Some books fit neat­ly into one cat­e­go­ry; they are easy to talk about and find in a book­store or library. Oth­er books cross bound­aries, encom­pass dis­parate themes and ideas, are thought-pro­vok­ing, and ulti­mate­ly shift the nar­ra­tive. The Place of All Pos­si­bil­i­ty is one such book. In this beau­ti­ful new work, Rab­bi Adi­na Allen uses the ancient wis­dom of the Torah to show us how to embrace creativity. 

Rab­bi Allen has spent her life immersed in the cre­ative arts, lit­er­al­ly grow­ing up in her mother’s art stu­dio. She went on to become the cofounder and cre­ative direc­tor of a ground­break­ing endeav­or, the Jew­ish Stu­dio Project, which helps peo­ple con­nect to their indi­vid­ual cre­ativ­i­ty as a source of well­be­ing and trans­for­ma­tion. Her jour­ney toward under­stand­ing the source of cre­ativ­i­ty and its role in her life ulti­mate­ly led her to rab­bini­cal school. Her book, then, is a cul­mi­na­tion of her work as a rab­bi, edu­ca­tor, and writer. It is an easy-to-read primer and man­u­al all in one. It presents the five core prin­ci­ples of the Jew­ish Stu­dio Project with clever activ­i­ties and explores how cre­ativ­i­ty and the Torah are intertwined.

In the first sec­tion of the book, Rab­bi Allen delves into the Torah — as well as ancient rab­binic com­men­tary and mod­ern aca­d­e­m­ic sources — to lay the ground­work for her cre­ative process. She is quick to explain that this book is for any­one, Jew­ish or not, who wants to access the cre­ative depths of ancient wisdom. 

The sec­ond sec­tion of the book lays out the five core prin­ci­ples and accom­pa­ny­ing activ­i­ties. This is a book to inter­act with again and again. One can pick it up and engage with one core prin­ci­ple now, and anoth­er lat­er on. 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.