70
The Jewish Home | JUNE 23, 2022
Self-Mastery Academy
The Spiritual Concept of Beauty By Rabbi Shmuel Reichman
I
n a world where beauty is often misunderstood, it’s important to understand its deep spiritual nature and purpose of this powerful and fundamental concept. To do so, let us trace the spiritual concept of beauty back to the creation of Man, before Adam HaRishon’s sin.
Adam HaRishon Before Adam sinned, he looked nothing like you or I do today. When we look at one another, all we see is flesh and bone, but if you looked at Adam before he sinned, his appearance was angelic, transcendent, luminescent. The Midrash says that he wore kosnos ohr (skin of light). When you looked at Adam, you didn’t see his body but saw Adam himself, i.e., his neshama. When you look at a lightbulb, all you see is radiant luminescence; only if you look very closely can you just make out the surface of the bulb. The same was true regarding Adam; he was luminescent. Only if you looked very closely could you just make out his physical body. His body was transparent, with the outside loyally and fully reflecting his inner self. This is true beauty, where the inner and outer melt into a oneness, where the physical perfectly reflects the inner spirituality; where the physical projects something much deeper than itself. Beauty is the harmony and synthesis of different components, resulting in something infinitely greater than the sum of its parts. When Adam sinned, however, the world fell, and Adam’s body fell as well. The physical no longer revealed the spiritual; it hid it instead. Now, when we look at each other, we don’t see our true selves; all we see is a physical body.
What was once light is now darkness. People can’t see your inner world, your thoughts, your consciousness, your emotions, or your soul; all they see is your external body. Now, in order to reveal yourself to other people, you must actively use the physical to reveal the spiritual. Only through your words, actions, facial expressions, and body language can people gain a glimpse into who you truly are. The body used to be incandescent and reveal, but now it only hides. It is up to us to reveal what lies ahead.
Sarah Imeinu After the sin of Adam HaRishon, genuine beauty became elusive, found only in a select few individuals. Sarah Imeinu was one of the few who achieved this lofty feat. We know that Sarah was physically beautiful and that her beauty was not just of an ethereal, spiritual nature. When Sarah Imeinu and Avraham Avinu descended to Mitzrayim (Egypt), the Mitzrim (Egyptians), and even Pharaoh himself, desired her (Rashi, Bereishis 23:1). The Egyptians were steeped in im-
morality, interested only in beauty that ran skin deep. However, we know that Sarah Imeinu was immensely spiritual as well and that she reached the loftiest of spiritual levels (Rashi, Bereishis 23:1). At the end of Parashas Noach, Rashi explains that one of Sarah’s other names was Yiskah (Bereishis 11:29). A name always reflects essence, so we must ponder the meaning of this name and what it reveals about Sarah Imeinu. “Yiskah” means transparent, and Sarah’s true beauty lay in her transparency. Her inner beauty completely permeated and was loyally reflected through her physical body. Genuine beauty is embodied in transparency, where the physical body reflects the inner, spiritual beauty, something infinitely greater than anything external. True beauty is oneness, where the physical and spiritual melt into a oneness; where the physical doesn’t hide the inner self but reveals it. This is why the shoresh (root) of the word “Yiskah” is also the shoresh of the word “schach,” the roof of the sukkah. According to halacha (Jewish law), the schach is the most important (ikar) part of the sukkah, which is why “schach” shares the same shoresh as “sukkah.” What is the connection between transparency and schach? The answer lies in one of the deepest themes of Sukkos. Sukkos is about seeing past the illusion of independent self-security, recognizing that Hashem is our true Source of protection. This is why we leave our sturdy homes and enter a diras arai, a temporary dwelling place. We show that our faith and trust lay in Hashem, not our “safe” homes. While on the surface, our security and safety seem to come only from our own efforts and hishtadlus, when we look past the surface, we recognize that every-
