Beit Avi Chai presents "Madness, Spirituality, and Creativity": A Dialogue between the Talmud and Psychology.
Since the days of the prophets, the intellectual greats have struggled with the question of sanity. Are geniuses necessarily mad? Does creativity arise at the edge of sanity? A dialogue between the Talmud and psychology on the complex connection between creativity and mental stability.
Organizers and moderators: Dr. Ruchama Weiss and clinical psychologist Avner Hacohen
Part 1: Dictionary Madness
• Thursday, December 16, 8:30 PM
Language seeks to sort and classify mental illnesses. How and why does it do so? A survey of psychological terms in the Bible, the Talmud, and psychology.
Part 2: "The Greater the Man, the Greater His Drives"
• Thursday, December 23, 8:30 PM
On the fear of insanity underlying inner drives and creativity as reflected in Talmudic narratives, and on the libido, the psychological drive that serves as a fundamental motivator in our lives.
Part 3: "I Came upon Trouble and Sorrow, and Invoked the Name of the Lord"
• Thursday, December 30, 8:30 PM
Why do despair and a sense of futility, low self-worth, and powerlessness serve as raw materials for prophecy, poetry, and even Jewish law? Talmudic narratives and psychological theories trace the connection between melancholy and creativity.
Part 4: Seers from Afar
• Thursday, January 6, 8:30 PM
Intellectuals have the ability to plumb the depths of human psychology, while also creating and foreseeing the future. Tracking the secrets of seers from afar.
Part 5: Flesh and Spirit
• Thursday, January 13, 8:30 PM
The human body is the first and most intimate sound box of the soul. From the soul that uses the body to express its troubles to the prophets of yore and present-day performance artists who convey messages through the body.
Part 6: Storms of the Mind
• Thursday, January 20, 8:30 PM
On behavioral disorders, addictions, loss of restraint, and bingeing. Is creativity simply a loss of control? Was Freud right when he said that art is sublimation of a forbidden, hurtful drive?
Admission: NIS 30; students: NIS 20; NIS 90 for the series
This is a Hebrew-language only event.
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