Beautiful People, Ugly People

...Sure, sure...

...As the story stands above, we have a nice, moralistic ending which harks back to our original childhood memories—containers and contents, books and covers...

...It explicitly states: One who sees beautiful creatures recites, "Blessed be God for having made such beautiful things in His world...

...Later still, when we began to study Pirkei A vot—The Sayings of the Fathers—we would discover the maxim, "Don't look at the container, but rather see what is inside...

...The situation is simple: struck by the wonders of beauty in this world, we give praise and thanks that we are privileged to enjoy their appearance in our lives...

...It is to inform us of the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He...

...Did we say, "How nice—see how much he has accomplished despite his handicap...

...Most striking of all, however, is the description of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chanania, teacher of Rabbi Akiva, who lived in the First Century C.E...

...She was (as can be expected after imagining Caesar's daughter), one fabulous creature for the eye to behold, the personification of Roman beauty...

...He had never seen an uglier man...

...Then they should be brought again for second grade, third grade, through Bar and Bat Mitzvah and Hebrew High school, l And again, as struggling adults in the Real World, making a living, raising their own children, passing on messages and blessings for future generations of Jews...

...These creations are no better or worse than the "normal"—just different...

...Joseph was ravishing...

...Who's going to believe that...

...That was well, fine, and good for childhood, but as we began to grow up, and certain realities began crashing into our systems, we started to wonder just how universal an idea this might be...

...The rabbi's cheeks were puffy, pock-marked, and wrinkled...

...how we treat ourselves...

...As Jewish tradition understands people, it is a basic human right to be treated with dignity, and a responsibility to treat others in similar fashion...

...True, but not always true...

...Did we try to seek out his finer qualities, or assume that underneath the unpleasant exterior there might be a gentle soul...

...It is a classic, difficult example of ideals and reality locked in a tight wrestler's grip, fraught with doubts and fears and tension...

...We do not praise beauty in and of itself, as the pagan world did...

...There, they will watch the faces and antics of the monkeys and chimps and baboons, and somewhere in their developing minds they will react to just how much they resemble people...

...A half-dozen times the Talmud proclaims the principle Gadol K'vod HaBriot—the dignity of God's creatures is very great...

...And, on the other hand, building our lives on the basis of some real or imagined good looks we might possess also rings false...

...This meant, of course, that this particular Jew glowed with inner beauty, with deeds that bespoke a sensitivity of soul, an I intense kindness...

...And even more disturbing, what is the following story all about?: It once happened that Rabban Shimon ben Galmiel was standing on the Temple steps...

...She said, "In what, then, should we store it...

...Then I quote the Shulchan Aruch, the codified law, based on the Talmud...

...I do not wish to neglect the intellectual or creative aspects of human beings, but for the purposes of these comments, it is our response to the physical appearances of others that concerns me...

...Rather, we go back to the source of all beauty and all life, and recite a Bracha...

...This principle applies to all human beings, no matter what their Danny Siegel, a contributing editor of moment, is the author of Angels, to be published this month...

...Nine-tenths of all the world's beauty was to be seen in his face and form...

...As happens with so many Tal-mudic tales, the student remains with an unsettling feeling, an ambivalence which I believe touches the depths of human feelings and reflects a more accurate description of the realities of life...

...Hers is a frontal attack: The daughter of the Roman emperor said to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chanania, "Such brilliant wisdom in such an ugly vessel...

...How sad...

...Not so blatantly or crudely, but it may be that we have avoided some people because old age has worn their bodies in unpleasant looking ways, or because they have cerebral palsy and may shake...

...So I add that the Law even applies to trees...

...But the King of all Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, formed all people in the mold of the first person, and not a single one resembles any other one...

...Orach Chaim 225:10...

...Rabbi Akiva wept, too, when he saw the Roman governor's wife...

...Every first grade Hebrew school student should be taken on a tour of the cages and allowed to freely express his or her wonder at the dazzling feathers of the peacock, the long neck of the giraffe, and the bizarre beak of the toucan...

...or into suicide...

...and the Bracha-blessing is recited only when first having seen them, when the strangeness of their appearance is most striking...

...Jewish tradition certainly does not ignore physical beauty...

...It is a Bracha to be wrestled with, perhaps the starting point for a sigh or outcry of anger at the way things are in the imperfect world—the grossly, sometimes horribly imperfect world...

...Avoda Zara 20a, Psalm 104:24) Rabban Gamliel, leader of the Jews, ogling pagan women...

...The Jerusalem Talmud supplies background, stating that this Bracha applies even to beautiful donkeys, camels, or horses...

...They share a common humanity in that they are creations of God, molded in the likeness of the first human being who, in turn, was created in God's own image...

...For human beings mint many coins from the same die, and they all look the same...

...What gives us pause about this story is that there may be a little of Caesar's daughter in each of us...

...In Sanhedrin 4:5 it states: Why did God originally create only one person...

...For animals and plant life, they are an opportunity for considering God's handiwork...

