motivation and processes involved in creative artistry, although he recognized as early as 1934 that there was an aspect of artistic endeavor that is solitary rather than communal. To this point, he acknowledged that “certain types of Art, chiefly literature and sculpture, require very little direct and immediate social cooperation toward their production.” (Judaism as a Civilization, 202)
For me, composing music is the kind of solitary endeavor that Kaplan speaks of, albeit social in its performance. Kaplan no doubt learned more about these dynamics from his daughter, musicologist and composer Judith Kaplan Eisenstein. Musical composing is distinct from other activities or ways of being in my life. It is one that entails craft, intensive shaping and reworking material, which hopefully resolves into a sufficiently organic whole. In this sense, it is very much akin to literature, which involves multiple drafts of text, and sculpture, which entails multiply building up materials and then carving them back.
The individualized aspect of composing is a means not an end since performance is a social activity, between performers and between performers and an audience. Composition and performance are social in their needs for communities to sustain and support their creative endeavors. The fuller realization of Mordecai Kaplan’s vision of an aesthetically enlivened Jewish community requires not only engagement of artists to serve Jewish communal life, but movement on the part of Jewish communities to gain nuanced understandings of the realities and resource needs of those who dedicate their lives to the solitary and social aspects of artistic expression.