Did he or did he not remove the figure of Martin Luther King? The media roiled the tweeters tweeted the editorials raged. So began one of the early mini-storms that inundated the new Trump administration when they took over the White House. The rumors said that Obama had removed the bust of Churchill and replaced it with that of King and that Trump had now reversed the order and removed King. In the end the entire episode turned out to have been a silly mistake on the part of a reporter and so the furor subsided in favor of newer furors.

The historical figures we honor in our homes and offices are in a sense reflections of our own selves and of who we are — or who we would like to think we are. The paintings and photos we choose for our walls are actually windows into our souls outer reflections of our inner ideals and aspirations. The person with a bust of Josef Stalin on his desk would hardly have the same ideals as one who displays say Mahatma Gandhi. In any case the statuette market is quite good with Napoleon Washington Lincoln and Kennedy the most popular.

Question: If you had your choice to place one Jewish statuette on your desk who would it be? The Gaon of Vilna? Maimonides? The Lubavitcher Rebbe? The Chofetz Chaim? Rav Moshe Feinstein? Rav Joseph Soloveitchik? The correct answer of course is: none of the above. You will never see any of these in an observant Jewish home because — unlike photos and paintings — busts and figurines are in violation of the halachic proscriptions against possessing tactile figurines even if they are not going to be worshipped per se. (That huge bust of the head of Ben-Gurion in the Tel Aviv airport although not designed for worship is nevertheless not an authentically Jewish gesture of tribute.)

Why are busts of famous figures so prevalent? The simple reason is that home decorators are fond of them and people consider them fashionable. But on a deeper level it is a natural human attempt to preserve memory which is fleeting and evanescent and to concretize and materialize it. ( For a particularly repugnant example of this phenomenon see the Ten Martyrs section of the Yom Kippur Mussaf that recalls the cold-blooded daughter of the Roman procurator who wanted to preserve the handsome features of the great Rabi Yishmael Kohein Gadol after he was tortured to death as detailed by Rashi in Talmud tractate Avodah Zarah 11b.) And if it is a natural human impulse to embody in physical form certain historical figures with whom one wants to retain some kind of spiritual connection how much more is this true of the human desire to connect with a deity who they imagine will protect and sustain them.

Mankind was uncomfortable with Judaism’s revolutionary concept of an invisible and incorporeal deity. The very idea of a Creator who is untouchable and unseen (“U’Panai lo yeira’u — My Face shall not be seen” Shemos 33:23) but yet omnipotent and omniscient is difficult for the mortal mind to grasp. When Avraham Avinu first promulgated this concept it was so shocking that he was targeted for death. His society found it more reassuring to offer fealty to material incarnations of their many gods by representing them in the form of lifelike statues and figurines.

For Judaism of course this is pure (or impure) idolatry in clear violation of the Second Commandment. Nevertheless ancient religions as well as some modern ones overflow with figurines statues and lifelike renditions of what they consider their holy pantheon. Their places of worship are veritable museums of various gods because it is perfectly natural to want to reify one’s deities and to concretize abstractions.

But Judaism resists that which is merely natural. Note for example that each of the last five of the Ten Commandments — theft murder adultery false witness coveting — refers to temptations that are natural but which the Torah finds abhorrent. For that which remains merely natural and is not sanctified creates a gravitational pull downward toward earth while the Torah’s goal is to help us transcend the earth and rise upward and climb toward heaven.

If ever an observant Jew becomes president of the USA there will be no discussions about which Oval Office busts remain and which must go — for there will be none. Even George Washington and Abe Lincoln would have to be put into storage. The Orthodox president of the future will have found his inspiration elsewhere. (Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 654)