The story is told of a man who once approached a rabbi and asked him a question that had been sitting on his mind for a long time: “Why does Hashem want me to perform mitzvos? He already has malachim who are perfect, pristine creatures. I’m just a human being. I’m flawed. I make mistakes. What are my mitzvos worth?”
The rabbi replied by asking this fellow what he did as a profession. “I’m an artist,” the man said. “My paintings are sought after by the wealthiest in the world.”
“What’s the nicest piece of art that you’ve ever produced?”
The artist explained that he painted an illustration of the sunset hanging over the ocean. “It’s considered an exquisite piece of art,” the artist boasted. “It’s worth an exorbitant amount of money.”
“What makes it so exquisite?” the rabbi wondered.
“Because it’s perfect,” the artist explained. “It depicts the ocean, the sun, and the horizon in a manner that so closely resembles the real thing.”
“So, tell me something,” the rabbi continued. “Why doesn’t someone just take a good camera to the ocean and take a picture of the sunset? If he wants a picture-perfect sunset, then surely a camera can provide a far more perfect replica than your painting, as good as it is.”
The artist smiled and explained that the whole point of art is to depict the subject as accurately as possible, given the human limitations. With a camera, there’s no challenge, and so there’s no achievement in producing a replica. The beauty of art lies in the ability to attain near-perfection within the limits of the human abilities.
The rabbi was glad to hear that. “You’ve answered your question — something that bothers many. This is precisely why Hashem wants us to serve Him. The malachim’s service is like the camera’s depiction of the sunset. It’s perfect and unflawed, without any struggle or challenge. Hashem created us flawed human beings so we can be ‘artists,’ who can paint life as beautiful as we can with those limitations. Yiddishkeit is an art, whereby we make ourselves as close to perfect as possible, through our confinements.”
