Work Done Playfully

Today's Readings:

Liberating Rites – Tom F. Driver – “Ritual, Theater, and Sacrifice” – pp. 79-106

Seasons of Our Joy – Arthur Waskow – “Face to Face - Yom Kippur” – pp. 27-45

Both Tom Driver and Arthur Waskow seem to agree on the idea of ritual as “work done playfully” (Driver 99). Before reading Waskow, I had always been taught to regard Yom Kippur as the solemn, slightly depressing holiday in which I was supposed to reflect on everything I had done wrong in the past year and fix it or else. Waskow instead shows Yom Kippur as a refreshing experience in which Jews wash away their sins, bathe in the awesomeness of God, and emerge cleansed and ready for a new year. As Abraham Joshua Heschel says, “If it was in my power, I would do away with all afflictions – except for the afflictions on the bitter day of the destruction of our Temple, Tisha B’Av, for who could bear to eat on that day! – and the afflictions on the holy and awesome day, Yom Kippur, for who needs to eat on that day?” (Waskow 31). From his and Waskow’s perspective, we refrain from the luxuries of normalcy not to punish ourselves but to devote our full energy to the draining but ironically playful work of Yom Kippur.

In our discussion about ritual’s playfulness, our class used words like “creativity,” “unpredictability,” “enjoyment,” “surprise,” and “adaptability.” Individuals and groups can play with the structure of ritual to add personal meaning and spirit to accomplished work. The playfulness in ritual adds to Driver’s idea of body before mind, the arising of ritual before the realization of ritual’s worth. We perform ritual, and then, through observation, we figure out ritual’s meaning for ourselves and take hold of the responsibility to transform such rituals to our own needs and desires.