What Joseph Caro and his Shulkhan Arukh Said about Painting Pictures of People

 Nadene Goldfoot

The Halakha                                              

My painting of Danny Eskow before we made Aliyah to Israel. oil on canvas.

The Shulkhan Arukh states: "It is forbidden to make complete solid or raised images of people or angels, or any images of heavenly bodies except for purposes of study". ("Heavenly bodies" are included here because the stars and planets were worshipped by some religions in human forms.

An authoritative breakdown can be found in the Shulkhan Arukh, section yoreh deah which takes the literal meaning of פסל pesel as "graven image" (from the root פסל P-S-L, "to engrave." See Exodus 34:1, 4; Deuteronomy 10:1, 3.) The prohibition is therefore seen as applying specifically to certain forms of sculpture and depictions of the human face. In keeping with this prohibition, some illustrations from the Middle Ages feature fantastic creatures—usually animal-headed humanoids, even when the depictions are quite clearly meant to be those of historical or mythological humans. The most well-known is the Birds' Head Haggadah (Germany, circa 1300). Because such creatures as gryphons, harpies, sphinxes, and the phoenix do not actually exist, no violation of the prohibition is perceived in such depictions. This is based on the fact that the Second Commandment, as stated in Exodus, refers specifically to "anything in the heaven above, on the earth below, or in the water below the land." However, it is forbidden to make the four faces on the Divine Chariot (Ezekiel× I) or the ministering angels, because these are believed to be real beings that actually exist "in the heaven above." (Kitzur Shulkhan Arukh 168:1)

The Shulkhan Arukh was written by Joseph Caro (1488-1575) who was a Codifier that was born in Toledo, Spain.  His parents had to leave Spain because of the 1492 expulsion of Jews.  They finally were able to move  when he was 10 to Constantinopole by 1498.  Alone, he moved to Adrianople by about 1518 at the age of 30.  Now called Edirne, this Turkish city of Adrianopole  is close to Turkey's borders with Greece and Bulgaria.  It served as the 3rd capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1369 to 1453, before Constantinople (now called Istanbul) became the empire's 4th and final capital between 1453 and 1922.                                                            

I had the black and white photograph of my great Uncle Max's grandfather, a Talmud scholar.  From that i created this oil painting of him.  oil on canvas

By 1525 Joseph Caro moved to Palestine and lived in Safed, founding a yeshivah there.  While in Safed, he wrote his code, the House of Joseph (Bet Yoseph from 1550-1559, a commentary of Jacob ben Asher's Arbaah Turim, and also compiled its classical abbreviation, The Prepared Table (Shulkhan Arukh}, collecting the views of previous codifiers and giving his own decisions on disputed points.  

Caro's codes were greeted with sharp opposition, especially by Ashkenazi scholars who claimed that they were based on the codifications of Spanish rabbis, ignoring the French and German tradition.  Moses Isserles was particularly critical.  

Nevertheless, the Shulkhan Arukh, printed together with Isserles' strictures, became  the authoritative code and is still recognized by Orthodox Jews throughout the world.  I lived in Safed from 1981 to the end of 1985.  We had the very old Joseph Caro synagogue there.              

Danny Eskow in Israel, my oil painting was done faster and looser and his prayer shawl was an Israeli one, much larger than the American style.  oil on canvas. We moved to Safed in 1981, a city of art galleries and temporary artists which preserved the old city and also had a new area.  Kabbalist Isaac Luria, the Kabbalist and his pupils lived here, a most important center of rabbinical and kabbalistic activity.  I wrote plays and we produced them with Danny usually the main actor.  One was called, The Rabbi of Safed.  

Caro was a zealous supporter of an older man, the Talmudist, Jacob Berab (1475-1546)  whose ordination scheme was great  and  Caro was one of the 1st rabbis to be ordained by him. Jacob was also born in Spain and was living in Safed where he also headed a yeshiva.   

Caro  was also interested in Kabbalah and claimed that religious secrets were divulged to him by a supernatural messenger or maggid who encouraged the study of Torah and observances of the commandments.  

                                                         

                     The Cattle Dealer.  Marc Chagall, 1912, Le Marchand de bestiaux (The Drover, The Cattle Dealer), oil on canvas, 97.1 x 202.5 cm, Kunstmuseum Basel.

Marc Chagall is a famous Jewish painter born in 1887 who was a post modernist.  He was a Russian-French artist of Belarusian Jewish origin. An early modernist, he was associated with several major artistic styles and created works in a wide range of artistic formats, including painting, drawings, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramics, tapestries and fine art prints. Marc died in 1985 in France.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aniconism_in_Judaism#:~:text=The%20Halakha,-Despite%20the%20semantic&text=The%20Shulkhan%20Arukh%20states%3A%20%22It,some%20religions%20in%20human%20forms.

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edirne

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-artists