Attitude of judaism toward art
Beginning, at the beginning of Creation
Jewish art begins at the very beginning of the Torah, with
the concepts of “creation,” “beginning,”
“developmental stages,” and with an act of “work”
that is characterized by an outcome called “tov”
(good) and is especially characterized by a holistic combination
of material, spiritual and divine levels which are united
in a relationship of happiness (the Garden of Eden), that
also entails the risk of rupture. Without this “connection
at these levels and between these levels,” the creation
of art results in dead, fragmentary aesthetics such as the
Tower of Babel.
Without a relationship of love at the heart of a shared artistic
act, every work of art self-destructs ipso facto, just as
the Temple was destroyed because of fraternal hatreds, and
rites imprinted in the greatest beauty become empty and devoid
of reality.
Jewish art places the “development of man
parallel with, and even before, the development of the object,”
at the center of art. A work of art, par excellence, is Abraham,
the letters of whose name are those of creation (Abraham –
behibaram). In consequence, the first and foremost goal of
the artist (all human beings possess in them the model of
Abraham and of initial Creation and need to return to the
holy text to develop it) is “lekh lekha, go toward thyself,”
not “study” or “make.” Definitely not
“do like others” which is what we find in all ideologies
and “Schools of Art” – these ideologies and
Schools create a new model, enshrine it, follow it as a herd,
and then go off in a another direction, to begin the same
process all over again. They aspire to art but, instead, they
fall each time into imitation, into what is “like”
something else, which is the most anti-creative process possible
and therefore the most anti-artistic.
It is for this reason that the Jewish people
(called “Hebrews” initially, thus indicating the
continual need for “transition”) had to return to
Egypt, which represented, at the time, the summit of artistic
art in the world. We have the treasures of Tutankhamen to
prove it. But this super refined world of art lacked the essential
element which constitutes and sustains the world – continued
“Creation.” The Egyptian world of beauty was sealed
by injunctions to repeat, by the domination of a few, and
by the prohibition to “create.” The process of creation
had to be renewed through the passage across the Desert and
the discovery of life’s essential connections. As the
Bible tells us: “the entire people saw the voices.”
This was not a new form of political organization, embellished
with a handsome name and ideology: it was the collective experience
of fundamental life where saying, doing and seeing are one
and the same thing.
Sadly, this experience was not enough and the
people-herd asked to be sent back to slavery, from which they
still have not emerged. The role of the prophets was to constantly
remind the people of the principles that underlie the good
order of the world and enable continued creation. This model
is not taught in any School: it is taught through the vision
of the ultimate work of art, through the inner and external
beauty represented by the Cohen Gadol, the High Priest.
Bezalel
After Adam, after Abraham, and after Sinai came Bezalel. There
was a need to represent the above principles in a concrete
manner, not at the level of a mere object, while preserving
the process of life and the beauty of creation. So Moshe turned
to an artist, the supreme artist, Bezalel, in the same way
as one turns to a Council of Sages to indicate to us the true
values of life.
Who was Bezalel? His very name means: “within the divine
shadow.” No person is without art, “interiority,”
or connection to Creation and to the process of creation.
And Bezalel was within this process. The same notion is found
in the name Esther (she is “in the secret”). Esther
can enter whenever she wants before the Creator and he says
to her: “Queen Esther, what is your request, even if
its half of the kingdom, it shall be yours.” The artist
has access, as we are told in the first verse of Psalm 91.
Bezalel and his aide Oholiab were given the
task of clothing the High Priest, the Cohen Gadol, and they
made him garments that were pure and connected to life, not
like the betrayal of life personified by the robotic, lifeless
models one see on the catwalk today. The word for garment
in Hebrew is beged which is similar to begida, meaning betrayal.
A work of art must not be a betrayal; it must represent life
and creation, as we are told in Chapter 31 of Exodus and Chapter
40 of the Book of Ezekiel.
The teachers who select candidates in Schools
of Art can learn a lot from Exodus 31, 6: the ideal candidates
must not only possess knowledge, wisdom and artistic expertise,
they must also be “ham lev,” “sages of the
heart,” for the heart is the holistic center, not of
ideas, but of life that is vital and fluid.
It comes, therefore, as no surprise that Israel’s National
School of Art, founded in 1906 by Boris Schatz, chose the
name of Bezalel. Roi Suffrin underwent his “passage”
and training at Bezalel.
Halakha (Jewish religious law)
concerning art
Religious law is called “halakha.” The fact that
the word derives from the root halakh (to go) indicates that
religious laws do not aim to enclose or dominate people, like
government laws, but represent, instead, a process, a going
towards. It is in this perspective that we should understand
what Jewish law says about art, rather than focusing right
away on the prohibition against representation, for this prohibition
is simply a consequence of the desire to safeguard the process
of life. If a painting takes the place of reality and of life,
then it is prohibited. But if the artist Bezalel is capable
of creating a representation which is the vehicle of life,
renders this process visible and creates a relationship with
the essence of life, then we need the artist and his role
is essential. Furthermore, it is he who will give us a constantly
visible reflection of a world that is beautiful and creative:
he does this through his interiority and exteriority, and
through his relations with the world, for he circulates his
art and sells it.
In Hebrew, the word for face is in the plural,
“ panim,” meaning faces, because we have both an
inner and an outer face and they must both be present in us
and in the person who “faces” us. The face represents
the part of our bodies that most reflects failure or success.
It is for this reason that the representation of the human
person was specifically forbidden. But today, all the Great
Rabbis allow themselves to be photographed. This is permitted
on condition their representations are not viewed as idols,
as objects substituting for life. The Psalms and the Prophets
ridicule idols who do not talk, and do not feel. In contrast,
when everything is in order, then art is present and necessary.
