Midrash - a creative technique to change your world

An ancient story telling technique for the modern world.

Dear Readers,

Living a creative life in a world full of political conflict is hard. Especially when those conflicts spill over into personal relationships which become broken as a result of a failure to respect differences of opinions. On the one hand, making is a way to get out of our stressed minds into more relaxed and sustaining practices. On the other, creating from a blank canvas requires a focus that is not always available when the news drags our brains down to the level of survival instincts. Watching the destruction of lives, physical infrastructures and political freedoms across the world is exhausting and leaves us less energy for creativity.

Help, however, is available.

Midrash – a form of reconciliation

This last month I attended a short course on a technique called ‘contemporary midrash’. This ancient way of working (it originated with Rabbis in the 2^nd century CE) has much to offer in the modern world. Not only does it assist with the fear of the blank space as a starting point, but it offers a way of thinking that can contribute to the resolution of the conflicts dragging us down.

A midrash is, in essence, a story, created using specific techniques, which fills in the gaps in another story or between two conflicting dialogues. Midrashim (the plural form of the word) allows the exploration of problematic texts and the finding of new interpretations. Where a text has contradictions, perplexing details, missing information, and people (most often women) whose voices are silenced. Midrashic tradition allows for the creation of explanations and the imagination of those missing perspectives.

The practice allows for the creation of a new story not by replacing old and treasured narratives, but by using old ones as jumping-off points, using specific techniques to generate new ideas then turning to imagination to create new stories. Often, a midrash connects two seemingly unrelated stories in fresh ways. Or it may take a story and use it as inspiration to write a new one from the perspective of a character whose viewpoint is silenced.

I say stories, but modern midrashim can be expressed in visual or musical form as well. In modern times both scholars and ordinary people have used the same techniques as those second-century rabbis to produce work that is relevant to our modern world, reinterpreting and bringing in modern sensibilities. There is a particularly strong feminist flavour to many modern midrashim as people seek to fill in the missing stories about women and to question how their stories were told by others.

Whilst midrashim deal with Biblical texts, the thought processes behind them can equally be applied to modern narratives. They are not isolated within any one faith tradition but are available to anyone to use in creative work. The website Harry Potter and the Sacred Text shows this well.

Dolphins in the desert – a modern midrash

A charming example of a modern midrash written originally for children starts with a puzzling statement in the Bible that, in the middle of the desert the people were using dolphin skins to create the tabernacle (the tent that housed the presence of God). Dolphins? In a Middle Eastern desert? Say what?!

When faced with statements that don’t make sense to our understanding of the world – in old texts or current political discourse – one response could be to dismiss the whole text/ political philosophy as nonsense mumbo-jumbo and think no more of it. Or we could try to explain it away, extrapolating from facts. Perhaps dolphin skins were traded along trade routes in the area. Or maybe it’s a mistranslation of the original language, the true meaning lost in time. Instead, the midrashic tradition takes that puzzling detail, treats it with honour, and provides an imaginative solution.

Marc Gelman, who pioneered the field of modern midrash, looked to a second story for a possible answer to the dolphin puzzle. He remembered the tale of how, when the Israelites were escaping from Egypt, the Reed sea parted to let them pass. In his midrash, the fish in the sea were very confused when this happened and kept flopping into the dry area and dying. The dolphins, wise and kind mammals, saw what was happening and began to swim a patrol, nudging the fish away from danger. The Egyptian chariots and their soldiers with weapons started to follow the Israelites but the waters closed and drowned them all. The dolphins were so busy protecting the fish that they failed to notice and several of them fell onto the Egyptian spears. The next day they washed up on the shore of the sea and the Israelites thought they were stinky and wanted to get away from them. But Moses told them to save the skins to be used in the Tabernacle saying, "When you see this tent of dolphin skins, I want you to remember that we did not leave Egypt and become a free people without a lot of help."

As is typical of midrashim this story simply makes stuff up, expanding beyond assumed ‘facts’ and the bounds of the current discourse. It also contains a moral or a statement that allows a shift in perspective or a different way to understand a troublesome world. Not only can midrashim entertain and explain, but they can act as a portal to change the future of the world by changing our mindsets and how we then behave.

How to create ‘midrashically’ yourself.

So what are the techniques are used and how might they inspire creativity in non-religious contexts? In this newsletter, I will look at

(a) how you start and

(b) what are the layers in a midrashic approach

(c) some specific techniques you can try as you work with the material you choose

(d) the power of working this way to start to repair our broken world.

In my next newsletter all of you will get some examples of modern midrash available in popular culture, and then paid readers will get one I have written using a feminist approach, to show you a worked example of the traditional process.

A: Take one text or image

Pick a starting point. A text an image or a piece of music. Preferably something that intrigues or challenges you, that raises a question in you. Find a place where something feels missing. Start, however, not with a concept, but an existing creative work. It could be a fairytale, a painting, a poem, a set of instructions or a policy document – anything that niggles at you or riles you for the silences within it. Or you might want to reverse the perspective in an existing story and tell it from a new viewpoint or insert your own in a place where your culture seems forgotten. Whatever you choose I will call your ‘inspirational work’.

B: The layered approach.

The Jewish tradition uses the Hebrew word PARDES to guide you to four layers of working with your inspirational work. The word means ‘orchard’ – an allusion to the fact that you can pick something juicy from the array of works already created and munch on it! However, the word is also an acronym for the four levels. This opens up a range of responses within you that you might use to create your own work. You can also use this to consider what you want to put into your own creative work to allow readers and viewers to engage with it at different levels.

(a) Peshat - ‘surface’

At this level, you look at the literal, plain appearance of the inspirational work.

