"Words" by Iris Eliya Cohen
I name the file “sorrow”
I delete
Name it “October”
Change it to “7”
Replace it with “chasm”
Change: “chasms”
Name it “hell-like”
I name it “hope”
Command the computer to remember
It responds “saving hope”.
I name the file “sorrow”
I delete
Name it “October”
Change it to “7”
Replace it with “chasm”
Change: “chasms”
Name it “hell-like”
I name it “hope”
Command the computer to remember
It responds “saving hope”.
- This writer uses words like, "sorrow, October, and hope" to describe the current war in Israel. What are the various words you've used to described the current war in Israel over the last few weeks?
- At this moment, which words come to mind?
The Jewish Studio Project: Art-Making as Another Way to Interpret Our Texts
Rabbi Adina Allen
The process of art-making allows us to explore the unknown aspects of the text and to bring these into relationship with the unknown aspects within ourselves. When we approach the canvas or the dance floor or the notepad, we have no idea what our creative exploration will yield, and there is no one right final product that it must look like. As with text study, we bring the fullness of ourselves to the fullness of the material at hand, and open to something bigger than and beyond ourselves—something deep within ourselves coming to us and through us. In this practice, our art-making is not dictated by a preconceived idea or a striving to accurately portray some aspect of the text so that others will recognize the connection between the two.
Rather, we engage in it as a sacred practice of letting the text linger within us as we use materials to explore what else there may be in the words we have read. In this way, art-making serves as a way to stretch out the conversation with the text, with God, with one’s hevrutah and within one’s own self. In the spaciousness of this elongated conversation, the practice allows the intellectual material drop down from our head and percolate through the rest of our being. In this way, we become able to engage the material not only with our intellect, but also with other ways of knowing: our imagination, body, intuition, emotion and memory. The pleasure and embodied nature of the art-making allows our thinking mind to relax and soften. In this state of suppleness, our tightly held beliefs may ease their grip on us, allowing space for new ideas to come to us and through us.
Rabbi Adina Allen
The process of art-making allows us to explore the unknown aspects of the text and to bring these into relationship with the unknown aspects within ourselves. When we approach the canvas or the dance floor or the notepad, we have no idea what our creative exploration will yield, and there is no one right final product that it must look like. As with text study, we bring the fullness of ourselves to the fullness of the material at hand, and open to something bigger than and beyond ourselves—something deep within ourselves coming to us and through us. In this practice, our art-making is not dictated by a preconceived idea or a striving to accurately portray some aspect of the text so that others will recognize the connection between the two.
Rather, we engage in it as a sacred practice of letting the text linger within us as we use materials to explore what else there may be in the words we have read. In this way, art-making serves as a way to stretch out the conversation with the text, with God, with one’s hevrutah and within one’s own self. In the spaciousness of this elongated conversation, the practice allows the intellectual material drop down from our head and percolate through the rest of our being. In this way, we become able to engage the material not only with our intellect, but also with other ways of knowing: our imagination, body, intuition, emotion and memory. The pleasure and embodied nature of the art-making allows our thinking mind to relax and soften. In this state of suppleness, our tightly held beliefs may ease their grip on us, allowing space for new ideas to come to us and through us.
- Rabbi Adina Allen writes that art-making allows text to "linger within us as we use materials to explore what else there may be in the words we have read." What does this mean?
- Why do you think art does this in a way that traditional text study cannot?
- Why have you decided to come here to process your feelings on Israel through art?