Art - Part 6: Various Insights

00:00 The hemshacha in continuation to the earlier installments on the topic of art, we continue with installment number six, discussing the Rebbe's views on art from the perspective of Torah Chassidus, insights which the Rebbe shared with various artists, plus a lesson from the all ages drawings of Moshe Rabbeinu. We begin quoting from a Yechidus, where Mr. Naftali Deutsch, who lived in the United States, entered Yechidus, a private audience with the Rebbe in the late nineteen seventies, and during the Yechidus, the following question came up: Why is the Torah against art and sculptures? The Rebbe replied, "That is not true. The Torah is very much in favor of it when it is done in the proper context and for the proper purs-purpose. Take the Mishkan, for example," the Rebbe continued. "When the Yidden built the Mishkan in the desert, they were instructed to find skilled artisans for the job. Indeed, the tailor goes into great detail explaining how the Mishkan was to be constructed and upholstered, how it was to be gilded, and how it was to be arranged, down to how the angels and the Aron HaKodesh were to be affixed." Mr. Deutsch continued and asked, "But what did King Solomon do when he built the permanent Beis Hamikdash in Yerushalayim? Surely, he needed more specs than the, just those for the Mishkan." The Rebbe laughed and replied, "King Solomon was very wise, and he didn't need more help." We go on now to a Yechidus which took place in the sixties with Rab Yonassan Sacks,

02:12 later became the Chief Rabbi of England. In the Yechidus, he asked the Rebbe, "I have a love to Chassidus and to Yiddishkeit, but sometimes it seems to me that it contradicts my love to music, to art, and to literature, because there are many inyonim that Yiddishkeit prohibits a person to be involved in those areas." The Rebbe responded that one who develops a sense in Yiddishkeit and Chassidus has a deeper esteem to all these topics that were mentioned earlier, and this is even more than yotzos af seide bis chore, that the disadvantage is canceled by the advantage. When a person is prohibited in these fields, music, art, et cetera, is considered a small loss, a very minor loss, and doesn't come to what he can benefit by the study of Chassidus, which makes a very deep impression on the soul and gives the person a deeper perspective in all the subjects mentioned earlier: music, art, and literature. There was a very famous artist, Rab Hendel Lieberman, who was an artist, came out from Russia, and then he lived in Crown Heights, and he would also make exhibitions of his artwork, and the Rebbe very much cherished his artwork. And the Rebbe once told him in Yechidus, this was, uh, uh, the late sixties, that in the past, this idea of drawing pictures, painting pictures was something out of the question. It was not to take in consideration by Chassidim. Today, we don't have even images of older Chassidim that lived in the past. But now, in

04:42 the days of Mashiach, when a Yid has to be mekarev another Yid, also through the means of art, a person should be involved in, uh, in it and draw and paint. Why do we need to search for other artists if we have our own artists who studied in Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim? The Rebbe was referring to Rab Hendel, that he should continue with his work and, uh, uh, exhibit it everywhere. There was an artist called Rab Baruch Nachshon, alav hashalom. He lived in Hebron, and as we discussed, uh, uh, on occasion in the past, in regards to the visit that the Rebbe visited his, uh, exhibition and made many comments. This was about forty-five minute visit, very unusual. This was in late nineteen seventy-eight. The Rebbe once told him in Yechidus, "Many ger-generations have passed, and the sense of drawing bekashrus," which means to draw, to accomplish art in a kosher way, "was not corrected, and you will rectify it." Now going on to a word that the Rebbe said in regards to the drawing of Moshe Rabbeinu. It was in a letter from Tov Shin Hof Gimel, 1963. The Rebbe discussed the obligation of wearing a beard. And the Rebbe mentions in the letter that he had a conversation with one of his visitors in Yechidas. And the Rebbe asked him a question about a drawing, about a painting. What should be the correct perspective? The Rebbe writes as follows. In a conversation that I had with someone who visited by me, and he wanted

06:43 to show me his sharpness and how well-versed he is that there is no need to wear a beard, I asked him, and with the introduction plus the request that he should answer it simply, the Rebbe said, I asked him, what is the reason that when they draw the image of Moshe Rabbeinu or Arnakehen or of Yidden or of other nations, they draw them exclusively with a big beard, long beard? He responded then, as he understands, when he would draw for himself not only Moshe Rabbeinu, but even someone who lived many generations after that, someone who fulfills Teydom Mitzvahs, it is pashut, it is assumed in a very logical way that the person had a beard without touching it at all. On another occasion, the Rebbe told Rabbi Handel Lieberman, we mentioned earlier, that he should draw Ufalatsda. And the Rebbe elaborated, it should be a big river, there's a lot of water streaming, and in the middle of the river, there should be sort of an irrigation that will divert the water to the fields around the river. And that is the inyan of Ufalatsda, breaking through the limitations, that the water should reach the fields and it should water them, and that's how beautiful and good fruit will grow. On another occasion, in the year 1973 or 74, the Rebbe told an artist to derive inyanim of Yiddishkeit from every artwork that he does. We will, im yirtze Hashem, continue in the next installment.