Creativity

There is a lot of scientific research these days on "creativity".  Scientists are now able to prove scientifically, with data, that we are creative! Pardon me, but I find that a bit funny. No disrespect meant to all those brilliant left brainers who are out there working so hard to prove how the right brain works, but it feels a bit strange to me. My hat does go off to those scientists who have the scholarly ability (and inclination) to do this kind of research, but don't we intuitively know that we are creative?  And can't that just be good enough?

In Judaism, creativity is very important because it is through creativity that we have the ability to emulate G-d.  Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik says when we create, we are partners with G-d in Creation, finishing His work. This means that everyone not only can be creative, but each one of us is hard-wired to be creative.  I like this.

R. Keith Sawyer, Associate Professor of Education at Washington University, has authored many books on creativity and it is in Explaining Creativity, that he gets close to the Jewish approach to creativity. "Until the modern scientific era," he says, "creativity was attributed to a superhuman force; all novel ideas originated with the gods.  After all, how could a person create something that did not exist before the divine act of creation?  In fact, the Latin meaning of the verb 'inspire' is 'to breath into', reflecting the belief that creative inspiration was akin to the moment in creation when G-d first breathed life into man."

  
In Hebrew the word for breath is nesheemah, having the same root as the word for soul, neshemah.   So this means that the word breath and soul are connected. It says in Bereishit (Genesis) that G-d breathed the breath of life into man, creating his soul. 


Our soul is the breath of G-d......