What demonstrates this best are the two cherubs (kerumvim)
first described in Genesis 3, 24, then in Exodus 25, 18-20
and 37, 7-9. It is said that the place from which God speaks
is “between the two cherubs” made by the artist.
Refer also to the following passages: I Samuel 4, 4. II Samuel
6, 2. II Kings 19, 15. Isaiah 37, 16 and Psalms 80, 2 and
99, 1.
The Sages, or possekei din, who define the rules
that govern representation in a particular period or for a
particular community, refer first and foremost to these basic
principles. The way they are applied is secondary. The same
principles pertain to the representation of faces and bodies,
as well as to people’s names, for it is expressly forbidden
to use a person’s name with disrespect or scorn.
Those who are very strict and doubt whether
the representation of beauty is permissible, should refer
to Tractate Shabbat of the Babylonian Talmud, page 133b, which
states: “Baraitha: Exodus 15, 2 says in the Song of Moshe
and of the people: ze Eli ne anvehu – Here is my God
and I shall embellish him. So, adorn yourself before him with
good deeds, make in His honor a beautiful hut for the festival
of Succot, choose a beautiful palm, a beautiful shofar, beautiful
fringes for the tsisiot at the corners of your garments, a
beautiful book and write the Torah in His name with beautiful
ink, a handsome pen, a talented scribe, and wrap it in precious
silk. Abba Shaul tells us that this also signifies that we
must strive to resemble Him: particularly, by being compassionate
and full of mercy, as He is Himself.” Judaism, thus,
accords a place of eminence to works of art, to human beings
as works of art, to interiority and exteriority as works of
art. Such works of art have nothing to with objects that are
“fashionable” or accorded great value on the art
market. When art adheres to the principles of Judaism, there
is no prohibition: on the contrary, there is even an obligation
to create it. The image of the dirty, ugly religious Jew is
not a Jewish image.
In order to avoid the negative slide that leads
to idol worship, the Torah tells us in Exodus 20, 4: “Thou
shalt not make thee any craven image, or any likeness of any
thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath
or that is in the water under the earth.” This is a prohibition
against the representation of God, or the making of an object
that claims to represent God. This prohibition is specifically
set out in the summary of the Torah, in Devarim (Deuteronomy)
5, 8-9. Chapter 4, 16-18 of the same book prohibits the representation
of human beings, male and female, for use as idols.
On this basis, and because of the different
needs of Jewish communities throughout history, the ordinances
issued by the Sages against representation varied (as in Islam).
In modern times, as idol worship became less prevalent, the
rabbis permitted the representation of a person’s face,
even their own, for this did not represent idolatry. The specific
authorization was given by Rav Solomon Hirsch (1762-1842)
who was painted, engraved on medals, and even sculpted for
his community by Drummond. We are now at a point where even
the strictest streams of Judaism produce photographs and films
about their rabbis and other figures (caution against idolatry
remains necessary, for there is always a risk that the writings
or image of an rabbi can unconsciously be confused with the
Creator, but the problem, then, is not limited to the image
but to the whole relationship.) Conversely, there remains
the prohibition against transforming the image of a person
into an object of scorn and, therefore, no longer in the image
of God: this includes the widespread, immodest exploitation
of the female body and its use as a cheap source of excitement
and profit for the consumer industry.
Jewish art or art created by Jews preserves
the age-old values of Jewish tradition which represents life,
creation, interiority, true relationships and respect for
human beings. Whether the subject of the art is religious
or profane is irrelevant; what is important is the adherence
to these principles.
Biblical figures and themes
in works of art
Numerous works of art have been based on Biblical
themes and figures, or bear Biblical titles; Adam and Eve,
Abraham and Sarah, the sacrifice of Isaac, Joseph and his
brothers, all the episodes relating to the life of the Children
of Israel in Egypt, in the desert, in Sinai, David and Goliath,
Solomon, the rites of the Temple, and the destruction of the
Temple.
Then there are the many images of Jewish community
life (the synagogue, places of study); the major events in
Jewish life from birth, bar mitzvah, marriage, the Shabbat
table, and death; the rabbis and important public figures;
the artistic characteristics of each community; and the milestones
in Jewish history – exiles, pogroms, the Holocaust, the
return to Israel and the discovery by artists of the landscapes
of the land of Israel.
There are major Jewish such as Picart, Gottlieb,
Chagall and Modigliani. And great non-Jewish painters such
as Rembrandt, Delacroix, who left us incomparable works. Also
imprinted in our minds are the images of the hundreds of synagogues
which rose following the destruction of the Temple and which
survive to this day, contradicting the lie perpetrated by
Christians that everything Jewish was destroyed in the year
70, to give way to Christianity; the images of the stones
of Ashkelon, the mosaics of Bet Alfa and Hamam Lif, the lintel
of the house of study at Dabbura, Capernaum, the menorah of
Caesarea, of Hammath and Ein Gedi, the frescoes of Pekiin,
the mosaics of Maon, Jericho, Naarah, Gaza, Beth Shean and
Gerasa, and the synagogues of Gush Halav.
And in dispersion and exile, the wonderful,
renowned synagogues of Toledo, Cordoba, Prague, Amsterdam,
Venice, Florence, Ostia, and the tombs of Esther, Mordechai
and the prophet Daniel in Iran.
Some other sources:
Exodus 20,4,23. 31,1-6. 35,30-35. 36,4
Numbers 15,39
Talmud
Rosh Ha Shana. 29b. Shabbat 131b
Avodah Zarah 43a. 50a. Pessahim 104a
Beit Yossef, to Tur Yoreh Deah 141.
Shulhan 'Aruk, Yoreh De'ah, 141,3
Ibn Zimra responsa 107.
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