...If these occurred after birth, one recites, "Blessed are You, O lord, our God, King of the universe, the True Judge...

...His appearance was well known to all of his contemporaries, and to subsequent generations: he was extremely ugly...

...And on the Temple steps no less...

...And the people with cerebral palsy getting their PhD's, giants and dwarfs who refuse to become side-show freaks, choosing instead to integrate fully into society...

...One who sees a lame person, or one without hands or legs, or a blind person, or one who has boils, or who is pocked with small pockmarks—if this has been their condition from birth, one recites, "Blessed are You, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who creates a variety of creatures...

...They will also have taken note of how different the elephant is from any person they might know, and the same for the eagle, the cheetah and the bear...

...And yet, in contrast to the minter of coins who produces exact replicas from one die, no matter how often the divine stamp is put on a human being—even billions of times—each individual remains unique...

...The rabbi replied, "I spoke to her just as she spoke to me...

...And even if we cannot bring ourselves to recite this Bracha aloud (for fear of offending someone who might mistake it for an expression of pity—which it is not), or even if we do not recite the Bracha at all, knowing these Brachot places the nature of ugliness in a larger context—far beyond the whispers "Oh, poor soul...

...All are still made in God's image...

...Rabbi Milton Steinberg describes him in his novel As a Driven Leaf...

...This is the selfsame Bracha recited anytime we hear of or experience unfortunate events, and it must never be recited lackadaisically...

...How Elisha must have wondered what this man had to teach him, and how he had risen to such prominence in the eyes of his colleagues, teachers, and other students...

...Or did we even think to ask, "What about the ones who were crushed by disability, their scars...

...He answered, "You who are such important people should keep it in vessels of silver and gold...

...On the one hand, it would be unjustly harsh for us to consider ourselves as freaks...

...The Shulchan Aruch states: Rabban Gamliel, leader of the Jews, ogling pagan women...

...The Talmud adds, though, "He was acknowledging God's creative powers, as a sage once said, 'One who sees beautiful creatures recites, "Blessed [be God] for having made the world in such fashion...

...Yehoshua's student, Elisha, is brought to him for the first time, and this is Elisha's reaction: Elisha blinked...

...Indeed, Jewish tradition has no authentic word for "freak...

...They informed the emperor of what happened...

...Whenever 1 teach this story, there are rumbles in the audience, "Yeah, sure, sure...

...The ones who suffer the most are perhaps the ones who, once lovely or "normal" looking, have become victims of an accident which leaves them (at least in their own eyes) disabled or ugly...

...It does not go away, and it is a problem that concerns Jewish tradition from ancient times...

...Creator and creations...

...Rabbi Yehoshua: If they were ugly, they would be wiser...

...Or the grown-ups would tell us kids, "Don't judge a book by its cover...

...If we relate to ourselves as ugly people (as is so often the case with individuals who have lost their self-image), we rn^ay rein-still in ourselves a new sense of dignity...

...One concerns birth defects and the other, accidents...

...Radiant beauty, striking looks...

...We are all the same, despite the staggering diversity of God's creatures...

...Did it change the way we acted towards the fat kid in high school who was turned into a pariah by his classmates, because he was sloppy and slow...

...but beautiful creatures are just that: creations to be admired as reflections of a higher image...

...Everyone knows stories of great athletes who overcame physical disabilities: the runner who had a bad leg, blind skaters, one-armed golfers...

...That's the Bracha and that's the Law—and Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel was certainly not drooling over some pagan woman's body (unless he was incredibly strange and did the same over well-shaped camels), but taking note of God's craftsmanship...

...For them, Rabbi Yehoshua's reply, "If they were ugly, they would be wiser," sounds false...

...Rabbi Zeira was called, "the short one with the burnt legs," referring both to his reduced physical stature (similar to Toulouse-Lautrec) and some accident that left those diminutive legs scarred...

...They don't waste time on artificial cosmetics...

...But what we don't read about, hear about, or see in the streets are the ones whose despair drags them down and who give up and lose the will to live...

...All fits neatly, and Caesar's daughter is taught her appropriate lesson...

...He said to his daughter, "Who told you this...

...No matter how good-looking or bad-looking we might be in the eyes of others, how we handle ourselves is the issue...

...The second issue is the ending to the story...

...I needn't mention that, at this point in teaching the story, there are more comments from the students, "Yeah...

...Quite different is the reaction of Caesar's daughter when she meets Rabbi Yehoshua...

...The First Case: Beauty Is Only Skin Deep, But____ The Talmud makes note of the physical characteristics of many of the rabbis...

...Still, the Talmud and Jewish Law Codes offer some guidance...

...They put the wine in gold and silver vessels and it went sour...

...a macaw in red and yellow finery, a deer from some exotic African bush, an albino tiger, so rare, so magnificent...

...That would be idol worship...

...But there is a more haunting feeling, as we imagine the encounter: sometimes, perhaps, we have also done what Caesar's daughter did...

...The Mishna is teaching that people are all the same, and yet strikingly diverse...

...The issue is complex, charged with high emotion...

