BEAUTY & TRUTH

Beauty & Truth



Beauty & Truth

Beauty can be found in truth regardless of the harshness that lies in truth. Beauty is not always a positive outlook on life, nor is it the beauty that our society has recently defined it as. Beauty can be found in every corner of the world in every truth that exists if one looks beyond the complexity of truth. Beauty itself is based on the appreciation of an aspect of life. As evil as it may seem beauty lies even in the most horrible elements of truth. In many instances a person cannot find beauty in something because a person does not understand it. It is possible that a person finds the truth of something yet believes it to be horrid, but this is simply because the person does not look beyond the horrid surface and into the core.

In his Ode on a Grecian Urn, John Keats, the English Romantic poet, wrote "Beauty is Truth, Truth, Beauty." Truth and Beauty - two values representing a historic and perpetual confrontation between the People of the Book and The "Beautiful People," - between Jerusalem and Athens. It is interesting that Keats chose to write his poem on a Grecian urn, for it was Greece that gave the world the idea that Beauty is, in itself, a supreme ideal. Judaism says that this ideal can become an idol. If Beauty doesn't dwell in the tents of Truth, then 'Beauty' may become a 'Beast' - a pretext for hedonism and immorality (Kemerling, 2001).

But don't think that there is no place for Beauty in the Jewish world-view. The Torah states categorically that aesthetics has a value, but only to the extent that it serves Truth, and uplifts the soul. In other words, Truth is Beauty, but what is beautiful may not necessarily be true. When you gaze into the light of your Chanukah candles, remember that their light shines out with the radiance of the Jewish love for Truth in all the ages.

An example of a person who is capable of seeing beauty in truth regardless of the surface of the truth is W.B Yeats in his poem Easter 1916 where he describes the Irish revolution of 1916 as a “terrible beauty” (Carritt, 2004). In his poem, Yeats is capable of defining the atrocities of the revolution as a beauty because he understands beyond the surface of the deaths and violence of the revolution. He understands the motive of the revolution and the ideals, and understands that although the course of the revolution had many horrible events it's essence was beautiful. Therefore to answer the question, neither beauty is not more important than truth nor truth is not more important than beauty but the beauty of truth is most important. This is because beauty by itself has no importance and truth by itself has no importance either. If one can see beauty and truth alone instead of joint, there is no epiphany in this realization, it is a ...