· What words, colours, images or sounds are used?

· What do they say about the time that the work was made and what might be different if it was made now?

· What genre is it confirming with or rebelling against?

· What is not there in the text or image that you would like to exist?

As you create your own work, you can think about how someone else might first encounter it.

· What do you want to place on the surface to draw them in?

· What do you want to make obvious and what do you want to hide for a second or later viewing?

· Do you want to work with any of the characteristics of the inspiration work but take them in a different direction?

(b) Remes – ‘hints’

Now you can start to look at the more artistic and subtle parts of the inspiration work.

· What metaphors and similies or visual/sonic references are there?

· What ideas spring to mind when you look at the work?

· Does it act as a portal to take you to something actually alluded to or to a work or idea with which you are inspired to make a connection?

When you come to create, consider

· What do you want to refer to in your work?

· Do you have feelings and thoughts you want to place in the work in a subtle way – perhaps either as small marks that can only been seen close up, or an under collage that you paint over for example,

Drash – ‘inquiry’

Next, consider what is the meaning of this inspiration work to you.

· Why did you pick it?

· What relevance does it have to you personally or to our world today?

· Do you disagree with it, rail against it, long for more of it?

As you think about your work in response ask yourself

· What do I want the viewer/ reader/ listener to take away from my work?

· What do I have burning within me to say about the world today?

· Is there a theme or question that I want to explore as I make this or a series of works?

· What are you bring into the work from your own experience and why?

Sod – ‘secret’

In the old rabbinical tradition, this referred to the mystical levels behind the words and often involved Kabbalistic theology. Today, we might consider it to be the spiritual meaning of the world in the broader non-religious sense.

· How does this work make you feel as about the world?

· How does it reflect or negate your understanding of how the world works at a higher level?

· Does it act in a way that transports you from the literal to an experience that is harder to put into words?

Often, when we create, how we feel or think is then communicated to others even though there is no direct attempt to place these emotions or thoughts directly into the work. There is some mystical and unpredictable connection between our expression and their life experiences. Ask yourself

· What is your unspoken intention for your own work?

· What do you wish to focus on or process as you create?

· Do you want to literally hide secrets into the work in codes, compartments or collaged underpaintings?

C: Techniques

The ancient Rabbis, like all creatives do, set boundaries around their creativity which reflected their worldview and values. They lived in a society where the text was believed to be of divine origin, complete with every part having meaning and existing for a purpose. Today we might consider the texts to be compiled by different human writers or we might prefer to only look at secular texts/ images/ music as starting points. The point is that the techniques used in Midrash allowed the Rabbis to stay within their values. However, they operate as creative methods that are open to all.

i. Wordplay.

The rabbis used puns a lot – Hebrew gives itself to this as it is root-based. Changing the vowels between root consonants easily changes the meaning. Is there a way you can take your inspiration and play around with it to give you something similar but different?

ii. Intertextuality

The Rabbis were happy to range about all the texts they had at their disposal to help them get meaning from the one they were looking at. They would quote lines from seemingly unrelated texts in their midrash – stories written at totally different times – to help them find meaning in a problematic text.

Are there phrases in your inspiration work that you recognise from another text? Are there characteristics of your image – maybe the depth of field in a photo or the technique of linocut, that remind you of a different image? What happens when you play with connecting the two? What lies in the middle of them?

iii. Gematria – this is a form of numerology in which numbers are attached to Hebrew letters and the adding up of those used to find hidden meanings. Other systems of numerology exist which might resonate with your culture and beliefs

iv. Atomization – the Rabbis were happy to focus on one word or even one letter in a text and ignore the rest. Don’t feel that you have to respond to the entirety of an inspirational work. If you were reading Alice in Wonderland and the word ‘teacup’ or ‘rabbit’ or ‘late’ calls you then go deep with that tiny aspect of the work.

Clearly, this system produces an endless array of combinations and possibilities for finding inspiration in existing works. It occurs to me however that this is a vital skill embedded within Judaism which offers us ways to heal the world rather than destroy it.

So many of the struggles we face at the micro and macro level between people and peoples relate to the way we tend to hold on to one narrative as the truth. Midrash is a system that allows us to honour the old but also to create the new, not by destruction but by expansion. Where history and modern sensibilities clash, midrash allows reconciliation. Where two histories foreground different groups, midrashic techniques allow the formation of a new shared story.

Midrashic thinking for world healing

As I finished this class I saw a powerful video on Facebook from Rabbi Avid Dabush who heads the organisation Rabbis for Human Rights. These are Jews of different denominations who physically work with Palestinians in the West Bank to help them protect their lands and to replant trees and erect new fences when they are destroyed by settlers. Avi talks about the losses he suffered on 7^th October 2023 - he was in Kibbutz Nirim when it was attacked and hid with his family for eight hours before fleeing - and how they had to be seen in a context.

At the end of that video, he does something fundamentally midrashic. He takes an old text – a single, highly problematic phrase, a text that can be interpreted by one side as genocidally threatening and by another as a declaration of fundamental justice and freedom. He chooses a text that divides, then, having stated that neither side’s experiences can be ignored, in a single sentence he reimagines it, fills in the gaps between the narratives, and creates an entirely new vision without destroying the old text in any way.

He says simply: “In the end, we will have to find a way to live together between the river and the sea.”

Whether you choose to use a midrashic technique to address world peace or to resolve a small niggle in your own life or simply to move you beyond a creative block, it is a powerful technique available to you to try. Next time I’ll give you some examples to inspire. If you give it a go please do let me know what you create!

L’shalom

Helen