In search of imperfection

“As a performer, one has a mission, like Coltrane, to take your solo out to talk to God.”

This is the opening sentence of an Opinion piece in this past Dec. 2 issue of The New York Times titled “The Quest for Perfection Is Stunting Society;” the author is Jonathan Biss, concert pianist, artistic director of the Marlboro Music School and Festival.

Biss goes on to identify the source of the quote: “That’s from Patti Smith, a great and uncategorizable artist, describing the saxophonist John Coltrane’s influence on her…”

Next, making no transition in thought or feeling, Biss adds, sardonically, “classical musicians are not trained to talk to God. We are trained not to make mistakes.” Here Biss, twisting and turning from John Coltrane to Patti Smith to classical musicians like himself, gets to the point of his essay: our society’s misguided – even dangerous – quest for perfection.

A paragraph or two further on Biss writes: “This fetishism of perfection might not be surprising, but that does not make it any less damaging. You cannot learn or grow while trying to appear as if you have everything figured out. You cannot talk to God by trying to avoid doing something wrong. Perfection is stagnation. (Italics added)

It is no accident that Biss begins his Opinion piece by calling to our consciousness John Coltrane (1926-1967), one of the most innovative jazz musicians of all time, whose saxophone solo improvisations seem, indeed, to “talk to God.” Whenever I play and replay his recording on the Atlantic label of “My Favorite Things,” I do not hear him striving for “perfection” on his soprano sax; rather, I hear him taking risks, surprising himself by taking giant steps with his instrument into places where neither he nor anybody else has ever been before. It is as if in the musical trance of his saxophone improvisation, Coltrane does not, cannot, know if he is flirting with “perfection” or is failing his listeners, his instrument and himself. At his finest moments, Coltrane is far from striving for perfection; he is striving to take his solo out to talk to God. For these reasons, John Coltrane is not only my favorite jazz musician; he is my favorite musician – period!

Despite all of the creativity of our Biblical writers, none of them reaches perfection; for, as I have long been arguing, Biblical literature is the written response of our ancestors – both men and women – to their experience of being in living relationship with God. Our ancestors, like all of us today, reflect our human imperfections in their living and in their writing.

So many of our Biblical writers have somehow managed to take their solo voices out to talk to God – and to us; these ancient writers have found a way to make their voices our voices. When God calls out to Abraham, “Lech lecha, Go forth!” Abraham chooses to go forth, and the course of Western history is transformed. Isaac’s life is rescued by a ram from God, so that the course of monotheism can move forward. Jacob dreams of a ladder whose rungs are supporting angels, and later on he wrestles with the angel of himself.

Much of the book of Job is one man’s anguished turning to take his solo out to talk to God. And then – how can we forget? – every one of our 150 Biblical Psalms is a written record of an ancient Israelite taking his solo out to talk to God. It is not their perfection but rather their all-too-human imperfections that infuse our Psalms with both their humanity and a profound sense of God’s Presence both in darkness as well as in light.

The title of this column, “In Search of Imperfection,” is deliberate,

As Jonathan Biss makes clear in his essay, the quest for perfection inevitably leads to stagnation – the very antithesis of art. It is the creative use of our human imperfections that enables us to take our solos out to talk to God.

JAMES B. ROSENBERG is a rabbi emeritus at Temple Habonim in Barrington. Contact him at rabbiemeritus@templehabonim.org.