Volume 7, Number 3 - Cantors Assembly

MITZVAH AND BEAUTY
43
GERSON D. COHEN
Since classical rabbinic times, the rabbis have considered the
aesthetic dimension integral to the authentic halakhic way of life.
They found legitimacy for their quest for beauty in the verse:
“This is my God and I will glorify Him, the God of my father and I
will exalt Him.“ (Exodus 15.2)
This verse, proclaimed by Moses and the children of Israel in their
song to the Lord when they were saved at the Sea of Reeds, summarizes
in a few words the task and the challenge that face all who
serve our community. Ours is the task of glorifying God and the
Torah, and exalting them. How? The classic remarks of the rabbis on
this versse (in the Mekhiltade R. Ishmael) should forever be in our
minds.
“And I will glorify Him:” Rabbi Ishmael says, ‘Is it then possible
for flesh and blood to bestow glory on its creator:’ Yes indeed, I can
bestow glory on Him by the fulfillment of the commandments with
beauty. I can prepare for His sake a handsome lulav, an attractive
sukkah, a beautiful tallit, lovely tefillin. ’
Ours is an awesome responsibility, for frequently we have it in our
power by our words and by our deeds either to draw people high to God
and to Torah or to repel them and alienate them. Indeed, we have it in
our power to do this to others, for in the first instance we do it to
ourselves; we either draw close to God and Torah or we move away
from them. How? By the way we respond to the charge of living by the
word of Torah. Do we do it mechanically, by rote, as an obligation to be
dispensed and gotten over with? Or do we fulfill out of love and with
love, in a word, with our total selves? Do we also strive to do what we
do with whatever measure of beauty the Almighty has granted us, so
that we make the life of Torah into an experience satisfying and uplifting
for ourselves and esthetically appealing to others? It is this latter
posture that R. Ishmael admonishes us to adopt: to glorify God by
making His glory evident and intelligible to people through art and the
dedication that motivates striving for beauty.
Thanks to the spread of education and the advances of technology,
art and beauty are today no longer the exclusive possession of the very
rich, but accessible to everyone. Most of us have museums and symphony
orchestras within relatively easy reach. Their treasures are
Dr. Gerson D. Cohen is the Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.