If perhaps you should decide to take up the hobby of painting, before you go out and purchase your new easel and a set of watercolors, it may be wise to consider the word of God as per commandment number two of the Ten Commandments, which states clearly in Hebrew, in Exodus 20:4, “Lo sa-aseh lecha pesel v’kol temunah…Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, and all manner of likeness of anything that is in the Heaven above, or the Earth below or that is in the water under the earth.”
Clear enough. The passage ostensibly orders a blanket prohibition of all forms of artistic manifestations of the heavens, the earth and the seas. However, even so, we do not see any widespread condemnation of Jewish artists, such as Marc Chagall or Amadeo Modigliani, to name a few of the more famous. Why, even our favorite weekly Jewish publication ran a large article heralding an “Exhibition of Jewish Art opening at Scranton’s Everhart Museum” (The Jewish Link, July 25, 2024)
So, what gives? Why the exemption for the paintings?
The answer is in the Torah itself, and partly encoded in the second recitation of the Ten Commandments, which we read in Parshat Vaetchanan (this year on 8/17/2024).
A close reading of this parsha indicates the basis for the permitting artistic expression for forms of art other than sculpture (the stuff of idolatry).
There is a very subtle but in effect extremely substantial difference between Moshe’s recitation of the second commandment, and the wording of the AD (Aseros Hadibros, the Hebraic preferred method for identifying the Ten Commandments). You have to look closely or you’ll miss it.
In Vaetchanan, at Devarim (Deuteronomy), compiling Moshe’s second discourse to Bnei Yisrael, Moshe’s elucidation of second commandment at Devarim 18:8) starts: “Lo sa-aseh lecha pesel kol temunah…Thou shall not make unto thee a graven image all likenesses,” and then the pasuk continues in tandem with the AD, the Ten Commandments, as per above at Exodus 20:4.
The difference is so small as to be almost infinitesimal, but, as I said, very significant. That difference, which is basically encoded in Vaetchanan, is the omission, in the later version (of the Ten Commandments, of the word—actually a single letter—“v, and” after the word pesel. As we know, the word “and” is a conjunction which is intended to connote inclusion. Therefore, and now without the inclusionary word and, a reading of the remainder of the pasuk should be interpreted that the mention of “likenesses of forbidden celestial and earthbound images” are intended to modify sculptured images and likenesses. Art forms which are not sculpture are now purposely excluded from the prohibition. In Vaetchanan, there is no “and” after the word pesel, as there were roughly 38 years before in the Yitro version (Exodus 20:4, above). It’s tantamount to “the missing link.” The omission of the conjunction implies that Moshe, with God’s approval, (see Devarim 5: 1-4) extends a tolerance and even benign approval of most other art forms, (which of course still fall under the parameters of Kodesh Hashem and kavod haTorah).
Why the newfound tolerance? That developed out of the recognition, as per Exodus 31, 1-12, of the creative spirit found in Bezalel who was a skilled artisan “filled with the spirit of God in wisdom, understanding and knowledge” (31:3) who, with the assistance of Oholiab, artistically built the Ohel Moed, the Aron, ark cover and related holy articles.
Basically, artistic expression was recognized and valued by Moshe, and formed the basis for changing the second commandment to acknowledge this, with Moshe’s approval (still with the parameters of being within the “spirit of Hashem” as the chapter elucidates above).
After all, it’s a part of mankind’s tselem Hashem, that mankind is created in God’s image, and that includes a marked impulse towards creative expression.
So, buy those paintbrushes and enjoy following your creative impulse. It bears the seal of Divine approval. And we’ll keep the sculptures to Michaelangelo and his progeny.
May there be peace and blessings to kol Bnei Yisrael.
