Wed 1st Mar 06
Dear friends and
family,
One of the
postcard sellers at the Mosque of Omar whispered in my ear that from the 1st of
March we'll be able to enter the sacred shrine again. It's been closed for
about 6 years now, since Ariel Sharon entered it in October 2000.
This was good
news. It might be a sign of improved relations between Jews and Arabs. Once
again we'll be able to admire the architectural beauty of this ancient holy
place, one of the best examples of the cultural heritage of Islam.
Arousing
religious fervor through architecture and other forms of art is as old as
history itself. Just think of the
Judaism, unlike
Islam and most other religions, prohibits this. Remember that God destroyed the
Synagogues
aren't grand and artistically beautiful so that we'll be inspired to worship
God. Worshiping God is a simple matter of humility and doesn't require a
structure. Remember the prayer of the Psalmist: "I call unto you from the
depths O Lord."
This brings us
to the question whether the Jewish dream, very common today, of rebuilding the
ancient
Wouldn't a
simple synagogue standing on the
I found proof
that such a plan exists in an agreement, signed in 1969, between the Moslems
and Jews, that a synagogue may be built on the
I'm sure that
this would satisfy many Jews and would go a long way to cooling off the
friction between the Jews and the Moslems over who is the rightful heir to the
holy mountain.
Other religions
have a great variety of objects of material culture. Art, music, poetry,
literature, sculpture and architecture are all used to inspire religious
sentiment.
Visiting the
holy places of the different religions in the
The St. Anne
Church was built in Crusader times in such an architecturally skillful way that
hymns sung there reverberate over and over again, the sound bouncing from one
cavernous part of the church to another. The music ascends to heaven and takes
our souls with it.
The soul is also
uplifted at the Wailing Wall, but not by the sounds of the music or the
magnificence of the architecture. The architecture is simple and pragmatic and
there is no beautiful music.
The gabble of
sounds that strike your ears at the Wailing Wall won't inspire you if you don't
have an inner awareness that those sounds are actually the divine words of the
Book of Psalms and that the place where you are standing is the heart of the
Jewish Nation. Where it was born and where it faced its tragic destruction and
dispersal to evey country in the world.
In art galleries
throughout the world we see beautiful artistic creations all created to inspire
religious fervor. Everywhere there are religious buildings and religious music.
Many religious
Jews stay away from art and culture as a precaution against being religiously
aroused by the art instead of by the introspective understanding of the word of
God.
Religion and
culture go together for everybody except the religious Jews.
In the Opera the
other night I saw one or two religious Jews in the audience. You could tell
because they wore the Kipa. These are known as modern
Jews who follow in the footsteps of Moses Mendelson
and combine a love of the arts with religious observance.
Unfortunately
they are very much in the minority of religious Jews but they are following in
the spirit of the great Rabbis of Mishna, the Jewish
law book compiled after the destruction of the
One of the best
examples of the love of art of these great rabbis is the ancient town of
This is in
contrast to the strict enforcing of the 2nd commandment in the 2nd
At Massada you can clearly see how the Sicarim
deliberately destroyed beautiful Herodian mosaics.
For example in the
The Jews are
clearly divided in their interpretation of the Biblical prohibition of making
graven images. One group sides with the rabbis of Tsipori
and favours the arts and culture while the other
group follows the way of the Sicarim, struggling
against art and culture as a contravention of the 2nd commandment.
In Judaism there
is a clear separation between material culture and religion. Art and culture
may not be used to induce religious fervor. Religious fervor must come from
study and inner examination of our soul and our deeds, not from a beautiful
piece of music or a beautiful statue or painting or architectural beauty.
On the other
hand Judaism requires man to make his world beautiful just as God made His
world beautiful but he must be very distinctly aware that the beauty he creates
is not to be worshipped or used to promote worship even if it is God to be
worshipped.
Have a great no
news day. Yours truly,
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