Beit Midrash Study Session | Chaos and Creation
Oct 12 @ 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
A FLOWING THROUGH TIME AND TRADITION PROGRAM
Join us for Chaos and Creation, the first in a series of Beit Midrash Study Sessions inspired by the art and objects on view in Flowing through Time and Tradition.
Sunday, October 12, 2025 / 20 Tishrei 5786
1:30 – 3:00 pm | Study Session: Sukkot Art-making and Text Study
In person at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
RSVP
Creation often begins in places we cannot see, taking shape through chaos we cannot hold. How might we, like water, meet at the edge of seen and unseen, of form and formlessness, and dwell in the space where chaos and creation converge?
Our gathering takes place during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot—a time of entering the Sukkah, a temporary, womb-like shelter, and living for a moment in what is both fragile and eternal. This season celebrates the joy of the fall harvest, even as it draws us toward the uncertainty of the rainy season. We are reminded during this time that pain and joy coexist as we learn to be with what we cannot control. What emerges can be a source of possibility.
Led by Adina Polen—visual artist, spiritual educator, and founder of Atiq: Jewish Maker Institute—our gathering will use Jewish sources and art materials as foundations for exploring this vital juncture of chaos and creation. (No previous experience with art supplies or Jewish text study necessary!)
Please join us for a special gallery tour focusing on objects connected to the monthly Beit Midrash theme before each study session from 1:00-1:30pm. Please RSVP for the gallery tour here.
The Magnes’s programs and exhibitions are supported by our community. Click here to make a suggested donation of $10 per session or $55 for the full series.
If you have any questions about accessibility or require accommodations to participate in this event, please contact us at dalter@berkeley.edu or call us at (510) 643-2526 with as much advance notice as possible.
Program is subject to change.
About the guest teacher
Adina Polen is a visual artist, spiritual educator and founder of Atiq: Jewish Maker Institute, an applied arts yeshiva. Atiq partners with organizations around the country to bring sacred art making into a wide variety of contexts, and in March 2019 launched a community maker studio based in Berkeley, CA. After earning her BA in Music from Barnard College, Adina studied art and design at the Bezalel Academy and Hadassah College, and Jewish text at Pardes and Yakar, all in Jerusalem. In addition to her work on Atiq, Adina has channeled her love of cross-pollinating Torah and arts into her work as a Counselor/Educator on the Nesiya Institute, as an Artist Educator at the Brandeis Collegiate Institute (BCI), and as a Maker Specialist for Edah Berkeley.
About the series
Beit Midrash, meaning a house of study in Hebrew, is a series of eight creative, collaborative study sessions inspired by the art and objects on view in Flowing through Time and Tradition. Guided by the curator and guest teachers, we will engage with texts and artistic expressions to delve deeper into the exhibition objects and themes, to draw knowledge, surface reflections, and pour forth new perspectives.
About the exhibition
Exploring the theme of water through the holdings of the Magnes Collection, Flowing through Time and Tradition traces how water flows through and shapes Jewish lives: enacting belief, sustaining life and communities, providing the means for spiritual cleansing, and mapping identities.
