02 Sep KI-TESEH: THE ART OF RELIGIOUS LIFE

The story is told of a man
who once approached a
Rabbi and asked a question
which we have likely all
asked ourselves at one point
or another, in some form or
another.

“Why does Hashem want me to perform
mitzvot?” he asked. “He already has angels,
who are perfect, pristine creatures. I’m just
a human being. I’m very flawed. I make a
lot of mistakes. I do a lot of things wrong.
What are my mitzvot worth?”
The Rabbi replied by asking this fellow
what he did professionally. The man said he
was an artist, who drew paintings.
“What’s your favorite piece of art that
you’ve produced?” the Rabbi asked.
The artist explained that he painted a
beautiful picture of the sunset over the
ocean. It’s considered an exquisite piece of
art, and is worth an exorbitant amount of
money.
“What makes it so exquisite? Why is it so
highly valued?” the Rabbi wondered.
“Because it’s perfect,” the artist explained.

“It depicts the ocean, the sun and the horizon
in a manner that so closely resembles the
real thing.”
“So tell me something,” the Rabbi
continued. “Why doesn’t someone just take
a good camera to the ocean and take a
picture of the sunset? If he wants a perfect
picture of the sunset, then surely a picture
can provide a far more perfect replica than
your painting, as good as it is.”
The artist smiled and explained that the
whole point of art is to depict the subject as
accurately as possible given human
limitations. With a camera, there’s no
challenge, and so there’s no achievement in
producing a precise replica. The beauty of
art lies in the ability to attain near-perfection
within the limits of the human being’s
abilities.
“This is precisely why Hashem wants us to
serve Him,” the Rabbi said.
The angels’ service of G-d is like the
camera’s depiction of the sunset. It’s perfect
and unflawed, without any struggle or
challenge. Hashem created us flawed
human beings so we can be “artists” – so we
can create as beautiful a life as we can, with

the understanding that we aren’t going to be
perfect. Religious life is an art, whereby we
make ourselves as close to perfect as
possible. Of course, we will never be
perfect, and we should never expect
ourselves to be perfect. We must, however,
expect and demand of ourselves that we
consistently work to get better.
This month, Elul, is the time especially
earmarked for growth. This is the time when
we are to see how we can make our
“painting” a little better, and bring ourselves
closer to perfection. This is not the time to
pretend that we can make ourselves perfect.
This will never happen. If we see this month
as the time to get perfect, then we’ll likely
end up accomplishing nothing. Instead, we
need to commit to make ourselves better, to
getting closer to perfection.
And in order to do this, we must be willing
to push ourselves, and to challenge
ourselves to make real changes.
The Gemara teaches in Masechet Sotah
(21b): “The words of Torah are sustained
only within someone who makes himself
‘unclothed’ over them.” The Gemara here is
telling us that in order to grow in Torah, we

need to make difficult sacrifices. Needless
to say, we don’t have to actually give up all
our clothing. We do, however, need to give
up things that we have come to like, or we
have come to look to for enjoyment.
We should not expect ourselves to be perfect
– but we must absolutely expect ourselves
to work hard and to sacrifice in order to
improve. If we are committing ourselves to
Torah and mitzvot, then we cannot allow
ourselves to act as we like, to go wherever
we like, to watch whatever we like on our
devices, or to speak however we like. We
need to give up things which we know are
wrong, even if giving them up is difficult.
May Hashem help all of us this month to
produce beautiful, exquisite “paintings,” as
we develop ourselves into the greatest
people that we are capable of becoming.