Ninth of Av - Perfect Beauty

The Torah reading for the fast of the Ninth of Av is a prediction by Moses our teacher that in the future the nation of Israel will sin, be punished, and repent. The specific condemnation here is for genuine idol worship. This means a statue to which is ascribed supernatural abilities and therefore is adored through ritual behavior.

Faint echoes of this remain today in the form of old superstitions like a rabbit’s foot, horse shoe, and occult charms. However, nobody takes these things seriously and they are typically viewed as quaint decorations. The Catholics have statues of Jesus and other saints, some of them very large and ornate. They have been severely criticized for this especially by the Puritans, who moved to the untamed America to get away from it. Jews still bother them about it, but they will reply that they're not praying to the statue, rather it simply focuses their thoughts.

In ancient times, though, people made a huge production of this stuff, complete with widespread human sacrifice. The winter solstice in Stonehenge today does attract thousands, but is nothing like it was during the stone age. The ancient towering statues in Abu Simbel in Egypt remain to this day as a tourist attraction; and so do the enormous statues of Buddha in Afghanistan, when they are not being attacked by the Taliban. Thank God humanity has progressed.

The word in lashon hakodesh used by Moshe rabenu for statue is פֶּסֶל. It shares the same root as the word “carved, sculptured, or engraved”. The Tanakh has many pejoratives for idolatry, for example dung and aggravation, but this is not one of them. Going forward from the Talmud pessel becomes a strong pejorative. The word פְּסוֹלֶת means trash or something worthless. פָּסוּל means invalid but includes ideas of loathing and disgust. For example an improperly written mezuzah or sefer Torah is called pasul, and so is an improperly built sukkah. It can also imply excommunication when it is applied to a person or a book.

The term שֶׁקֶץ is used by the prophet Ezekiel to describe the idolatry of the Jews immediately before the destruction of the first temple. Here they were worshipping statues of vile reptiles and animals. The Chumash also uses the word shekets for things like rodents and cockroaches. Even today it is a stinging insult. It also has connotations of the word ugly.

In one of the haftorahs between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av, the Jews are exhorted to remove their abominations (שִׁקּוּצֶיךָ) from presence of God and not to waver (see Jeremiah 4:1). The idea is that this is a necessary rectification. It would go along with things like gratuitous hatred, murder, adultery, and the venal behavior described in the haftarah for tisha b’av. Removing the shikutsim would seem to apply to ugly strange behavior, especially the ones related to religion. At times they are called antics or mishagasim. It would seem to apply to litter, movements, and sounds that really are offensive and mindless. On the contrary it is proper to go in the direction of beauty, to remove the dross from the silver and gold, and to remove the disgrace ask it says, “Everybody who goes down the road claps for you, hisses, shakes their head, and asks about the end product of Jerusalem, Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?" (Lamentations 2:15).

לע"נ  האמא מלכה בת חיים ז"ל נלב"ע טז ניסן תשנ"ח

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