Terumah: Truth meets Beauty

 

This week’s parsha describes the construction of the Mishkan, the portable Temple. It is described in geometric detail, and the Cherub leitmotif is mentioned, but the text lacks the details needed to visualize the structure. With the structure now long gone, it beauty is left to the imagination. Leaving the details vague allows the structure and the tapestries to remain ever beautiful, even as esthetic  ideas change.

  "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, —that is all 
                Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

These lines at the end of “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats shout at this parsha? What is the relationship between truth and beauty?

The construction of the Mishkan starts with the ark, the container (coffin?) for the tablets.  These are the stone slabs that Moses brought from Mount Sinai; the indelible communication from Gd. The order of construction informs the purpose of the structure. The Temple is a container for the great artifact, the testament of Gd’s direct communication with humans. A set of laws -commandments- are the  treasured gift that is locked away forever in a gold plated acacia wood vault.  There is no need to access the original, the fulfillment of the law is the real gift.

The tabernacle consists of a tent which contains the ark, the table with the showbread ( it was Matzah), the candelabra (menorah), and the incense altar. Within the tent of meeting, the ark was separated from the other objects by a curtain, a tapestry of cherubim. The tent of meeting could be entered by a curtain that separated it from the courtyard.  The courtyard contained the altar, in addition to the mishkan. The ark was the special place in the tent, the tent was the special place in the courtyard, the complex was the special place in the camp. The tablets are sealed in the ark in their own section of the tent; the tent is surrounded by a courtyard and the complex is at the center of the camp protected by all the tribal armies.

The ark is covered by a golden kaporeth. The elaborate sculpture of the cherubim, facing each other with their wings sheltering the lid, is hammered out of the kaporeth cover. The space between the cherubim will be the location for Gd meeting with the people

 

וְנוֹעַדְתִּ֣י לְךָ֮ שָׁם֒ וְדִבַּרְתִּ֨י אִתְּךָ֜ מֵעַ֣ל הַכַּפֹּ֗רֶת מִבֵּין֙ שְׁנֵ֣י הַכְּרֻבִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־אֲר֣וֹן הָעֵדֻ֑ת אֵ֣ת כׇּל־אֲשֶׁ֧ר אֲצַוֶּ֛ה אוֹתְךָ֖ אֶל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ {פ}

 

There I will meet with you, and I will impart to you—from above the cover, from between the two cherubim that are on top of the Ark of the Pact—all that I will command you concerning the Israelite people.

 

I imagine the ark cover , the kaporeth, to have been a very beautiful object and I attribute the quality of truth to the tablets that it covers. This is a familiar relationship. Beauty covers truth. Beauty adorns and attracts.  The separation of beauty from truth implies that truth may not be beautiful; and beauty may be an illusion.

 

That an  image  is beaten out of the kaporeth is  shocking, since this lies atop the commandment not to make a graven image. The scene reminds me that the law cannot be understood on a superficial level.  This image does not fall under the category that is forbidden.

 

לֹֽ֣א־תַֽעֲשֶׂ֨ה־לְךָ֥֣ פֶ֣֙סֶל֙ ׀ וְכׇל־תְּמוּנָ֔֡ה אֲשֶׁ֤֣ר בַּשָּׁמַ֣֙יִם֙ ׀ מִמַּ֔֡עַל וַֽאֲשֶׁ֥ר֩ בָּאָ֖֨רֶץ מִתָּ֑͏ַ֜חַת וַאֲשֶׁ֥ר בַּמַּ֖֣יִם ׀ מִתַּ֥֣חַת לָאָֽ֗רֶץ׃

 

You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth.

 

These Cherubim may not fall into these catagories.

Cherubim are related to the guardians of Eden, where, with a flaming sword, they  blocks re-entry into Eden and access to the Tree of Life

 

וַיְגָ֖רֶשׁ אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיַּשְׁכֵּן֩ מִקֶּ֨דֶם לְגַן־עֵ֜דֶן אֶת־הַכְּרֻבִ֗ים וְאֵ֨ת לַ֤הַט הַחֶ֙רֶב֙ הַמִּתְהַפֶּ֔כֶת לִשְׁמֹ֕ר אֶת־דֶּ֖רֶךְ עֵ֥ץ הַֽחַיִּֽים׃ {ס}  

  

     So He drove out the man; and He placed the keruvim at the east of the garden of ῾Eden, and the bright blade of a revolving sword to guard the way to the tree of life.

 

In the mishkan, the image of those cherubim in tapestry separate, they block the entrance to, the tablets. We call the law our tree of life.  The cherubim over the ark are the meeting venue for Gd and man, they guard the negotiation.

Keats’ Grecian urn was an artifact of an idealized civilization.  It evoked  a world that had been rediscovered in the centuries that preceded the poem. They laid the  foundations of literature and science and  are worthy of praise.  It is interesting to note that Plato was suspicious of poetry.  According to Plato, poetry has no place in education (especially the education of guardians) because it is deceptive and harmful.

 

Beauty is seductive. The appreciation of truth requires discernment.  I am suspicious of the advice: that is…” all ye need to know."