Place of All Possibility

Rabbi Adina Allen is a spiritual leader, writer, and educator who grew up in an art studio where she learned firsthand the power of creativity for connecting to self and to the Sacred. She is cofounder and creative director of Jewish Studio Project (JSP), an organization that is seeding a future in which every person is connected to their creativity as a force for healing, liberation and social transformation. Based on the work of her mother, renowned art therapist Pat B. Allen, Adina developed the Jewish Studio Process, a methodology for unlocking creativity, which she has brought to thousands of organizational and community leaders, educators, artists, and clergy across the country. A national media contributor, popular speaker, and workshop leader, Adina has published in scholarly as well as mainstream publications, and more of her writing can be found on her website at www.adina-allen.com. She and her family live in Berkeley, California.

"For most of human history, art-making was viewed as a way of honoring and dialoguing with the divine. But in a secular age, we often forget that our creative vision is not an individual possession; it is a verb that ties us into divine communion with our ecologies. In The Place of All Possibility, Rabbi Adina Allen offers us an answer to this desaturated worldview. She gifts us an updated, animistic view of Jewish mysticism and storytelling that generously 'beckons us to return to our depths, the chaos within.' Here is the creative spring that welcomes microbes and rootlets alongside dazzling angels and perplexing midrash."—Sophie Strand, author of The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine and The Madonna Secret"The Place of All Possibility underscores the transformative power of creativity as a means of self-discovery, healing, and connection ot a deeper spiritual dimension. Rabbi Adina Allen's personal experiences illustrate the profound impact that creative expression can have on navigating challenges and accessing inner wisdom. She dismantles the common misconception that creativity is exclusive to artists, emphasizing instead that creativity is a fundamental human capacity accessible to everyone. Rabbi Allen emphasizes the communal nature of creativity and the wisdom that comes from creating from the heart. This book encourages readers to embrace creativity as a means of self-discovery, personal growth, and contributing to the collective construction of a more meaningful and connected world."—Susan Magsamen, author of Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us"This book is a window into the sacred methodology of the Jewish Studio Process, which invites us into a multidirectional process of discovery—of Torah and of self. In this time of so much heartache, when the world conspires to have us shut down, Rabbi Allen inspires us to 'make art about it'—to unlock the creative possibilities that call out from our ancient texts and traditions, and that reside in each of us. The Place of All Possibility is beautiful and heart-opening."—Rabbi Sharon Brous, author of The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World"Rabbi Adina Allen awakens our perception, revealing Imagination as an inspired process, from the Divine. Here, creativity is not constructed but received in a deep sacred dialogue. Bravo for this renewal of the possibility and purpose of arts and artful living!"—Lisa Miller, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University and bestselling author of The Awakened Brain"In this book, you are likely to encounter words. However, if you lean in closer and bend your ears towards the pages, you might come to touch something else lurking between and behind every font: a stirring sermon in turbulent times; a song, offered with such delicate dexterity, reminding us that the world is never finished, never still, and that creation is still happening now. Rabi Allen's studious and reverent reformulation of the Torah as not just a going up on mountains, not just a taking in of instructions, but a coming down to earth, a revitalization of the ordinary with a strange potency, drips with agency. Every morsel of Rabbi Allen's disarmingly affecting invitation will spirit you away through ruptures and fissures to more wondrous delights than we can name. More than words can capture."—Báyò Akómoláfé, PhD, These Wilds Beyond Our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity's Search for Home"Deeply, gently, and courageously countercultural, this book is a stunning affirmation of life. In a time of narrowing imagination, Rabbi Adina Allen invites us to explore the untapped possibilities that live within us. In a time of relentless consumerism, she invites us to experience the sheer joy of creativity in a time of shallow relevance, she invites us to listen for the layered resonance of ancient words. In a time of cynicism, she invites us to enter the place of all possibility. To open this book is to open oneself to hope."—Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, President of Hebrew College"The Place of All Possibility is a potent call to reclaim creativity as sacred practice. Rabbi Adina Allen offers us a wise and beautiful companion for the journey—an invitation to turn towards the untamed places in our hearts, a catalyst for rewilding our spiritual lives."—Rabbi Julia Watts Belser, author of Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole"Rabbi Adina Allen's embrace of the Torah offers ways of reading and responding that align with the sacred book's embodiment of the eternal creative process—forever made anew through imaginative responses. 'Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it' affirms interpretation as a creative act, reliably a few steps ahead of the reflecting mind. What better way to demonstrate the imaginative basis of creation than engaging the hallowed text, not with authoritative fixity, but as a living and moving presence inviting 'wild' artistic and unique interpretations, embedding its voice in our lives."—Shaun McNiff, author of Trust the Process: An Artist's Guide to Letting Go and Imagination in Action: Secrets for Unleashing Creative Expression"In this lovely and insightful book, Rabbi Adina Allen uncovers the creativity that animates Jewish tradition, and gives us the tools to unleash our own creativity and reanimate our lives. Her warmth, passion, and wisdom illuminate every page."—Sarah Hurwitz, author of Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life—in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There)"Rabbi Adina Allen's Jewish Studio Process is the spiritual practice that will revolutionize Judaism. This practice puts the Torah of Creativity—for the first time in Jewish history—into the hands of every one of us, Jewish or not. In this book, Rabbi Allen teaches us how to unleash the power of creativity, guiding us to not only apply our insights to tradition to make it better, but to understand ourselves more fully and transform the challenges of our lives into wisdom."—Rabbi Benay Lappe, President and Rosh Yeshiva of SVARA"A teacher once told me, 'God is in the details,' and that is what I feel The Place of All Possibility aims to teach us. This is a powerful, midrashic, and visionary book."—Siona Benjamin, artist and illustrator of The Zodiac Floor and I Am Hava"In this warm, wise, and winsomely written book, Rabbi Adina Allen invites us to become creators of worlds—to engage the texts of Torah with everything we are, and to express our deepest selves by unleashing our inner creativity. If you've ever (or always) dreamed of marrying the beit midrash (study hall) with the artists' studio, this beautiful book is for you. It will introduce you to a wonderful method and a remarkable teacher."—Rabbi Shai Held, author of Judaism Is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life"How blessed we are to find a sacred path that fuses creativity, wisdom, and connection across the ages. And how blessed among the blessed that we now have a master teacher, Rabbi Adina Allen, to translate that wisdom into words to nurture our souls, to open our creative possibilities, and to fuse the personal and the communal with the spiritual and the artistic."—Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson, Roslyn and Abner Goldstine Dean's Chair and Professor of Philosophy at American Jewish University"The Place of All Possibility expands the field of the arts from a discipline for the few to a spiritual practice for all. Rabbi Adina Allen makes explicit what has always been true in Jewish culture: that imagination is part of the process of understanding Torah, and that creativity itself is sacred. She reminds us that if we engage Torah not just through intellectual learning but through art-making, it becomes not a rigid text but a succession of fluid interpretations—enabling us to connect with it more deeply and freely. Rabbi Allen's methodology, of bringing people together with sacred stories and offering them a framework for artistic response, is an important innovation in contemporary Jewish life. This book passionately shares that innovation with us all, inviting us to find the sacred flow."—Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, author of Undertorah: An Earth-Based Kabbalah of Dreams"Rabbi Allen explores in her stimulating debut the 'immense potential of creativity' to cast 'ancient Jewish wisdom' in a new light . . . Through a clever mix of artistic exercises and rabbinic wisdom, Allen encourages readers to 'peel back layers of what we think we know' to construct new understandings of their faith and themselves. It's a unique and invigorating lens on Judaism."—Publishers Weekly"Readers will almost find themselves in a 'flow' state as they move through the book—no surprise, given that Rabbi Allen writes about this state in the book as well. Her unique nuanced approach will keep readers turning pages."—Beth Ricanti, Jewish Book Council"For Allen, Torah is a wellspring of creativity, waiting to be engaged in new ways. The Place of All Possibility serves as a guide, offering exercises and techniques to help readers approach these ancient texts with fresh eyes."—Daniel Noam Warner, Kesher: The Journal of the Association of Jewish Psychologists