- Tradition and Creativity
This past week I attended a workshop conducted by Shefa Gold, an ordained rabbi and healer. The workshop centered on Hebrew chanting and was remarkable. But before I tell you why and how it relates to creativity and life change, let me explain what kind of a Jew I am. We Jews have a primal need to explain. Even when no one may be listening.
I have a strong Jewish identity with a rather loosey goosey set of observances and obvious contradictions. You can't be Jewish without having contradictions. I keep a kosher home yet I eat non kosher meat outside the home. I do not eat pork or shellfish or mix meat and milk, the last for poetic and family history reasons rather than religious reasons. I attend synagogue very inconsistently and would probably do less so if not for my wife's urging. As far as faith is concerned, I am a skeptic. Nonetheless, in a pinch I could see myself siding with Pascal and his wager: since we cannot know for sure we might as well wager in favor of there being a God in case there really is one. This is a more nuanced idea than the one that claims there are no atheists in a foxhole.
In unexpected moments I am taken over by a profound sense of connectedness to all things past, present and future. I am moved to tears by these experiences. I suspect that such moment are intimations of my spirituality, my incomplete self, yearning for a home and wholeness. Yet I consider myself more like Jacob wrestling with the angel without the satisfaction of quite getting to the other side as Jacob did in embracing full faith. So, as Abraham said to God, Here I am. Only not like Abraham meant it. Rather, as a thoroughly modern, perplexed, inconsistent Jew. A mixed bag. And here I was now, attending a workshop centering on Hebrew chanting anchored in Jewish tradition. And I was there only because my wife wanted to attend. She could have gone by herself. I found myself coming along only because I did not find myself resisting.
Shefa Gold told the story of how she came to incorporate many traditions from diverse cultures and religions into her healing. While the workshop centered on Jewish tradition and attempted to create sacred space she also brought in elements of energy healing, yoga, mythic journeys and mysticism. In the workshop she consistently referenced paying attention to our breath, our root chakra and the "egg of light." She talked about chanting not only as a way of connecting to God but as a form of healing oneself and the world. Accompanied by drum and shruti box, her enchanting voice evoked a deep yearning. I could not help but be struck by the way she both embraced tradition and departed from tradition at the same time. The way she expanded tradition thereby creating something new and fresh.
And this made me realize that we in America have an obsession with newness and novelty and the next big thing. This often takes the form of rebelling against tradition a priori--simply because it is tradition. We often do this without even knowing or understanding the tradition.
And so we risk distorting the true underlying dynamics between creativity and tradition. This tendency leads us to think that the great artists rebelled against tradition simply because they believe the role of art is to break with the old and create new forms of art for its own sake. In fact, the great artists honored the Masters before them and understood that their task was not so much to reject them out of hand but rather to reinterpret them. And in order to do this they needed to fully understand them first. The great artists were devoted to studying their predecessors as a required right of passage to full creativity and innovation.
"The Louvre is the book in which we learned how to read," noted Paul Cezanne, the great French painter.
What's my point, you may ask? Understanding tradition is a pre-condition for creativity. Whether it is in our personal lives, in our organizations or in our art. This may make creativity a longer process. Not everyone will have patience for it. But it enables us to develop a sense of empathy which is one of the key ingredients of creativity. Empathy deepens our humanity, and is the basis for seeing beauty. Even in those parts of ourselves we do not understand.
Shefa Gold too understood the Jewish masters before reinterpreting many of their teachings to become a Jewish healer and chanter. And I might not have come to this realization had I not attended what I thought was a workshop in which I had no direct interest!
The things we stumble upon in the most expected ways and places!
Happy Passover and Happy Easter!
