Analytical Cubism & the Art of the Sukkah
Adapted from Rabbi Daniel Gutenmacher’s original drasha in Hebrew. Read it here.
I recently had to review some sefarim to solve halachic questions for the construction of two of my sons' Sukkahs. I played around with the geometric calculations, tefachim (biblical measurement of arms’ length/”handbreadth”), height and width, measurements, and relationships between different components and materials. After spending two hours on mere geometric technicalities, I wondered if my intense focus on these measurements distracted me from the experience of observing the obligation of the mitzvah of sukkah?
After observing the cubist paintings of Georges Braque (France, 1882-1963), it seems to me that by dealing with the formal elements of structure and landscape, one can in fact find the space of spiritual dimensions within physical reality.
The Parc at Carrières-Saint-Denis by Georges Braque, on view at Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
The Parc at Carrières-Saint-Denis (1909), presents a landscape of trees in a garden, next to brown rectangular surfaces making up a building. This construction is presented to the viewer through the glasses of an artist progressing towards Analytical Cubism: We see trees transforming into semi-abstract geometric shapes, bushes or grass appearing as green triangles, and the building next to it appearing as an amalgamation of rectangles.
The result of this early stage analytical-cubism is the dismantling of elements and their reassembly into geometric forms of oil on canvas, emphasizing the fundamental essence of creation. The effect for the viewer is to draw attention to the abstract spiritual plane present within the concrete reality of the landscape. The viewer may now feel the essence of the growth, the essence of the inanimate objectI. Another effect this style has is a union created between the various objects within the composition. The trees are no longer just nature, and the house is no longer simply an independent building.
During Sukkot, we are invited to build a new space composed of constructed surfaces integrated with natural surfaces. (I.e, constructing walls under the Schach of the plant) And the Torah - with the help of the Halachic tradition - sketches a plan for assembling a space exactly like this. It is precisely the manipulation of geometric shapes that succeeds in defining a spatial experience for man. This also includes a surface of Schach- the rectangle abstracted from nature that embodies the Shekinah and the spiritual dimension within creation.
And above the Schach: Heaven. We learn in Masechet Sukkah that the dimensions of the inside space of the Sukkah is derived from that of the ark in the temple: that only above ten handbreaths (tefachim) of space, above our heads, is where the Shechina resides and communicates down with the inhabitants of the earth.
We experience this in the sukkah through a thatched ceiling, representing the abstract element, and the concrete - the halachic and the spiritual.
