Statues,
Symbols and Snakes on Sticks
Chukas-Balak
On Friday
afternoon, on the eve of Parshat Chukas, on June 17, 1242, corresponding to the
20th of Sivan in the year, 24 cartloads of the Talmud, each meticulously
handwritten, were dumped in the town square in front of the Notre Dame
Cathedral, and ceremoniously set ablaze.
This heinous act plunged the Jews of France into mourning, as it
effectively eradicated our greatest source of tradition and practice from
Europe. Eloquent kinnot were composed to
commemorate and bemoan this event, some of which remain part of the Tisha Ba’av
liturgy to this day. In many
communities, this tragic date was rightfully observed as a public fast
day. The King responsible for this grave
hate crime was Louis XIV, a man later canonized by the Catholic Church.
Attesting to his heroic status at the center of
the Place des Victoires, a short walk from Notre Dame Cathedral, is an
equestrian monument in honor of King Louis XIV. He is also the namesake of the State of
Louisiana, the cities of St. Louis and Louisville and hundreds of other
locations around the world.
As civil war
monuments and other statues of those who promulgated racist policies, kept
slaves or persecuted native Americans are being considered for removal - we have
an opportunity to consider the Jewish attitude towards all of this. As the time
honored question goes - Is it good for the Jews?
You can imagine
how painful it might be to see an oppressor memorialized favorably. To cause
emotional pain to anyone is included in the prohibition of אונאת
דברים,
verbal oppression. At the same time, we
are painfully aware that destroying statues to avoid causing further offense
cannot reverse the course of history and does precious little to atone for it.
In addition, as nuanced thinkers, we understand the value of memorializing
people and events whose legacy is complicated, where the good and unsavory live
side by side.
Our sidra
contains mention of one of the very first “statues” recorded in history - the נחש
הנחשת,
the copper snake. Following a plague
which ravaged the ranks of the Bnei Yisrael - Moshe was instructed to fashion a
copper snake, coiled around a pole.
במדבר
פרק
כא
(ט) וַיַּ֤עַשׂ מֹשֶׁה֙ נְחַ֣שׁ נְחֹ֔שֶׁת
וַיְשִׂמֵ֖הוּ
עַל־הַנֵּ֑ס וְהָיָ֗ה
אִם־נָשַׁ֤ךְ
הַנָּחָשׁ֙ אֶת־אִ֔ישׁ וְהִבִּ֛יט אֶל־נְחַ֥שׁ הַנְּחֹ֖שֶׁת
וָחָֽי:
Henceforth,
whoever would gaze in its direction would be miraculously healed.
Indeed, this
exceptionally effective treatment became a universal symbol for medicine
emblazoned on the sides of ambulances, hospitals and medical schools throughout
the world.
At some point
- the נחש
הנחשת,
the beloved monument was eradicated, when King Chizkiyahu ordered it to be
pulverized and destroyed. The removal of
such a cherished relic was, no doubt, received with mixed reviews at best. But
Chazal had the final word, claiming that Chizkiyahu acted on the “right side of
history” in this regard:
משנה מסכת פסחים פרק ד משנה ט
[*] ששה דברים
עשה
חזקיה
המלך
על
שלשה
הודו
לו
ועל
שלשה
לא
הודו
לו
גירר
עצמות
אביו
על
מטה
של
חבלים
והודו
לו
כיתת נחש הנחשת והודו לו גנז ספר
רפואות
והודו
לו
על
שלשה
לא
הודו
לו
קיצץ
דלתות
של
היכל
ושיגרן
למלך
אשור
ולא
הודו
לו
סתם
מי
גיחון
העליון
ולא
הודו
לו
עיבר
ניסן
בניסן
ולא
הודו
לו:
Six things King
Hezekiah did, concerning three they [the sages] agreed with him, and concerning
three they did not agree with him: He dragged his father's bones [corpse] on a
rope bier, and they agreed with him; He crushed the bronze serpent, and they agreed
with him; He hid the book of remedies, and they agreed with him. And
concerning three they did not agree with him: He cut down the doors of the
Temple and sent them to the king of Assyria, and they did not agree with him;
He closed up the waters of the Upper Gihon, and they did not agree with him; He
intercalated [the month of] Nisan in Nisan, and they did not agree with him.
What motivated
Chizkiyahu to do away with part of our history?
