mentalblog.com: The estrangement of Rabbi Steinsaltz

On the first day of Sukkos I was found myself sitting next to Peter Kalms. Peter was telling me that he just published a book about the history of his work with Russian Jews since the 70s. After the davening I said to Peter what a delight it was to daven in the Tzemach Tzedek Shule. Peter said that he once told the Rebbe that Tzemach Tzedek Shule was one of the most beautiful Shules in the world and the Rebbe replied that this was the most beautiful! I pointed to the new front wall and mentioned that this looks better that the Arks by the Kotel. We both made our way to Rabbi Steinsaltz�s table; he was speaking about the new addition to the Shule with agitation. �This is an epitome of kitsch; they should take this wall and give it to an Arab church. Look at this!!! Look at the lights!

Tzemach Atlas: But the lights look appropriate.
Rabbi Steinsaltz, counting the lights on the chandelier: �You see eleven; there is a Jerusalem tradition to have ten lights like the sefirot. They should have asked the Lelever Rebbe. He builds lights according to the traditional arrangements�.

Aryeh Schottenstein later that evening, when I saw you walking to Steinsaltz after davening I new that the wall is going to get blasted.

Tzemach Atlas: So the wall is a little Hungarian Boro Park in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Steinsaltz: Hungarian taste is the worst chachkes they did not want in Vienna ended up in Hungary as high art. I speak about this with authority because when I was a teen I studied sculpture.
Tzemach Atlas: R. Weiss is the donor; you can talk to his grandkids other there, the Levitins. Why did they build the wall?
Rabbi Steinsaltz: The temptation was too great. You see in Jerusalem this is the weakness.

Shmuel Levitin, embracing his brother in-law Aryeh: If you write something bad about my grandfather Rabbi Weiss I would hunt you down. At least say that people appreciate this wall very much.
The conversation skips to Russia and Putin.

Rabbi Steinsaltz: I think Putin is an alien. The way he walks and then all the emotions are staged. He has no anger. When he is angry it is all calculated.
Peter Kalms: Lazar says that Putin is OK.
Rabbi Steinsaltz: He probably learned this from the Italian mafia, in the mafia you leak the one who is above you.
Rabbi Steinsaltz: Putin once said in a conference that a journalist who cared too much about Chechenya that the journalist could convert to Islam, and that Putin can recommend excellent Mohels from Moscow. You see Mohels in Moscow actually use this quote as an endorsement advertising their services. But it is all calculated and staged like everything Putin says. He is never angry really. Anger is bad particularly in boxing.
Tzemach Atlas: Why boxing, doesn�t anger add forcefulness?
Rabbi Steinsaltz: Yes but it also confuses judgment. There was once a Rov in Jerusalem that was given a lot of grief by a woman in his congregations. And he asked a shayla if it was permissible to be angry based on what she has done.

Rabbi Steinsaltz: And where are you from?
Tzemach Atlas: Druya.
Rabbi Steinsaltz: Oh, you know that Druya was to Belarus what Helm was to Poland. All the jokes about fools in Belarus are about Druya. I always thought that one of my grandfathers was from Lithuania but I recently discovered that is was really Belarus.

A Turkish Jews from LA joins the conversation; Rabbi Steinsaltz goes through the amazing account of four different Jewish communities in Turkey and the differences between them. He also speaks about the town that this Jew comes from.

Tzemach Atlas: There are Jews from Belarus after them the Turkish Jews, then all the rest with the Hungarians on the bottom.
Rabbi Steinsaltz: You know I have a Hungarian granddaughter. I told my daughter, a Tunisian, a Kurd, etc. but not a Hungarian. She didn�t listen and married a half Hungarian and now my granddaughter is exactly Hungarian. You know its fun to talk to someone who shares your prejudice.

A man joins the conversation and asks Rabbi Steinsaltz about humor in Torah. I tune out till this:

Rabbi Steinsaltz: Issac Asimov, my wife�s relative, wrote a story. There was a computer that could answer most complicated question. So they looked for a man who knows what to ask form the computer. They eventually found the man sitting there, telling jokes to the computer. You see nobody knows where the jokes come from. Who makes them up? Some say the jokes come from the aliens.
Tzemach Atlas: I though the jokes come from Odessa.
Rabbi Steinsaltz: Yes, when I was in Odessa they brought me to a stature in town. It was stature of a tailor. And it says that he was the man who invented all the jokes. In Russia there was magazine called Korkodil.
Tzemach Atlas: Wow, you know about Krokodil.
Rabbi Steinsaltz: Of course I know! I am not one of your Rabbis in Boston.

