Man is the only species of God’s creation blessed with the power of the imagination, a faculty that we utilize for physical survival and spiritual growth. Judaism bases so much of its authority on imaginative scenes. Take for example the well-known prescription in the Passover Haggadah when we’re told that “in every generation each individual is bound to consider himself as if he personally had gone forth out of Egypt”. The use of imagination in Jewish literature is limitless. In the synagogue we do a lot of ‘standing up and sitting down’. We stand primarily when the ark is opened, in order to experience ourselves in a spiritually elevated state. The mussaf (the additional service of Shabbat and each of the three Festivals) visually describes the scene of the sacrificial ritual assigned to that particular day. This list can go on and on, but it shouldn’t take much thought on your part to come up with lots more.
The use of imagination in Jewish heritage is so far-reaching that it would be difficult to find important aspects of Jewish tradition where the imaginative mind does not come into play. It is widely accepted that the Prophets relied upon their imaginative faculty to receive God’s messages for His people. It’s not a coincidence that each Prophet’s teaching is similar to the others, only the language differed as the mind pictures of each Prophet varied.
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