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Beauty is Spiritual


Bereshis 2:9, “And God made every tree grow out of the soil, delightful to the sight, and good for food; and the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden and also a tree of knowledge of what is good and evil."


Rav Hirsch  comments as follows. “It should not be overlooked that here, in the description of the laying out of the garden for human requirements, satisfying the sense of beauty precedes that of the sense of taste and the requirements for food.


It gives justification for, and dedication to, the aesthetic, the sense of appreciating beauty, and this too, may confirm the higher stage designed for man. The abundance of beauty of every kind which we are given in this, our world, and the fact that - as far as we know - man is the only creature that has been provided with the ability to enjoy beauty for itself, proves what value the Creator lays on this aesthetic sense for the spiritual moral calling of man.


Indeed this beauty of nature showered in every form all over the world, and the sense of enjoyment which man derives from it, is one of the first means to protect man from complete brutalization.


For joy in the beauties of Nature and the beauties of form, which God has lavished especially on the plant world, forms a bridge toward what is spiritually and morally beautiful. 


In surroundings where no consideration is given to harmony and beauty, man too easily grows up wild and unruly. 


The feeling which gives one joy in harmony and order is related to the feeling of order and harmony in the sphere of morality, so much so that evil and bad appear to us as broken things,  the harmony disturbed, where one single thought no longer rules the whole." 


Later in Bereshis (39:5) Hirsch explains beauty itself.  The word for beauty in Hebrew - yafeh - is related to words for breathing (yipach) and radiating (yifah).


A word that often accompanies “yafeh” is “to’ar” which suggests symmetry and order.  


Beauty is not objective, not a character of the object in and of itself.  Rather it exists in the impression that beauty makes on those who behold it.  “Beauty is considered as an intaking of breath, as something radiating, the effect of beauty.”


Taken together with the above idea, morality and order does not obtain on their own.  Their reality - or better, the actualization of their reality - depends upon the perception of those who behold them.  


And if an individual or population cannot perceive beauty, cannot distinguish between order and chaos, between symphony and cacophony, between graffiti and art, then they will be equally unable to value order over chaos, honesty over opportunistic corruption, liberty over tyranny and in general good over evil.


Perhaps that ability, or inability, to perceive genuine beauty serves as an early warning system for an individual, community or society.  If the ugliest in culture becomes the most prized, then the time will not be far off when the ugliest in human nature will become dominant.



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