{"id":1824,"date":"2019-03-03T21:49:16","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T01:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=1824"},"modified":"2019-03-03T21:49:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T01:49:18","slug":"art-history-and-jews-parsha-vayakhel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=1824","title":{"rendered":"Art, History, and Jews: Parsha Vayakhel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cJudaism,\u201d writes Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, \u201cin sharp contrast to\nancient Greece, did not cherish the visual arts. The reason is clear. The\nbiblical prohibition against graven images associates them with idolatry.\nHistorically, images, fetishes, icons and statues were linked in the ancient\nworld with pagan religious practices. The idea that one might worship \u2018the work\nof men\u2019s hands\u2019 was anathema to biblical faith.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what we are told, over and over again \u2013 and the narrative comes\nfrom some of the most literate, erudite rabbis in the world, a description\nwhich most certainly applies to Rabbi Sacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can anticipate what will come next; it is predictable. Tanakh, they\nwill say, demonstrates that our ancient forebears loved beauty. But all such\nbeauty was in the service of God. All such creation supersedes anything the\nsecular artist can create. This week\u2019s parsha, Vayakhel<\/em>, is a prime\nexample. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In it, we read of Betzalel, designer and craftsman, jeweler,\nwoodcarver, even embroiderer. He is entrusted, together with Oholiab and all\nother gifted artists and artisans the Israelites can find, to create beauty for\nthe service of God. Under his direction, the Tabernacle would be gorgeous and\nlush, filled with objects that shone, that glittered, that glowed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One has to image the scenes \u2013 scores, hundreds, maybe thousands of\nIsraelites cutting, sewing, embroidering, carving, forming. Gold and silver,\nmelted and poured into forms, cloth dyed in brilliant hues, the creation of\nartistry is everywhere. And indeed, this is work with one goal: to make a beautiful\nresidence for the Holy One.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But otherwise, we are told, our forbears eschewed artistry because it could\ndistract from God, rather than serve God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to take those good rabbis on a tour. I want to show them the mosaics of ancient temples with leaping animals and biblical figures. I want to show them the walls of Dura-Europos Synagogue<\/a> of 244 CE. — walls filled with brilliantly painted scenes from Tanakh, with human beings so alive to their story that one feels the artist telling us everything we could read in the scroll. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Fresco from the Dura Europos Synagogue<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I want us to walk by a gallery of spice boxes from the centuries \u2013 in\nthe form of castle towers, yes, but also in the shape of almost anything\nimaginable, from flowers to fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want those rabbis to look at embroidered and painted wimpels, Torah\nbinders made from the cloth used to diaper baby boys at their circumcisions. Medieval\nwomen of Ashkenaz let their imagination run riot in their work, producing a\nplethora of creatures wiggling out of Hebrew letters near scenes of wedding\ncouples, Torah scrolls, symbols of tribal inheritance and affiliation. Look for\nthe flowers, the birds, the priestly hands and the Levite\u2019s jug. Look for\nfolktale characters embroidered across the cloth \u2013 if you look late enough,\nyou\u2019ll even find Micky Mouse adorning the cloth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Detail from an embroidered wimpel of Ashkenaz.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

No, the Birds’ Head Haggadah<\/a> is by no means an exception to a world in which care has been lavished on so much that is so beautiful. In the last thirty years, academic research into Jewish art has demonstrated that fact \u2013 in colorful, brilliant reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open the pages of Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts<\/a> <\/em>and you will find illuminated versions of machzorim, haggadot, and the Tanakh. But you will also discover art enhancing the Mishneh Torah<\/em>, rabbinic commentaries, collections of teshuvot, and even a woodcut mapping the world with Jerusalem at the center. Mythological beasts (like the unicorn) and grotesque animals show up in medieval Jewish texts as does God, strangely enough, emerging from a cloud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pharaoh's
Illuminated Mishneh Torah<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Chagall is not the exception we imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centuries of Jewish love for beauty has indeed often found its way into\nour ritual objects. Judaism is a religious culture that relies on objects, on\nthings of beauty to be distributed in our homes as well as our sanctuaries. Who\ndoes not possess a favorite hanukkiah, a Passover seder plate, a mezuzah that\nwas bought in significant part because it was beautiful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rabbi Sacks notes all this loveliness is the product of hiddur mitzvah,<\/em> \u201cbeautifying the commandment.\u201d We are supposed to fulfill each commandment, each mitzvah, in the most beautiful way we can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he insists, like so many rabbis, on making a distinction between\nthis kind of art and secular art. Art for its own sake, he suggests, cannot\npoint to anything beyond itself. Art in the service of God, however, is the\nkind we find in Vayakhel — the kind that is worth valuing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suspect that our forebears loved creating, from the time of the\nTabernacle onward. And I wonder: When God creates, we call that holy. When we\ncreate, we do so as beings formed betzelem Elohim, <\/em>in the image of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever we create, may it be holy. And may it be beautiful, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cJudaism,\u201d writes Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, \u201cin sharp contrast to ancient Greece, did not cherish the visual arts. The reason is clear. The biblical prohibition against graven images associates them with idolatry. Historically, images, fetishes, icons and statues were linked in the ancient world with pagan religious practices. The idea that one might worship \u2018the work of men\u2019s hands\u2019 was anathema to biblical faith.\u201d
\nThis is what we are told, over and over again \u2013 and the narrative comes from some of the most literate, erudite rabbis in the world…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[496,495],"class_list":["post-1824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dura-europa","tag-vayakhel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adrenalinedrash.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dura-Europa-Pharaohs-Daughter.jpg?fit=1056%2C402&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1824"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1831,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824\/revisions\/1831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}