Faux outrage over students seeing ‘David’ statue was fear triumphing over human spirit | Opinion

Leonardo da Vinci was the greatest student of human musculature. He illegally spent countless hours dissecting deceased human bodies in order to comprehend our structure and how the human body works. He was a scientist even more than an artist. Thus the “Mona Lisa” smile, which has mystified observers for 500-plus years.

Michelangelo, the younger artist of the same Italian century, painted portraits in the Sistine Chapel portraying the relationship between God and humanity and worked years to give us his exquisite capture of the human form in marble. He lifted human spirits to contemplate the divine and spiritual in our lives also for half a millennium.

The same can be said of great literature: “Fahrenheit 451,” “Beloved,” “Maus,” “The Catcher in the Rye” — all now banned in some places.

These are triumphs of art, to capture humanity in oil, marble, and words, preserving forever the insights of genius for us to marvel over their beauty, uplifting the human spirit.

We humans suffer so grievously in life. We need art to raise our aspirations and give us hope. Beauty helps us to survive the difficulties of living.

You can witness to genius or cave to your own prurient fright. But please don’t take our society with you down the rathole of your imaginary anxieties over childhood sexuality.

The school board chairman who forced the resignation of a Florida charter school principal because students were shown an image of Michelangelo’s “David” is the person to be condemned. When challenged to affirm beauty, inspiration and courage, he caved to fear.

Mark H. Levin is founding rabbi of Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park.