The anti-iconic principle and its modifications

Although the Second Commandment (Exodus 20:4; Deuteronomy 5:8), “You shall not make yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth,” has been understood as absolutely prohibiting any and all artistic representation, this is not the only possible interpretation of these words. What is intended is a prohibition against the construction of idols, which were objects of worship in the cultural area in which the Israelites dwelt. Even in the Bible there are reports of artistic activity in the construction of the tent sanctuary and its ritual vessels (Exodus 25–31) and of the Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6–7). The literalness with which the commandment was interpreted depended on the larger situation of the community, so that when there was external pressure toward religious conformity, such as during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in Antioch (175–164 bce), the anti-iconic attitude sharpened. During the Roman occupation of Israel, the presence of battle standards containing animal representations was looked upon as an affront, while extreme pietists would not even handle Roman coinage because of the images stamped on it. On the other hand, the walls of a 3rd-century-ce synagogue in Dura-Europus in Syria are covered from floor to ceiling with biblical scenes including human representations, and a number of synagogues in Palestine had elaborate mosaic floors decorated with the signs of the zodiac, representations of the seasons, and the like. Further, illuminated manuscripts from medieval Europe were frequently decorated with biblical figures, some quite clearly copied from Christian prototypes. There is also a fascinating image in a Haggada in which the human figures have bird heads. Synagogues from a later—though pre-emancipation—period (before the 18th century) were often decorated with animal representations. In the modern period the use of human representations has not been completely avoided, though nothing like the decorations of Dura-Europus has appeared.

Ceremonial objects and symbols

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Given this general anti-iconic attitude, much of Jewish artistic endeavour has been directed toward the creation of ceremonial objects: Kiddush goblets, candlesticks and candelabra, spice boxes for the havdala ceremony at the end of the Sabbath, ornamented containers for the mezuzah (a parchment on which is written the passages from Deuteronomy 6:4–9 and 11:13–21, fastened to the doorpost on the right side as one enters), the silver crowns placed on the Torah scrolls, together with the mantles and breastplates for the same, and many other objects designed to embellish the performance of the large number of ritual acts of the individual and the community. All these vary in artistic quality, from the work of simple artisans to exquisitely produced works of master craftsmen.

Architecture

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The building of synagogues too is an expression of artistic interest and concern, as well as of religious and social function. Nothing is known of these edifices, if indeed there were any, until the Greco-Roman period. Then the Roman basilica often provided the appropriate model, because the basilican design incorporated what the synagogue required, including a spacious hall and galleries (for women). Whenever possible, synagogues were built on hilltops. At the front of the synagogue was a walled entrance court with a fountain for ablutions. Before it was destroyed, the Temple may have been oriented with its doors facing eastward, but after it was rebuilt they faced Jerusalem; still later, when the holy ark containing the Torah scrolls was placed in a fixed position, the orientation was reversed so that the central gate would not be blocked. Ultimately, however, the ark was placed in or against the east wall, without reference to the actual direction of Jerusalem. As the Diaspora grew larger, the new communities adapted the architectural forms of the surrounding culture. Many of the surviving buildings of the Muslim period in Spain have horseshoe arches and are decorated with the exquisite stucco arabesques that mark the era. The medieval period in Christian Europe saw a revival of a very strict anti-iconic attitude and a gradual rejection of the church edifice in favour of secular buildings as a model for the synagogue.

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The increasingly limited role of the Jew in western European society and the enlargement of restrictions by church and state made it necessary to modify the structure of the synagogue. The doors no longer were in the wall facing the ark, the courtyard grew smaller, galleries were discontinued and side rooms served as the women’s section, and a double- rather than a triple-aisled construction was largely favoured. Similar developments took place in eastern Europe with the building of fortress-synagogues and the remarkable wooden synagogues of Poland. In the late 18th and the early 19th century, Baroque style had its day, followed by styles imitating Greek temples; Romanesque, Gothic, and Byzantine churches; and Moorish mosques. The various schools of functionalism and their commercial descendants have also influenced synagogue design. The best of these have brought together fine architectural design and beautifully conceived and executed decoration. The interior arrangement, even in some traditional synagogues, has been influenced by the Protestant sermon-centred form of worship, so that some of the unique forms that marked older structures are absent. The holy ark is, however, still a centre of attention and has often been treated in interesting and striking ways.

Paintings and illustrations

The use of paintings in the decoration of synagogues goes back to at least the 3rd century ce and is found in the late pre-emancipation and modern synagogues as well. Manuscripts too were illuminated with miniatures, and during the Renaissance the Scrolls of Esther and the beautifully decorated ketubbot (marriage contracts) appeared. Nonetheless, the appearance of Jewish artists in painting and sculpture is a modern phenomenon. Beginning in the 19th century, interest grew apace, and more and more Jews were to be found in these fields, often in the avant-garde. Some, such as Marc Chagall (1887–1985) and Jacques Lipchitz (1891–1973), created specifically religious art.

Music

During the synagogue service, the ḥazzan, or cantor, reads the service and declaims the scriptural lessons to certain set musical modes that vary with the season and occasion. Many of these call for melodic responses on the part of the congregation. The origins of these chants are ancient, often obscure, and equally complicated. Whatever the basic materials may have been, they were enlarged, varied, and reworked through the centuries in the various environments in which the Jews lived. In modern times, musicologists began to examine the history of synagogal music, analyzing its basic structures and its relationship to the music of Christian liturgical traditions. In the 19th century in western Europe, much of the traditional synagogal music was either discarded or reworked under the influence of Western forms and styles. The introduction of the pipe organ in some more-liberal synagogues provoked a fierce controversy because of the prohibition against instrumental music in services, the general opposition to music in the liturgy as a memorial to the destruction of the Temple, and the organ’s association with Christian liturgical music.

Literature

Literature has been the home of Jewish artistic activity throughout the ages. The Hebrew Bible is a work of monumental artistry, exhibiting grandeur of form and language in historical narrative, poetry, rhetoric, law, and aphorism. The extra-scriptural writings of the period disclose literary genius of a high order in translation, though in many cases the original works have vanished. Although the documents of the rabbinic tradition are not often regarded as having great literary worth, much of the material, particularly the Haggadic portions of the Midrashim, reveals a noteworthy sensitivity to language. In the medieval period, much attention was given to the production of piyyuṭim, liturgical poetry with which to embellish the siddur (prayer book), itself a collection containing much imaginative as well as pedestrian writing. In the Islamic world, under the influence of Arabic poetry, Hebrew poetry rose to great heights in both liturgical and secular forms. Important works of history written in the medieval Rhineland chronicled and commented on Jewish suffering during the Crusades. The beginnings of the Jewish form of Middle High German also appeared in this period; through the centuries it developed into an autonomous Jewish language, Yiddish, which became a literary vehicle of very high order in the 19th century. The re-creation of Hebrew as a literary language also began in the 19th century; it became the basis of the spoken vernacular of the State of Israel and of a flourishing literature. After the emancipation at the end of the 18th century, Jews in western Europe and later in the United States turned to literature in the vernaculars of their countries and produced writers of note who dealt with both Jewish and general themes.