Rabbi Kook on Art and Creativity

At the center of the Torah’s descriptions of the Mishkan, Bezalel stands out as the artist of all artists, “filled with the spirit of G-d in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship; and to contrive works of art… to make all manner of artistic work” (Vayakhel, 35:31). Along with Aholiav and other wise-hearted souls filled with Divine wisdom and understanding, Bezalel fashioned the Mishkan and all of its vessels. The Gemara explains that Bezalel knew the secrets of Creation. He knew how to combine the Hebrew letters with which the Heaven and Earth were created (Berachot 55A). Utilizing the Divine sefirot of Chochmah, Binah, and Da’at (Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge), Bezalel was able to create all of the elements of the Mishkan, in all of their precise detail, and imbue them with artistic splendor designed to uplift the hearts and minds of the Israelite Nation and bring all of humanity closer to Hashem.

All of the work, it must be noted, was fulfilled “according to all that the L-rd had commanded” (Vayakhel, 36:1).  Also, “Moshe saw that they had performed all the tasks, as the L-rd had commanded, so had they done, (Vayakhel, 39:43). This means that the master artist, Bezalel, restricted his own creative freedom and followed Hashem’s instruction down to the smallest detail. Certainly he lent his own artistic flare to each creation, but he wasn’t free to “take off” on the wings of his own imagination. What then is the artist’s place in Judaism? Is creative freedom possible? Is all artistic endeavor allowed? If no, where do we drawn the line?

The answer can be found in the life and writings of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hakohen Kook. If the young Avraham Yitzhak hadn’t grown up to be a Torah Scholar, he most likely would have been a great artist – perhaps a painter, a writer of great literature, or a poet.

Rabbi Kook emphasized the importance of creativity, both in Torah study and in creative thought and expression. He wrote:

“Whoever is graced with the soul of a creator must create works derived from the realm of ideas and thought. It is impossible for him to restrict himself to finite borders of normative learning because the flame of the soul ascends on its own and a person cannot derail it from its course. Expanses of thought – this is the constant claim that a person of contemplation demands for himself. Shallow study can narrow the flight of the mind, and stifle it at the beginning of its emergence. The habit of constant superficial learning is what causes the malady and pain of narrowness of thought. We must liberate ourselves from this with all of our might, in order to redeem our souls from the cage of confining free contemplation – to redeem it from Mitzrayim, from the house of bondage.”

It is well known that many famous writers and artists visited the home of Rabbi Kook to converse with the famous Rabbi who, to everyone’s surprise, had a vast knowledge of literature, philosophy, and the Arts. The novelist and short-story master, Shai Agnon, often visited the Chief Rabbi in the evening, when they would learn the Rambam’s “Mishna Torah” together. Rabbi Kook asked the Nobel Prize winner to bring him all of his novels and short stories and Rabbi Kook read all of them. The famed poet, Haim Nachman Bialik, usually a volcanic conversationalist, would sit silently for hours and listen to the noble and erudite Chief Rabbi expound on a wide variety of themes and questions. Rabbi Kook showed a keen interest in the writings of the novelist Yosef Haim Brenner, saying that the creative young man had a spiritually tormented soul. Another frequent visitor was Alexander Zuskind Rabinowitz, one of the elder Zionist writers. A leader of the anti-religious, Marxist party, Poalei Tzion, Rabinowitz began to embrace Judaism after his encounters with Rabbi Kook.  Uri Zvi Greenberg, the ideological poet of the Jewish Underground movement in the fight against the British, shared his poems and dreams with Rabbi Kook. When Yehuda Ben Eliezer, the “father” of Modern Hebrew, and a self-proclaimed heretic, was puzzled by the origin of a word, he would ask the great Torah sage. Awestruck by his holy countenance, the painter, Marc Chagall, asked Rabbi Kook if he could draw his portrait. And on his visit to Palestine, Albert Einstein was delighted to discover in his meeting with the Chief Rabbi that the Theory of Relativity is explained in early Kabbalistic writings such as the “Brit Olam,” albeit in a different language and style, but with the same understandings of the variableness of time, depending on the observer’s position and movement in space, relative to the position and movement of what is being observed.

“When I lived in London, I would visit the National Gallery,” Rabbi Kook told the Jewish sculpture Malinkof. “The paintings that I loved the most were those of Rembrandt. In my opinion, Rembrandt was gifted with a Divine Spirit in his work. When I first saw his paintings, they reminded me of what the Sages teach about the creation of light. When G-d made the light, it was so strong and luminous that it was possible to see from one end of the world to the other. Fearing that the wicked would make use of it, G-d hid the highest levels of light  in the World-to-Come for the Righteous. But from time to time, there are great men whom the Master of All Creation blesses with a vision of the hidden light (“HaOhr HaGanuz”). I believe Rembrandt was one of them. The light of his paintings captures a glimpse of the light which G-d created on the first day of Creation.”

