Art for God's Sake

To the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem (1907)
By the grace of God, To the leaders of the honored society for the study of Hebrew art, the Bezalel Association, shalom.
One ray of light shines in the blackness of our darkened world. In the Diaspora, our brethren face chaos and darkness. Blood is shed, bodies are trampled, skulls crushed; the looting and plunder of homes, stores and all precious things. Our people are humiliated, trampled and savaged beneath the hooves of a wild boar that tramples. There is no one to save them. Even the assistance of friends and allies, lovers of Freedom, has failed to materialize; they stand by and do not lift a finger as they see the destruction of the Jewish People [lit. Joseph.] All the actions advanced by young Jews in Russia, for freedom and advancement, all of these have been absolutely forgotten, there in that bloodstained land… But lie a stream of fresh life-giving water falling on a beaten body, the land of Israel is awakening. Though it is an exceedingly slow process, inch by inch, punctuated by lengthy pauses, she is nonetheless experiencing a revival and revitalization, and buds of renewal are visible to those who care to pay attention. One of the clearest signs of revival is the important endeavor initiated by your honored organization — "The revival of Hebrew art and aesthetics in Israel." The very sight of our talented brothers, masters of aesthetics and art is heartwarming, as they establish their rightful position in the broad, central highway of world culture, carried by a divine spirit to Jerusalem. They beautify our holy city, a capital that is as a seal upon the national heart, with aesthetics, design, dignity and splendor which will also be a source of blessing and benefit. This is a phenomenon that everyone can appreciate and celebrate; old and young, even the coldhearted and those preoccupied with the challenges of mere survival.
MOTHER! THE DOLL!
A young girl, beautiful, beloved - the darling daughter. Now - after a long, protracted illness, her face pallid, bluish lips, burning fever, convulsions and trembling - now, her eyes open, her tightly sealed lips part, her little hands move with renewed life, her thin pure fingers wander and find themselves, seeking their purpose. Her lips move and almost revert to their normal color, and as if from the dead, her voice is heard: "Mother, Mother - the doll! Pass me the doll. Oh! my dear doll; I haven't seen her for so long." Delight! All are overjoyed - her father and mother, brothers, sisters, and the grandparents who in their old age have forgotten their children's games – they all exclaim: "Little Shoshana is asking for her doll!" Thank God, a wonderful sign, certainly her fever has subsided. The doctor too, who has by now become a family friend, rejoices with the family just as he had shared in their pain, he concurs: "A good sign!" The crisis is over! Now there is hope that Shoshana will live, she will grow up, become an adult woman, mature and beautiful. Certainly, the doll is the first request but she will continue to ask. Her spirit and body will grow stronger and she will ask for medicine, for soup, for bread and meat, for clothing and jewelery … and then for teachers, pens, books, work and much more. In reaction to this sight all are ecstatic… "Hurray! Little Shoshana, so sweet and beautiful, is asking for her doll!"
JERUSALEM
Jerusalem, the beloved, this lily (shoshanna) of the valley, the precious daughter of Zion has been afflicted with the bitter disease of the Exile, prolonged and stormy. Her children have forgotten her. Many of the weak-hearted have lost hope, for her life. Now a lifegiving stream has gently shaken the depressed sickly bones, and she demands aesthetics and work of art. Some say that perhaps this is not the proper moment - that there are other priorities and more essential needs. Yes, perhaps, there are such needs. But this request which emerges from the heart of [Jerusalem's] children, from the spirit that she bestowed on them, is itself a sign of life, a sign of hope, salvation and comfort. How important it is to comprehend that this sign of life is not devoid of substance and content; it is productive and beneficial. Aesthetic arts can certainly bring blessings, providing a livelihood for many families here in the Holy Land… It will also open up sensitivity to beauty and purity that endows the children of Zion, it will uplift depressed souls, offering a clear, illuminated perspective of life's splendor, of nature, of work – its dignity and diligence. All these are noble principles that will fill the Hebrew soul with delight and majesty. And the good hopes that rise in my heart in light of your new and honorable movement give me sufficient courage to speak to you, honored gentlemen and beloved brothers, a few words from a different perspective, seemingly totally different from that of the creation of beauty and art: from the rabbinic vantage point. But I hope that these words will be beneficial. By stating some simple truths we will remove huge obstacles from our way, and clear the beneficial and improved path to our ideal, so that the effulgence of glory and beauty will gain strength and. eventually appear over our people in our land and in our holy city. Our nation has always related in a positive and pleasant way to the artistic beauty manifest in the creative works made with human hands. But [our respect for art] is also limited. Even in the higher, refined disciplines, we must be cautious of intoxication and excess. Virtue is a guiding light, and yet, we read in the holy scriptures: "Do not be too righteous" (Ecclesiastes 7:16), Wisdom is the light of our lives yet we say: "Nor make yourselves over wise.(ibid)" "It is not good to eat much honey" (Proverbs 25:27). This is the principle that embraces all aspects of the eternal nation's life. We will never sell ourselves to one particular idea to the degree that we drown in its depth, to the extent that we lose the capacity to give ourselves a limit and to put a boundary to its dominant influence. Indeed, the limit of those things which are inherently good and ennobled is small, gentle, delicate and beautiful, "set about with lillies " (Song of Songs 7:3), "Even through a hedge of lilies they make no breach," (Talmud Sanhedrin 37a) for … a single stroke can encapsulate a much weighty ideal, the notion of limitation … Sometimes by one significant gesture, [Israel] expresses its ethos and achieves its objective, all this without hurting human individuality and spirit nor by shackling it in iron, or building a Great Wall of China around it.
