To understand more about how JSP uses this source sheet, see The Jewish Studio Project's Approach to Text Study.
Rabbinic Teaching
אדם עולם קטן, עולם אדם גדול.
Adam olam katan, olam adam gadol.
The human is a microcosm of the universe, the universe a macrocosm of the human being.
With gratitude to R. Shir Yakkov for his beautiful song “This Perfection (Adam Olam Katan)” which first introduced me to this piece of text.
Thomas Berry1
Not only is the world alive, it is alive in us. We bear the universe in our beings as the universe bears us in its being.
Joanna Macy, World as Lover World as Self 2
Having gained distance and sophistication of perception, we can turn and recognize who we have been all along. Now it can dawn on us: we are our world knowing itself.
Questions:
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What does it mean that we are microcosms of the universe or that the universe is a macrocosm of us?
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How do you understand Macy’s words? In what ways might our world come to know itself through us?
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How do these three texts speak to one another? How might they affect how we live our lives?
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How might these texts speak to the creative process?
Notes:
1 Thomas Berry, CP, PhD (1914-2009) was a significant thinker of the 20th century. As a cultural historian he sought a broader perspective on humanity's relationship to the Earth in order to respond to the ecological and social challenges of our times.
2 Joanna Rogers Macy, is a contemporary environmental activist, author, scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. She is the author of 8 books.