Aesthetics: The journey from banishing beauty to bursting yearnings

Source: When nature returns through the window

Works of art, upon which Jews looked in a negative light, were kept deep in the hidden recesses of the soul; the Jewish power that could not create externally, created from within... Drive nature out through the door, it will return through the window. The Jews banished beauty from themselves, rejected every image, but nature arose from other corners; nature found its place in fierce yearnings for divine beauty, and the yearnings were so strong and great that they had to burst outward. In the yearnings for divine beauty ('Tiferet'), for the suffering Shekhinah and for redemption, within all these lay hidden the love for beauty, for harmony, for nature, for the beautiful and harmonious figure, and all this has recently burst forth with tremendous force. All this is but a small part of the deep yearnings. All Jewish artists bring with them 'something' from the Jewish soul. In the Jewish artists of the future, this knowledge must be much stronger and greater.

(Hillel Zeitlin, Longing for Beauty)

Explanation: The hidden yearning for beauty

Jews cast off everything associated with beauty. The verse from Proverbs (chapter 31), “Grace is deceptive and beauty is fleeting,” became a Jewish motto, and all artistic creation, human and natural beauty, adornment, and splendor were set aside to make way for God. Yet it turns out, says Zeitlin, that yearning for God is actually a yearning for beauty, for God is the harmonious, the whole, the creator of the world and its order. And so Jews yearned for beauty without realizing it, until the modern era arrived and Jewish art began to flourish.

Perspective: The ugly grace of Jewish existence

Philosophy rejected earthly beauty as an independent value, and Maimonides likewise ruled that “it is forbidden to make decorative figures, even if they are not for idolatry” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Idolatry 3:10). The wretched plight of world Jewry under foreign rule left no room for ornament and splendor, either; survival mode left no room for luxuries like beauty. The Jewish eros found its grace in the poverty of the study hall, in clothes worn to tatters, in women whose faces were blackened by hunger as they tried to coax a little milk from their breasts for their children. The disorder, the fog-shrouded future, the endless present without a glimmer of light—all of these were the Jews’ ugly grace. The old man bent over a candle and a volume of the Talmud, trying to keep warm in his tattered coat, was the supreme expression of Jewish beauty, just as Zeitlin’s friend Bialik described in his poem “If Your Soul Desires to Know.”

Going Deeper: Hitler and the clash of aesthetics

As is well known, Nazi Germany systematically and aggressively looted art. Hitler, who fancied himself an artist, had been rejected by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. He despised modern, abstract art—which he labeled “Jewish”—and revered landscapes, portraits, and classical or early Renaissance painting. Hitler idolized aesthetics and loathed the weak and the ugly, to the point of feeling an obligation to destroy them. He saw art depicting the beautiful and the strong as a powerful asset to his rule.

Culture: The simplicity that triumphed over pomp

For about a hundred and fifty years, the Baroque style dominated Europe. Much like Islamic art, this European style was characterized by vivid realism, emotion, exaggeration, and intricate detail. Yet the flourishes and embellishments in painting, fashion, architecture, and music did not last long; their creators faded away by the mid-eighteenth century. In contrast, classical Greek art—restrained, serene, and balanced, born in Greece 2,500 years ago—has remained timeless. Simplicity triumphed over pomp and noise. It is no coincidence that the Yom Kippur Musaf prayer recounts “how magnificent was the High Priest when he emerged from the Holy of Holies” in his simple white vestments, rather than in his golden ones.