Bibliodrama
playing with White Fire
The Midrash
Yoram Kanzler
Author
Bibliodrama in Israel
Yoram kanzler
Coming to write few words about Bibliodrama in Israel, a memory rise in my
mind; it was the time when "surfing" meant only wave surfing, the mid
sixties, when the world (our world) was young and promising and the seashore
of Tel - Aviv stood at the center of our lives. We were a gang of about 15
surfers, the only ones in Israel, surfing in one specific shore. Very few in
Israel knew then what really the "Beach Boys" were singing about. But we
were fascinated and grew up with their music and learned our English by
reading the Surfer magazine.
Today. You can see thousands of surfers all along the Israeli shores, from
Naharia in the north to Ashkelon in south.
While writing, it is made
clear to me why this association occurred; it is the potential, the inner
certainty I have about Bibliodrama, like I had about surfing in those days,
that it will fill the minds and imagination of many, because it is, like
surfing, a deep, unique, joyful and a sweeping experience.
The vast seashores of
Bibliodrama are still waiting for the many Israeli Bibliodrama surfers; in
schools, Teacher and Rabbi's Education institutes, in the variety of
performing arts, literary and religious training, in therapeutic and
spiritual groups etc.
But, there is a more deep level of resemblance; It is the powerful
experience itself and its main features that are common to both surfing and
Bibliodramatic participation.
Riding on a wave, like
acting Bibliodramatically, you "forget yourself", loosen your ego (choosing
bravely and in the right time) and give place to a dynamic "being with". you
enter into an intense dialogue with the always new, always becoming reality
that surrounds you. You don't ride on the wave but in it, and you let it
awaken your full alertness to it. There are many watchers outside there on
the shore. They also see the wave but only you and your brother surfers know
it from within.
Reading Bibliodramatically, you don't read about a biblical scene or speak
about a phrase in it. A radical change of perspective happens in a
Bibliodramatic happening: you become the subject of the text by endowing
yourself to it. The text surrounds you like a wave rooted in the deep, that
connects you with its particular yet universal energy. I'm sure it is
sometimes like being in the tunnel of a big wave when it works on all of
your senses. You transcend then the normal reality, being you in an intimate
dialogue with something else, vibrating, resonating.
From good old Parmenides to forever young Dr. Peter Pitzele.
They all taught us we can't catch the same wave twice, as every (good)
Bibliodramatic occurrence is unique, rises from the deep and must have its
individual end, its "death" which means it was real, organic and alive. It
means we are dealing with Process that gives birth and gives place to new
occurrences.
They come from the deep; the wave and Bibliodrama. From a sphere that
transcends the here and now or, to phrase is more accurately; the concrete
has deep relations with the whole which is more than the sum of its
elements. As to Bibliodrama, a fuller significance and development of what I
mean here, you can find in Pitzele's first book: Our Fathers' Wells.
In Israeli – Jewish terms Bibliodrama's spiritual and technical roots are
imbued in the Midrashic way of learning the Torah and, may I add, the
Hasidic way, which involve the whole personality in the process of Torah
studies. So to us Israelis, Bibliodrama can mean reviving important
Spiritual areas, personal and communal, that our modern history and the
complicated political and social situation have made us forget. Bibliodrama
in Israel can surely become an important tool for dealing with our identity
issues in a creative, authentic and therapeutic way.
Well, now back to reality of
Bibliodrama in Israel:
Let us call The contemporary tree which Bibliodrama belongs to, "creative
reading in the Bible". It's a name was given to a group- method of Bible
studies by the late Haya Ben – Nathan. She was an educator and Bible teacher
in Seminar Hakkibutzim College in Tel- Aviv.
Already in the seventies she
could sum up her method and experience in a very special book; THE BIBLE AND
I. Through her teachings I first really met the opportunity of personal
encounter with the bible and its study. In Jerusalem, a well known master of
creative reading is working; teaching and inspiring her surroundings through
the medium of the plastic arts; Dr. Jo Milgrom. Her teaching method, rooted
in young's notion of the unconscious, in the old Hebrew Midrash mentality
and in plastic arts, is described in her Handmade Midrash: Workshop in
Visual Technology. The book isn't yet translated into Hebrew but no doubt it
will.