Needless to say, albeit Rabbi Kook’s appreciation of artists and artistic endeavor, he made it clear that not every artistic creation was worthy of Rabbinic approval. In a letter to the newly-founded Bezalel Academy of the Arts in Jerusalem, Rabbi Kook praised the school for its important contribution to the nation’s revival. He encouraged students to paint landscapes depicting the beauty of Eretz Yisrael, in order to inspire people with a yearning for the Holy Land. Nonetheless, Rabbi Kook warned that great care should be taken to keep art within the clearly defined borders of Jewish law. “Our nation has always related in a positive and pleasant way to the artistic beauty manifest in man’s creative works, but this must also be limited. Even in the more exalted and loftier matters, we are cautious of drunkenness and excessiveness” (Igrot HaRiyah, 158).

In another letter, he writes: “Towards the generality of artistic beauty as realized in created works, the product of human hands, the Jewish People maintain an attitude which is positive and encouraging, but also restrained.  We take care not to go to extremes or become inebriated, even when dealing with the most sublime and lofty things… We will never give ourselves over to any individual idea to the extent that we become drowned in its depths beyond the ability to regulate and keep in measure the expansion of its influence… It suffices for the community of Israel to have a fence of roses… without doing damage to the freedom of every special treasure in the human spirit by iron fetters and a Great Wall of China” (Igrot HaRiyah, Vol.1, pg. 205).

Similarly, in his introduction to his commentary on “Shir HaShirim,” Rabbi Kook explains the importance of literature to the development of the Nation. “Literature, painting, and sculpture stand waiting to express all of the spiritual concepts which are hidden in the depth of the humanity’s psyche.  As long as one thread of man’s inner being is still hidden and lacking expression, it is the duty of art to reveal it” (Olat HaRiyah, Part 2, Pg. 3).

Thus literature’s task is to explore the depths of the human psyche and provide the vehicle to bring man’s inner spiritual being to expression. But Rabbi Kook goes on to teach that not every stirring of the soul is fitting to parade in the open under the banner of “literature.” He writes:

“However, those hidden matters through which mankind is bettered, not by expressing them, but by burying them, a spade has been provided to dig them a hole and cover them up. And woe to the person who uses his tool to do the opposite, to uncover the refuse and stink of mankind.”

Rabbi Kook takes his metaphor of the spade from the Torah: “And thou shall have a spade among thy weapons, and it shall be when thou shall ease thyself outside, thou shall dig with it, and shall turn back and cover up thy excrement; for the L-rd thy G-d walks in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thy enemies before thee; therefore thy camp shall be holy, that He see no unclean thing in thee and turn away from thee” (Devarim, 23:14). Just as soldiers must keep their camp holy, so too writers and artists must use their creativity to uplift the world and not to pollute it. Certain subjects are better left buried. Licentiousness and immorality, no matter how artistically portrayed they appear, should be buried like excrement in the ground.

While art and literature must have fences, no one is coming to ban them. In his classic, “Orot,” Rabbi Kook emphasizes the vital role of literature in bringing redemption to the world. “Literature will be sanctified, and writers will also sanctify themselves, and the world will rise up and recognize the great and gentle power of literature that will raise up the spiritual foundation of the world in all of its exaltation” (Orot,” Orot HaTechiyah, 37).

Artists and writers, Rabbi Kook asserted, would play a great part in the ultimate t’shuva of the Nation envisioned by the Prophets of Israel in awakening a stirring for Divine expanses and a return to Hashem.

“Out of the worldly, too, will emerge the holy, and out of the brazen liberalism will also emerge the beloved yoke of the Torah. Golden chains will be woven and will arise out of the poetry of free thinkers, and a luminous penitence will also arise from the secular literature. This will be the great wonder of the vision of Redemption…which will culminate in a penitence that will bring healing and Redemption to the world” (“Orot HaT’shuva,” 17:3)

In one of his many poems, he himself writes:

My soul is entwined with all the world.

All created beings, all people are my friends.

My being is attached to them all.

But how can I share with them my light?

Whatever utters from my lips

Merely dulls the visions I see,

Shadows my illumination.

My pain and my anguish are great.

My God, my God, help me in my plight.

Grace me with the nuances of expression.

Endow me words and the gift of speech.

I shall declare them to all existence

My fragments of Your truth, My God.

***

Tzvi Fishman won the Israel Education Ministry Award for Creativity and Jewish Culture. In addition to biographies of Rabbi Kook and his son, HaRav Tzvi Yehuda, and his commentaries on their teachings with Rabbi David Samson, Tzvi is author of the popular trilogy of novels “Tevye in the Promised Land” and director of the feature film “Stories of Rebbe Nachman.” His videos of Rabbi Kook’s poems can be seen at: https://youtu.be/oNLqa1d3tEk and https://youtu.be/UbMW_jpVoyU.