Ayn Rand, Art, and Avodah Zarah

This may be read as a stand-alone post AND as a continuation of yesterday's post on the kriah of Tishah b'Av. Those who have read yesterday's post will see why; those who haven't won't. 

According to the Rambam, there are three Torah prohibitions against the production of physical idols:

1. Not to make a pesel (idol), and not to have a pesel made for oneself by others - as it is stated, "Do not make for yourself a pesel, or any image" (Shemos 20:4; Devarim 5:7)
2. Not to make a pesel even for others - as it is stated, "Molten gods do not make for yourselves" (Vayikra 19:4)
3. Not to make tzuros (statues) even for aesthetic purposes, even if they are not worshiped, as it is stated, "Do not make with Me gods of silver" (Shemos 20:20). [Note: According to the Rambam, this third lo taaseh only prohibits making statues of human beings, statues which symbolize celestial bodies, and statues which represent angels; statues of non-human animals, plants, and or other earthly creatures are not prohibited by Torah law.]

It can be quite difficult to relate to these prohibitions. Avodah zarah, itself, is a hard enough concept to understand, but the notion of manufacturing and worshiping idols is especially foreign (no pun intended) to our "modern sensibilities." It is difficult to imagine a burning desire to make an idol and bow down to it. 

Unfortunately, the "unrelatability" of these prohibitions makes it is easy to regard them as largely irrelevant. We can appreciate why they were practical in ancient times, but we tend to feel that they have little or nothing to do with our present lives. This is particularly true for the prohibition against making statues for aesthetic purposes, which might seem excessive to the average Westernized person. 

My entire view of this subject changed drastically, thanks to an idea from Ayn Rand. One of her most under-appreciated books is The Romantic Manifesto (1969), which is a collection of essays on her philosophy of art and literature. In this book Ayn Rand proposes a philosophical definition of art, and it is this definition which opened my mind to understanding the Torah's prohibitions against idols. Here are her words, with her emphasis in bold: 

Metaphysics – the science that deals with the fundamental nature of reality – involves man's widest abstractions. It includes every concrete he has ever perceived, it involves such a vast sum of knowledge and such a long chain of concepts that no man could hold it all in the focus of his immediate conscious awareness. Yet he needs that sum and that awareness to guide him – he needs the power to summon them into full, conscious force.

That power is given to him by art.

Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments.

By a selective re-creation, art isolates and integrates those aspects of reality which represent man’s fundamental view of himself and of existence. Out of the countless number of concretes – of single, disorganized and (seemingly) contradictory attributes, actions and entities – an artist isolates the things which he regards as metaphysically essential and integrates them into a single new concrete that represents an embodied abstraction.

For instance, consider two statues of man: one as a Greek god, the other as a deformed medieval monstrosity. Both are metaphysical estimates of man; both are projections of the artist’s view of man’s nature; both are concretized representations of the philosophy of their respective cultures.

Art is a concretization of metaphysics. Art brings man’s concepts to the perceptual level of his consciousness and allows him to grasp them directly, as if they were percepts.

Although Ayn Rand was writing about all forms of art, her words ring especially true with regards to the art of sculpture. To get a better idea of what she means, take a look at the most famous statues in the world. These statues are much more than material depictions of the human form. They are concretizations of philosophical (metaphysical) abstractions and entire worldviews. The "Christ the Redeemer" statue looming over Rio de Janeiro bespeaks the majestic, redemptive love which is the chief appeal of Christianity. The "Grand Buddha" at Ling Shan conveys the sublime authority of an enlightened teacher. The "Great Sphinx of Giza" exudes the regal power of the Egyptian gods and the Egyptian Empire. The towering statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il embody the national prosperity and beneficence which North Koreans are expected to associate with their "beloved" leaders. The Statue of Liberty stands overlooking New York Harbor as a symbol of freedom and opportunity - a regal mother-figure welcoming those who arrive at America's shores seeking a better life. 

Ayn Rand's explanation helped me to appreciate why physical representations hold such power (yes, pun intended). The last sentence of the excerpt says it all: "Art brings man’s concepts to the perceptual level of his consciousness and allows him to grasp them directly, as if they were percepts." What makes these statues so powerful is that they convey their underlying philosophies and value systems immediately and directly to the psyche, without language and without the mediation of the analytic mind - as if the philosophies they represent were perceived by the five senses. Since we are inclined to accept as real whatever we perceive with our senses, any physical representation of avodah zarah functions to strengthen the beliefs and values of its worshipers. Moreover, it allows worshipers to feel as though they are interacting with a metaphysical reality via a physical, tangible, perceivable entity. 

"Cool idea! But does that really change anything? Aren't these prohibitions still difficult to relate to?" On a practical level, yes. We no longer have the desire to bow down to physical idols. However, we do have the same psychological need for concrete expressions of our beliefs and value systems, and capacity to have a visceral experience when that need is gratified. If you have ever been moved to joy or to tears by a piece of music which wordlessly conveys emotional content, or a still photograph charged with symbolic meaning, or a video clip which evokes feelings like awe and gratitude in something ordinarily regarded as mundane - if you have had any experience in which a selective arrangement of sensory data has evoked a feeling that you are beholding something more real than what you are perceiving with your eyes and ears, then you have tapped into the same part of the psyche from which primitive idolatry arose, and in which the present-day sublimated forms of avodah zarah still survive and thrive. I believe that this type of experience is akin to what the ancient idolaters felt in their worship of graven images. 

To be clear: I am not saying that art is avodah zarah, nor am I equating the emotions evoked by art with the emotions involved in idolatry. Rather, I am merely suggesting that Ayn Rand's theory sheds light on how the art of sculpture is regarded by the Torah as the primary medium of avodah zarah. 

Perhaps we can now understand why the Torah went so far as to prohibit making statues even for aesthetic purposes. The Rambam (Sefer ha'Mitzvos: Lo Taaseh #4) explains: "This [prohibition which] distances us from making any statues whatsoever is so that we do not think about them what the fools who worship avodah zarah think, namely, that these statues possess power." Back when primitive avodah zarah was rampant, the Torah was undoubtedly concerned that people might come to worship such statues. But perhaps the Torah also commanded us in this harchakah (precautionary safeguard) in order to prevent man from indulging, through art, the same psychological urges which give rise to full-blown idolatry. After all, the psyche is a volatile thing, and the psycho-dynamics associated with art are so powerful that they can easily be hijacked by religiosity.

With this insight, perhaps we can begin answer some of the questions we raised on the krias ha'Torah of Tishah b'Av about Moshe's repeated warnings against associating imagery with the Revelation at Sinai, and against making images to represent the celestial bodies. Stay tuned!