He saw the obsession over the statue and its symbolism take on a life of
its own:
מלכים ב פרק יח
(ד) ה֣וּא׀ הֵסִ֣יר
אֶת־הַבָּמ֗וֹת
וְשִׁבַּר֙
אֶת־הַמַּצֵּבֹ֔ת וְכָרַ֖ת
אֶת־הָֽאֲשֵׁרָ֑ה
וְכִתַּת֩
נְחַ֨שׁ הַנְּחֹ֜שֶׁת אֲשֶׁר־ עָשָׂ֣ה
מֹשֶׁ֗ה
כִּ֣י עַד־הַיָּמִ֤ים הָהֵ֙מָּה֙ הָי֤וּ
בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ מְקַטְּרִ֣ים ל֔וֹ
וַיִּקְרָא־ל֖וֹ נְחֻשְׁתָּֽן:
Bnei Yisrael,
whose ancestors had been healed time and again by the Hand of God, began
looking towards the symbol for salvation, and forgot about God and his role in
this miracle. As the Mishnah in Tractate Rosh Hashnaha tells us:
ראש השנה ג:ח
כַּיּוֹצֵא בַדָּבָר
אַתָּה
אוֹמֵר
(במדבר
כא),
עֲשֵׂה
לְךָ שָׂרָף
וְשִׂים
אֹתוֹ עַל
נֵס,
וְהָיָה
כָּל
הַנָּשׁוּךְ
וְרָאָה אֹתוֹ וָחָי.
וְכִי
נָחָשׁ מֵמִית,
אוֹ נָחָשׁ
מְחַיֶּה. אֶלָּא,
בִּזְמַן
שֶׁיִּשְׂרָאֵל
מִסְתַּכְּלִין
כְּלַפֵּי
מַעְלָה
וּמְשַׁעְבְּדִין
אֶת
לִבָּם
לַאֲבִיהֶן
שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם,
הָיוּ
מִתְרַפְּאִים, וְאִם
לָאו,
הָיוּ נִמּוֹקִים.
Rosh
Hashanah 3:8
Similarly, “Make for yourself a fiery
serpent and mount it on a pole. And if anyone who is bitten shall look at it,
he shall live” (Numbers 21:8). Did the serpent kill or did the serpent keep
alive? Rather, when Israel would look upwards and subject their hearts to their
Father in heaven, they were healed, and if not their [flesh] would melt away.
Chazal are teaching us that the
reason Chizkiyahu destroyed the נחש הנחשת
was because we exaggerated its significance. Statues and monuments are what we
make of them. The moment we ascribe more importance to them than they deserve,
they should be removed. But if they are just reminders of historical events,
and do not shape our values, then perhaps they are no different from many other
unpleasantries which fill the pages in history books.
If we advocate for the removal of
statues that are understandably offensive to other groups, we should at least
be consistent and recognize that there are plenty of statues that are offensive
to us as Jews. Here is a sample of some statues whose removal few are
considering at the moment:
On the facades of cathedrals
throughout Europe there are obscene depictions of Jews with pigs. A notable
example is on the facade of Martin Luther’s Cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany.
This genre is known as Judensau, and it was popular for over 600 years. Here is
a map of cities where such engravings can still be found (red letters indicate
that they have been removed):
(source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1903565)
One of the iconic symbols of the city
of Kyiv is a massive monument to Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the leader of the Cossack
Uprising who was responsible for the massacre of tens of thousands of Jews in
the years 1647-1648. In the Ukraine, he is revered as a national hero. In 2001,
this monument was added to the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine,
indicating its national importance.
(Source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54746026)
In Prague, the Charles Bridge that
spans the Vltava River features about 30 statues. Perhaps the most notorious is
one of Jesus on the cross surrounded by the Hebrew words קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ ה צְבָקוֹת (Isaiah 6:3). Elias Backoffen, a Jewish
community leader, was forced to pay for the gold-plated letters in 1696, as a
punishment for disrespecting the cross. Explanatory plaques in English, Czech
and Hebrew were added in 2009 after the city’s mayor was petitioned by a group
of North American rabbis.
Source: http://www.kralovskacesta.cz/en/tour/objects/statuary-of-the-st-cross-with-calvary.html
Thank God, I’m not a city planner and
don’t have to deal with the practicalities of statue removal, and the
heightened emotions on both sides. But
the fervor surrounding the issue should give us pause to ask whether we are
making too much of statues in the first place, and forgetting to address the
issues they represent.
This week, Rabbi Yitzchak Staum of
St. Louis was photographed standing at
the base of that city’s statue of Louis XIV. I will let his words speak for
themselves.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1759397487531312&set=a.301873839950358
Statues are nothing but sticks and
stones; it is our actions, rather than our monuments, that show our true
values. Perhaps Rabbi Staum is on to something...
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