In this week's parsha, Parshas Va’eschanan, we read Moshe's recitation of the Aseres Hadibros, the Ten Commandments. Just as when they are first recorded in Sefer Shemos, hereto one cannot help but sense the majesty and import of these first fundamental mitzvot. While most of the Aseres Hadibros are easily understood well across the spectrum of time and space, the Second Commandment can seem a bit archaic to those of us in the 21st century: "You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters beneath the earth" (Devarim 5:8). The implication of the prohibition is that this is connected to avodah zarah, idol worship, because the commandment continues: “You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me, but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments” (5:9-10).
Upon first reading, one might easily scoff at the foolishness of making a statue for worship. It is easy to forget that we benefit from the prayers of the Anshei Knessesst Hagedola, who prayed that the urge for idol worship would be removed from the people. Deeming ourselves advanced and educated, we do not question that the statuary in our modern society are either artistic creations or the commissioned work of artisans designed to commemorate and/or communicate.
Statues are powerless, obviously - and, yet, such a belief may be short-sighted. Rioters pulling down public statues are wrong for their brazen acts of destruction, for their lack of civil civic behaviour, and for their desire to ferment chaos and rewrite reality how they see it. However, perhaps their actions are a means of helping us realize that while we may not believe these statues are gods, we should not believe that graven images have no power.
The Aseres Hadibros is not the only place in Parshas Va’eschanan where the making of statues is prohibited. Moshe says to the people, "And you shall watch yourselves very well, for you did not see any images on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire. Lest you become corrupt and make for yourselves a graven image, the representation of any form, the likeness of male or female" (4:15-16). - Here, Moshe is reminding the people that the greatest moment in their history cannot be encapsulated in one specific form. He is, in a way, instructing them that they cannot, with their mortal hands, capture the momentuous occasion of God giving them the Torah. It has already been recorded in its best form in the Torah itself.
The perek continues with several similar prohibitions, such as not looking to the heavens and finding stars and celestrial objects to worship. One might easily question whether the prohibition of creating graven images was meant only for images which one intended to worship or includes images that are artistic. In truth this is a far larger topic, but there is room for leniency as long as, according to the Ba’al Ha’Turim’s understanding, one makes the form imperfect and incomplete (missing a finger, bust of a head, etc).
It is interesting to note that the prohibition of creating graven images is repeated one more time in this same perek. After telling them that he was to die, Moshe says: "Beware, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image, the likeness of anything, which the Lord your God has forbidden you” (4:23). This is not simply a repetition. This is significant. Moshe knows how much the people depend on him, how much faith they have put in him as a means of connecting to Hashem. He does not want a repeat of the cheit haegel.
But what if, one might ask, they just wanted to create something to memorialize him, a way to try to capture his personage for future generations? This is the question we can relate to, and it can be answered with another question - Can a statue capture a man in his full essence or fully articulate the values of a society? Essentially, the answer is no. At the time of their commissioning, most of the statue that are now at the heart of the controversy were created with the idea of capturing the essence of something society felt was important. Time changed, history was reinterpreted, a new generation decided that those values were wrong and these remnants of the past could and should be destroyed.
Imagine if a statue of Moshe had been made. Beyond the risk, noted by many mefarshim as the reason we do not even know where he is buried, that it would come to be worshipped in its own right, such a statue would forever limit our ability to relate to him beyond that image. Our understanding of Moshe and his role in bringing us the Torah must be understandable for every generation, not a limited image.
At the end of the Second Commandment, Hashem states: “I, the Lord your God, am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me, but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments” (5:9-10). Ultimately, what is right and what is wrong in our times and in times past and in the future is up to God to decide, for his understanding of time and place is truly limitless.
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