Rabbi Steinsaltz, looks out of the window at the Hurva Synagogue construction site: They don�t listen to me. They had a competition for the new synagogue. And in the end they decided to do what I told all along to rebuild the synagogues as it was.
Jerusalem is a beautiful city, individual houses are not beautiful, but as whole the city is beautiful. Tel Aviv has a lot of beautiful buildings but as a whole the city is not beautiful. So is New York and Moscow. Its like having beautiful mouth but not a beautiful face�
Tzemach Atlas: Is there an example of a beautiful city besides Jerusalem?
Rabbi Steinsaltz: I once got a prize in France from a man who later became a president. When I accepted the prize I said that Paris is beautiful, almost as beautiful as Jerusalem. He had to take this as a compliment.

Its 3 pm, only two of us left in the Tzemach Tzedek Shule. Rabbi Steinsaltz tells me that he needs to daven. I walk back through the gate (That evening I promised an honest critique of the wall to Shmuel Levitin).

Aryeh Schottenstein comments:

�Rabbi Weiss approached the Rebbe several times to ask for a permission to renovate the Ark in the Shule. Finally the Rebbe gave a brocho to Rabbi Weiss and Mendel Levitin with the emphasis on �harchovas vepear� as is reproduced on this panel. The design of the Arc has been commissioned to a firm that specializes in the �art�. Therefore it has nothing to do with Hungary or some other exile. The donors believe that they executed the Rebbes instructions and although the interpretation of �harchovas vepear� is subject for a discussion, the effort was genuine and the donors are hurt by the criticism�.

Yet I start with the assumption that a historic landmark in the heart of Jerusalem could be held to the standard of the national treasure and therefore could be subjected to criticism.

First lets� look at the overall design. The most visible element in any design is usually on the top. The contrasting line of wood to white paint makes it especially pronounced. The curvature of the top board has no relation to the shape or the proportions of the beautiful building. In fact it is sharply curtailed and cut on the sides an unceremoniously sliced on the top. The only function of the top board is to provide a backing for the four golden trees. Indeed the wall disregards the proportions or the context of the building and serves its primary function as a backing for the glitzy decorations. This in a nutshell is the definition of kitsch.

If you look at the golden decoration closely or knock on them, they don�t feel like metal. The technique used is carving on plastic and then galvanizing the surface of the plastic with a thin layer of gold looking film. The consequences of this technique is that the shapes loose characteristic metallic crispness and instead appear as painted amorphous clay or plaster. In fact it looks like neither metal nor clay, it has a blobby appearance.

I already previously addressed the symbolism of columns, but it again escapes me why column has to be a decorative element of choice to present an illusion of grandeur. For what its worth it is an alien element in the Shule that is structurally load bearing walls and a cupola. The pinkish stone has multiple veins and appears to be a low quality. The carving of the capital is particularly crude.

But enough with the close-ups. Perhaps the walls are designed to be looked at from a far and provide shiny upbeat front to the prayers. Indeed there is something cheerful and playful about the wall. The introduction of color, even the plastic blue, is refreshing. It's a happy wall!

Furthermore if one is to criticize this wall one has to criticize every Parohes on every Aron Kodesh in the world. The stupid glass stones, the nauseating golden thread dedications, the velvet, the borders, the crowns. In fact this wall is nothing but a three dimensional reproduction of your typical Paroches.

Now to what I perceive to be the real predicament. I sensed that Rabbi Steinsaltz feels cornered in his own Shule. Indeed a person of his stature, a Torah giant who miraculously possesses an uncanny esthetic sophistication is not even consulted and shoved aside by the machers and gaboyim who assume that as long as they order the music, they can approach the decision making concerning the renovation the way they approach building a summer home. After all the place is a national monument, why not ask a second opinion on the commission of the ark? I realize the people had the best of the intentions. But I also heard in Rabbi�s comments the bitter sarcasm and resignation. In this department I know exactly how he feels. He actually sits on the juries of major art competitions and in his own Shule where he spends long afternoons davening while the rest of the mortals are eating lunch he is not even considered as a source. Why not have the design of the wall judged by the experts? They could have contributed a perfectly legitimate interpretation of the �harchovas vepear�. This indeed is the picture that repeats itself in the Jewish world as we know it, the inverse values and lowering of the esthetic standard is "da problem".