Parshat Ki Tisa – Figures, art, and sculpture
Drawing, painting, and sculpting are major artforms. Throughout history much of man’s artistic expression included pictures and sculptures in various forms – mostly animals and people, but also objects from nature. We generally think of such pieces as innocent and many people display this type of work in their home. When we think of problematic art we generally think of idols, sculptures of gods, or serving God through physical objects, like the Golden Calf in Ki Tisa.
The nature of the prohibition
But (assuming it’s always possible to distinguish between them) is there actually a distinction between images made for art and images made for idol worship?
It’s difficult to draw a clear conclusion from the text of the Torah. The Torah expressly prohibits making sculptures and worshiping them:
“Do not make for yourself a sculpture or any image that is in the heavens above or the land below and that is in the water below the land. Do not bow down to them and do not serve them…”[1]
It’s possible to interpret these verses in a number of ways. One could say there are two different, independent prohibitions – making a sculpture or image and bowing down to a sculpture or image. Yet it’s also possible to claim one that sculptures and images are only prohibited within the context of avoda zara (lit. foreign service, which can mean both worshiping false gods and worshiping God in a foreign way); more specifically the prohibition aims at preventing the worship of such objects.[2] In Devarim a similar prohibition against making sculptures and images of animals and heavenly bodies is also juxtaposed to a warning not to bow down or serve them.[3]
Yet the verses that follow the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai indicate that the prohibitions are not necessarily interdependent:
The Lord said to Moshe, this you shall say to the Children of Israel: You saw that I spoke to you from the heavens. Do not make with Me any gods of silver and gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.[4]
Chazal understood these verses as two separate prohibitions. The prohibition against making gods of silver and gods of gold is preceded by the prohibition of “Do not make with Me.” “With Me” is understood as anything that’s considered as if it’s in God’s “surroundings,” or appears in prophetic visions of God. This includes heavenly bodies, the human form, and forms of angels, since the latter two appear in the prophet Yechezkel’s description of a revelation where God is represented by the form of a human surrounded by angelic figures called cherubs.[5]
The Mechilta indicates that all images and sculptures are prohibited, while the mishna distinguishes between making sculptures and possessing them.[6] One is permitted to own a sculpture if it’s clearly not for avoda zara (either because it was originally made for artistic purposes or it was broken so it lost its status for avoda zara). It also seems that one may possess such figures for educational purposes, as reflected in the Talmudic discussion about the images of the moon Rabban Gamliel used when he questioned the witnesses of the new moon.[7]
This discussion concerning Rabban Gamliel’s actions demonstrates just how controversial the prohibition against owning sculptures is.[8] One opinion limits the prohibition to owning three dimensional images of people and cherubs but permits other faces. Based on this opinion many Rishonim allow making pictures of animals, and even sculptures, as long as it isn’t a full three dimensional image of a person.[9] There are other opinions that permit two dimensional images of heavenly bodies (because they always look two-dimensional to us).[10] In contrast, there are those who are stringent and prohibit even two dimensional images of animals in synagogues and the like, especially if they represent constellations.[11]
These laws are certainly the product of a perceived danger of avoda zara which has dissipated over the centuries, although it has not fully disappeared. Yet it’s possible that they also reflect the idea that we must limit our urge to imitate nature and create it ourselves; literally, the sky’s the limit. Conversely, the recognition of the importance of art has grown stronger throughout the centuries. Art is both an expression of people’s ability to see the world with wonder, and an expression of our God-given potential to create.[12] There is a tension here, a struggle between our potential to create and wonderment over creation on one side, and the danger of deifying man and eroding the boundaries between earth and heaven on the other. This tension is not limited to artistic expression, it is a constant part of our religious lives.
[1] Shemot 20: 4-5
[2] These possibilities include the prohibition against making idols and also making sculptures that have the potential to be used as idols (as Rambam states in Hilkhot Avoda Zara 3:10 “So that people will not err and imagine that they are for avoda zara.” Rambam specifically refers to the human form, as we will see, but the phrasing reflects the possible concerns.)
[3] Devarim 4:14-19
[4] Shemot 20: 19-20
[5] Yechezkel 1: 26-28, TB Rosh Hashana 24b – 25a
[6]Mechilta d’Rabbi Yishmael Massechta d’BaChodesh (Yitro) Parsha 6, “Lo Ta’aseh”; Mishna Avoda Zara 3:1-4
[7] Mishna Rosh Hashana 2:8, TB Rosh Hashana 25a
[8] ibid.
[9] Shulchan Aruch YD 141:6. Some prohibit a full human face (Taz YD 141:15 in the name of Maharshal). Others permit human form as long as it is not a clear symbol of avoda zara, since the prohibition is based on concern (Chachmat Adam Sha’ar OC, Hilkhot Akum 85). But it’s generally accepted that the human form is only allowed if it is flawed from the outset.
[10] For example: Shulchan Aruch YD 141:13, Igrot Moshe YD II 55:6
[11] Mordechai Avoda Zara Remez 840, Shach YD 141:13
[12] Rav Kook, Olat Ha’Ri’iya 2, pg 3; Rav Kook Igrot 1 pg. 203