Peter Pitzele's Our Fathers'
Wells and, Scripture windows Toward a Practice of Bibliodrama, made me feel
I've found a teacher; a Founder of Method and an old friend. I've contact
him and since then, more than ten years ago, his personality, biography and
the depth of his method endowed me much more than my initiative best
aspirations were. With the aid of his books I began to conduct Bibliodrama
sessions, first in 'Seminar Hakkibutzim College' and afterwards, in 'Iyun
academy', which is the main Jewish- studies institution of the Conservative
movement in Tel-Aviv and directed by Rabi Roberto Arbib.
Rabi Arbib and me have
conducted many Bibliodrama groups since then and each of us have developed
his own ways. We activated Bibliodramatic meetings with various kinds of
groups; children, teachers, young artists and spirit seekers.
Rabi Arbib considers himself
a Sufi Jew. he is a peace activist, member in the 'immams and Rabbis for
Peace' movement . In his Bibliodrama conducting, he impregnates his Sufi
wisdom and methods for the sake of finding new insights to ancient issues
and for spiritual growth.
Peter Pitzele and his wife
Suzan's short visit to Israel in February almost two years ago, as guests of
the 'Bayit Hadash' congregation has made many new adherents to Bibliodrama
in new circles; members of the 'Bayit Hadash' community, young people with a
"New-age' orientation and professional Psycho-dramatists.
Meeting face to face with
the man and experiencing Bibliodrama under his conducting and Suzan beside
him, me, and I believe also Rabi Arbib, were filled with a fresh energy and
vision about the future of Bibliodrama in Israel.
Since then, Rabi Arbib conducted for a whole academic year a very unique
group of young actors and stage managers, having outstanding Bibliodramatic
achievements that are worthy of a separate description. He intends to go on
with this initiative next year.
As for me; I've finished
translating to Hebrew, Pitzele's Scripture windows and now I'm in the search
of a proper publishing house for the book.
Me and my wife Ruth, which
is a Psychoanalyst and group analyst conductor, have conducted ten long
sessions of Bibliodrama integrated with group dynamics. We wanted to see how
can psychoanalitic insights serve the Bibliodramatic Polyphonia, the
relations among the participants and between the group as a whole and its
individuals. We had in mind Pitzele's belief that the variety of different
voices in a Bibliodramatic occurrence, are all connected somehow to each
individual's inner space. We used to write persistently, after every
meeting, a documentation of it. This affair; its conclusions and findings
deserve also a place for itself and maybe, if participants allow of course,
an English translation.
These last two mentioned
Bibliodrama groups are intended to create a base for new young
Bibliodramatists that, after meeting and experiencing Pitzele's conduction,
will be really able to bring Bibliodrama in Israel to its proper place.
Bibliodrama's interpretive values should be an inseparable part of Jewish
education and Biblical studies and may many as possible men and women enjoy
its curing qualities.
For any questions or
requests you may contact me, Yoram Kanzler or the 'Iun Academy'.
Thank you.
Adresses:
Iun Academy:
Midreshet iun Tel aviv
88 Bugrashov st.
Tel – Aviv 63429
Tel: 03 – 5253907
Fax: 5257238
arbibr@zahav.net.il
Yoram Kanzler
20 Shlomo Hamelech st.
Tel – Aviv 64378
Tel: 052 8809897
Bidur1@bezeqint.net
Yoram Kanzler was born and lives in Tel -Aviv, where he is a lecturer of Jewish studies and teaches education at "Seminar Hakibutzim" college.
He is a group director and Bibliodramatist.
His main spiritual and professional teachers include: Pr. Hugo Bergmann, Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter of Ger - Sefat Emeth, Razi Goren, Haya Ben - Natan, Peter Pitzele.
Bibliodramatic Storytelling with Masks