creativity — Rabbi Adam Lavitt

Creative Practice Is Transforming Jewish Education. Here’s How.

Beyond classroom tools, the Jewish Studio Process fosters a model of leadership grounded in self-awareness, intentionality, and compassion. Fellows engage in trauma-informed practices like intention-setting and non-evaluative witnessing that create space for emotional exploration and spiritual renewal. This model invites educators to lead from a place of presence — what psychologist Richard Schwartz calls the “Self,” a centered space of creativity, care, and calm. It redefines teaching from content delivery to relational engagement: tending to learners, the environment, and something deeper many would call God. As one fellow put it, “The Jewish Studio Process is the most rigorous spiritual practice being offered in Jewish spaces right now.” Another noted, “The witness allows for our differences to be held together,” creating the conditions for pluralism, trust, and collaborative learning.

articleAdam LavittMay 30, 2025Jewish Studio Project, Educator Studio, creativity, education

Sacred Echoes: A Contemplative Approach to Torah Study

Jewish tradition teaches that the words of Torah are not static but instead are vibrating with divine energy. According to the Mishna, “Each and every day a divine voice goes out from Mount Sinai” (Pirkei Avot 6:2). This suggests that the revelation of Torah is ongoing, that the sacred words spoken at Sinai continue to reverberate throughout the world, if only we are attuned to hear them. JSP’s Jewish Studio Process offers a way of cultivating this capacity for listening to that voice from Sinai—a voice that we believe is available to all of us, in every moment.

articleAdam LavittMay 1, 2025spiritual practice, creativity, trauma, transformation

Parashat Shemot: Animated by Holy Becoming

This week, in parashat Shemot, we encounter Moshe at a juncture in his life when he must choose between continuing to trod a well worn path, or take the risk to turn aside, led by wonder, towards something beyond himself. As he asks himself what is before him, what may have at first seemed a scraggly shrub reveals itself as a being on fire with life, animated by holy becoming - a force that calls itself Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (Exodus 3:14).

sermonAdam LavittJanuary 12, 2023Sinai, wonder, creativity

Opening to the Twilight: Creativity’s Power to Activate Hidden Possibilities

In order to find out...what around us is yet to have its creative potential unlocked...we need to peer into the twilight – the murky, ungraspable space between day and night. We attune to this space by activating it within ourselves, tapping into our own inherent creativity in order to open our eyes to the world of the in-between so we might...draw out what is waiting for us at the world’s twilit margins. Pen to paper, brush on canvas, fingers working knitting needles or clay, wood or stone, we awaken something from its slumber, dormant from the dawn of creation until this moment. As we engage in the creative process, we ask the materials before us “what else can this be?”

articleAdam LavittDecember 21, 2022creativity, hope

Building the World from Love (Shabbat Terumah)

Why does Torah emphasize the spirit in which the materials for the Mishkan should be gathered above the kind and quality of the materials? Because, it’s not the wool or dye or metals, but rather the act of giving gifts, of connecting with others to create something special – that ultimately makes the Mishkan a holy place. A few verses after our opening, Torah describes what happens when we build something in this way. God says:

V’asu li mikdash v’shechanti betocham / [If they] make Me a sanctuary…I will dwell among them. (25:8)

When we approach a task with generosity of heart, more powerful that the product of our labor is the tangible sense of sacred presence we bring to it, resulting in a monument to love we can see and touch.

Adam LavittFebruary 5, 2022community, creativity

How Listening to Music Taught Me to Compose My Own Life

As I sat watching a magnificent string quartet perform, I lost a whole movement in the rumblings of my wandering attention. The measures and notes slipped by me and I began to worry I might walk away from the concert carrying only the concept of this event, but devoid of any substantive encounter with the music, itself. At the root of my concern was the creeping sense that I too frequently live my life as a concept of how a life should be lived, without sinking into my raw, messy moments of becoming.

Adam LavittMay 25, 2016creativity, music, composing, vocation

Beyond Bored: Entering the Soul of Creativity

Recently, I introduced meditation to my high school spirituality class. I joined them, closing my eyes, peeking to see how people were doing. The second time I opened my eyes, I noticed more than one student fiddling with their smartphones.

As we debriefed afterward, I asked what challenges they encountered as I guided the group to sit with awareness of breath and body. One student volunteered that she was so uncomfortable with the silence she just had to fidget with her iPhone. The boredom was unbearable.

Adam LavittOctober 22, 2015meditation, mindfulness, creativity, unplug

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