...The first Bracha is the critical one: it merely states (as the original passage from the Mishna had stated) that God creates a variety of creations, big, small, crippled, with tics, tremors, and deformed bones...

...The Second Case: Beauty, Gorgeousness, Loveliness, Etc...

...Examining the texts, it is obvious that beauty and ugliness is a Jewish issue that cannot be ignored...

...However, there is an additional exchange of words in our original: Caesar: But surely there are good looking people who are also wise...

...In retrospect that seems absurd...

...Rabbi Yehoshua be ben Chanania," she said...

...In relation to human beings they are a glimpse of the divine image itself...

...Who's going to believe that...

...She went and told her father...

...These are by no means children's stories, and they are as real as life itself, with all the sophisticated clash of emotions that life brings upon us...

...As a consequence of the communality of our ancestry and our divine likeness, we are all invested with a certain Kavod—dignity—whether we be tall, short, long-nosed, wide-jawed, or whatever variation might be imagined...

...The second Bracha states (with a considerable amount of ache and passion) that somehow God must have a reason for these accidents, and He is to be the Judge of their fates...

...They will naturally want to see the elephants, and will inevitably spend the most time at the monkey house...

...A different voice, different shades of hair color, facial balance, even fingerprints and ear lobes...

...An obvious adjunct to this principle is that, as we examine and appreciate the multifarious and varied creatures around us—and recognizing our intimate interconnections with them—we would not wish to trample on them or destroy them...

...By definition, because we are all creatures, creations...

...Surely we must have noted our own reactions to these encounters from time to time...

...Bulging under a begrimed robe, his belly shook as he walked...

...This may also be translated as, "The respect due to God's creatures is very great...

...They summoned him, and the emperor said to Rabbi Yehoshua, "Why did you tell her this...

...First, with whom do we identify in the story...

...The Talmud and Shulchan Aruch never provide objective guidelines as to what is beautiful and what is not...

...How confused he must have been...

...Akiva wept, Rabbi Elazar wept for Death's destruction of beautiful creatures...

...Such despair they must have felt...

...They are the unknowns who disappear into anonymity and institutions and rooms with the shutters always closed...

...The Brachot are our response to this matrix of understanding the world...

...That's what the Midrash tells us, along with tales of the beauties of Esther and Sarah, and Moses...

...Did we avoid them...

...He drove Potiphar's wife wild by his appearance alone...

...And again, if we were fortunate enough to be raised in an environment where Yiddish was common, we might have heard, "Ah, a shayner Yid—what a beautiful Jew...

...While we are certainly taught to take care of ourselves—our health, our grooming—self-worship as advocated by so many TV commercials is much more the legacy of Caesar's daughter than it is of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel on the Temple steps...

...they don't obsess themselves with physical appearance, they naturally concentrate on the inner qualities and characters of people...

...physical appearance or intellectual acumen, bright or average or below, beautiful, ugly, or of median stature and presence...

...Rav Yossef and Rav Sheshet were both blind...

...We would have liked the story to end before this, but Rabbi Yehoshua jars us, saying that ugly people are wiser...

...In the Talmud, we are told that Rabbi Elazar wept at Rabbi Yochanan's beauty, because it would someday wither in the dust...

...Ta'anit 7a-7b) The story raises two critical issues...

...There are those who say this is recited only if it is distressing to see these people...

...Comparing Ourselves The principle of "How great is the respect due to God's creatures" applies to us as well...

...His beard was straggly...

...Nor was his appearance improved by the soot of the forge that streaked his hair, smudged his face, and made of his nostrils two black holes...

...There were others, too, whom we met as we matured: people misshapen from accidents or from congenital defects...

...He could very well 1 have been a one-eyed hunchback, this shayner Yid, but it was his deeds that defined his beauty...

...They must have encountered a thousand Caesar's daughters, as Rabbi Yehoshua must have, and the weight of it all must have been crushing...

...When he saw an extraordinarily beautiful pagan woman walk by, he said, "How great are Your works, O Lord...

...According to the Talmud and Law Codes, those are low-level emotions, and we are instructed (in the face of such difficult encounters) to raise them to some higher realm of meaning...

...Conclusion: The Monkey And The Elephant Jewish education should begin at the zoo...

...Then they should recite the Brachot: one for the variety of God's creatures, and one for the beauty of His creatures...

...Orach Chaim 225:9) There are two Brachot—blessings— that may be recited when we encounter unusual-looking people...

...The Basic Text: An Introduction One critical passage from the Mishna stands out as the foundation for any Jewish examination of this problem...

...But what was Rabbi Akiva doing looking at the wife of Turnus Rufus the governor...

...Some interpreters would feel that these are the words of an embittered man making the best of his handicap, turning it to good use: Handicapped People Compensate...

...Rabbi Akiva was bald...

...He replied, "Does your father keep his wine in clay vessels...

...We are, of course, taken aback by the sting of this woman's greeting, and we say to ourselves, "May we all be spared such humiliation...

...And on the Temple steps no less...