Not to Depict, But to Create: The Will as the Engine of "Pre-Prophetic Cinema"

One of the central questions facing every creator is: What is the role of art? Should it reflect reality as it is, be an accurate mirror to the world, or does it have the power to generate something completely new?

In Jewish thought, and especially in Rav Kook's philosophy, the answer is clear, and it constitutes the foundation for the conception of Pre-Prophetic Cinema.

The Depicting Culture vs. The Creating Culture

Rav Kook distinguishes between two cognitive forces: "Depicting Intellect" (שכל מצייר) and "Creative Intellect" (שכל יוצר).

Western culture, for the most part, operates from the "Depicting Intellect" – it sets itself the goal of depicting reality, observing it, contemplating it, and analyzing it.

In contrast, Hebrew culture in its prophetic roots aspires to something else. It does not just want to depict, but to create, to generate, to bring forth a new reality. This perception places man in a position of creative partnership with the Creator, as one capable by his inner power of creating new worlds.

Rav Kook himself formulates this distinction with sharp clarity:

"The essential difference between Israel and the nations, at the root of their souls, is that the intellect of man in general, which is but a depicting intellect, presents in its spirit what exists... But the divine virtue of a creative intellect, this is the wonder of the virtue of Israel..."

The Will: The Virtue of the New Creation

And what is the force that drives the "Creative Intellect"? It is the Will (הרצון). Rav Kook writes extensively about the liberation of the will, the freedom of the will, and the redemption of the will as the basis for a future culture in which man discovers his power as a creator. This will is not willpower, but the revelation of selfhood, of the inner, fundamental essence from which everything flows. Not for nothing in the Torah of Kabbalah, out of the ten Sefirot, the highest and most fundamental Sefirah called "Keter" (כתר - Crown) - is called Will.

Our return to political independence, he argues, must be accompanied by the revival of the Israeli will and a spiritual-cultural revolution. A revolution that will renew templates of wisdom and consciousness, and aspire to modern revelation – the renewal of prophetic culture in contemporary attire.

Rav Kook, in "Shmonah Kvatzim," identifies the will as the future redemptive force that will renew the face of all existence:

"The newest force that will be revealed in the world, to renew life in complete redemption, is the great value that the will of man has in all existence, when it is completed in its full perfection... All our actions are directed towards this, to reveal the divinity in the will of man... And everything is renewed in a great light, in new life, in a new song, in renewed nature, in new souls... in the revelation of the true value of the will of man in reality."

And how is all this expressed in the editing room?

An editor operating from a "Depicting Intellect" approaches the raw materials with the aim of arranging them according to a predetermined script. He "depicts" the story. In contrast, an editor operating from a "Creative Intellect" approaches the raw materials through listening. He asks: "What is the hidden will living within these shots? What film is hidden here and asking to be born?". Every cut of his is an act of discovery, of creation, and not just of organization.

If so, this is not just a philosophical theory. It is a practical call, an invitation to every creator to reconnect with the inner source of creation.

Arise! Awaken! Refine your creative will, elevate it to the sublime and connect it to the root of reality, to the living divine will that animates the entire world. And the great sea of the general will does not nullify any small and private will, but meets it, will meets will, intellect meets intellect, and everything unites and animates the world, and new worlds are born and created incessantly.

Listen to the discourse of the soul and the living will pulsating within it, sound the voice, the original Israeli will, for out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.