When our nation came into being, it found mankind wrapped in the swaddling cloth of its barbaric infancy, and the wild unbridled passion for beauty, unrefined by purity and culture, conquered the globe. Beauty itself was likely to become, in the hands of the crude masses, a sort of sugary substance, a source of inebriation, were it unable to draw its sap from ethics and science. Paganism, with all its abominations, laid its dirty and blood-soaked hands on this delicate flower - beauty and fine art - and practically severed it from its pure roots. Israel, charged with the divine law …. turned to save the pretty lily flower … lest it be trampled and crushed absolutely in the crude vile hands of paganism. On the one hand - "You shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall you make yourselves gods of gold. "You shall make yourself no molten gods," (Ex.ch.20) "You shall not make for yourself any carved idol," (ibid.) and on the other hand - "See the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Yehuda; and he has filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship; and to contrive works of art, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in the cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of wood, to make all manner of artistic work. And he put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Aholi'av, the son of Achisamakh, of the tribe of Dan. Them he has filled with the wisdom of heart, to do all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the craftsman, and of the embroiderer, in blue and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any work, and of those that devise artistic work." (Ex.ch.30) Even after the victory, when Judaism had all but defeated paganism in the highly cultured world, the nation of Israel [was] left one line as an everlasting sign of the saving strength of her right hand, in accordance with the dictates of the written and Oral Law [Torah]. Even when this line becomes shorter, through [the application of] judicial wisdom in a way compatible with life's needs… it would yet retain its great and powerful spirit, that expresses the strength of its triumph in the past, and the power of its hope for the future.
The whole area of ornamentation, beautification and painting is permitted to Jews. There is only one limit, one line … long in its quality and not its quantity. This limit conveys much spiritually but does only minimal harm to craftsmanship and art for all the power of its noble purpose. "All visages are allowed, save the face of man." In fact, only the sculpture of a complete human face, in relief, [is prohibited] and there are ways of circumvention … such as through the help of a gentile assistant in the final stage of a prohibited sculpture. What is left, then, is only a small point of the whole long line, but God's designs are manifold: the nation of Israel shall abhor and not tolerate those images that typified the pagan world of the past or present, or of Christianity.
Therefore it is proper, and indeed our holy obligation that such statues should not be housed in the national treasury of arts in our Lord's holy city. And in general it would be very appropriate for the honorable committee to make it known to the general and Jewish cultured world, that all those acts which fall in the narrow path where the nation's sensibilities, religion, and art coincide, will be performed according to the nation's will and general aspirations to see particularly in the city of her rejoicing of hopes the treasure of all its wealth, strength and sacredness, [that all is done] according to the teaching of the sages of the Torah, the accepted scholarly leaders of nation of Israel in its land. When we look at the practical benefit, which you wish to bring through this honorable work to our brothers who have settled in the Holy Land, it is easy to understand that only if this honorable house will not generally be considered as one which shelters things that we, as obligated by the sacred Torah, look upon with inner spiritual animosity, only then will the institution you establish be able to yield the desired benefits: to attract the many of our brothers who work in these arts, or who are talented and [seek] to perfect their talents and improve their work, as well as many [younger] students of the children of Zion, from all the communities of our nation that have settled in the Holy Land, in these honorable arts in the many branches that have spread out from the living tree of painting and arts. And honorable people, your sacred aim is to create and not to ruin, to build and not to destroy. I trust, in your exalted honors, that you will be mindful of these words that come from a heart full of love and respect for the principles of your honorable aspirations. The holy city of Jaffa, may it be built and established.