Georges Rouault

Among so many different commands lies the beautiful task of sowing on a hostile earth, plate 22 from Miserere, 1926, Aquatint on paper, 585 x 430 mm (plate); 655 x 505 mm (sheet), Art Institute of Chicago; Gift of Marjorie H. Watkins, 1966.181, ©️ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris; Photo: The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY

Merciful Agriculture

Commentary by Stephen John Wright

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God’s holiness rests in divine being itself; for mortals, holiness is etched out in action. The holy life, in Leviticus 19, appears to present itself as a series of tasks. And yet, it is a holy life, something not reducible to duty, but endeavoured in the world. Holiness entails neighbours and aliens, plantings and harvests, family and offerings. The distinction between service to God and service to others does not hold (Gerstenberger 1996: 267). Leviticus 19 calls for the cultivation of holiness within the land.

In a shadowy landscape, Georges Rouault’s sower stretches out his right hand to bless the field with scattered seed. This print is one of a series of 58 in his Miserere project, which takes its title from Psalm 51: ‘have mercy’. Rouault evokes the grim darkness of 1920s bourgeois society in Europe: ‘sharpened by the horrors of war’, in the words of the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (Balthasar 1991: 203). Yet, hopefully, he imagines it changing into ‘a profound fellowship in suffering with trampled, disfigured humankind’ (ibid). In this print, Rouault depicts ‘profound fellowship’ through the lens of a life hedged in by divine commands. It is entitled ‘Among so many different commands lies the beautiful task of sowing on a hostile earth’.

The sower’s eyes appear to be closed, making the sowing a meditative act within the uncertain dimness of the world. We are drawn into the moment of sowing, the manner in which in this sowing the sower locates his existence between God and ground, between cloud and clod. Rouault evokes the cultic vision of the world embedded within the tasks of Leviticus. Keeping the law, sanctifying the ground, transcends mere moral imperatives, while evoking a cosmic order in which we are drawn to fellowship with the trampled persons of society.

As Rouault’s sower sows, the Levitical harvester reaps (19:9–10). The edges of the field are reserved, along with a portion of the vineyard’s grapes, for those with no fields of their own so that they may gather their own harvest. The fields are instruments of justice, and the singular contemplative act of sowing expands into the communal act of gleaning, in which even those who live at the borders of the world will feast.

 

References

Balthasar, Hans Urs von. 1991. The Glory of The Lord, Volume V: The Realm of Metaphysics in the Modern Age, trans by Oliver Davies et al (San Francisco: Ignatius Press)

Gerstenberger, Erhard S. 1996. Leviticus (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox)

See full exhibition for Leviticus 19–20

Leviticus 19–20

Revised Standard Version

Leviticus 19

19 And the Lord said to Moses, 2“Say to all the congregation of the people of Israel, You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy. 3Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. 4Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God.

5 “When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted. 6It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, or on the morrow; and anything left over until the third day shall be burned with fire. 7If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be accepted, 8and every one who eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has profaned a holy thing of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from his people.

9 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. 10And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.

11 “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. 12And you shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

13 “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning. 14You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

15 “You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. 16You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand forth against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him. 18You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

19 “You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall there come upon you a garment of cloth made of two kinds of stuff.

20 “If a man lies carnally with a woman who is a slave, betrothed to another man and not yet ransomed or given her freedom, an inquiry shall be held. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free; 21but he shall bring a guilt offering for himself to the Lord, to the door of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. 22And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin which he has committed; and the sin which he has committed shall be forgiven him.

23 “When you come into the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden; three years it shall be forbidden to you, it must not be eaten. 24And in the fourth year all their fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. 25But in the fifth year you may eat of their fruit, that they may yield more richly for you: I am the Lord your God.

26 “You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft. 27You shall not round off the hair on you temples or mar the edges of your beard. 28You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the Lord.

29 “Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry and the land become full of wickedness. 30You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

31 “Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.

32 “You shall rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

33 “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

35 “You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. 36You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37And you shall observe all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them: I am the Lord.”

20 The Lord said to Moses, 2“Say to the people of Israel, Any man of the people of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, who gives any of his children to Molech shall be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones. 3I myself will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, defiling my sanctuary and profaning my holy name. 4And if the people of the land do at all hide their eyes from that man, when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, 5then I will set my face against that man and against his family, and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in playing the harlot after Molech.

6 “If a person turns to mediums and wizards, playing the harlot after them, I will set my face against that person, and will cut him off from among his people. 7Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the Lord your God. 8Keep my statutes, and do them; I am the Lord who sanctify you. 9For every one who curses his father or his mother shall be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother, his blood is upon him.

10 “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. 11The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall be put to death, their blood is upon them. 12If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death; they have committed incest, their blood is upon them. 13If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them. 14If a man takes a wife and her mother also, it is wickedness; they shall be burned with fire, both he and they, that there may be no wickedness among you. 15If a man lies with a beast, he shall be put to death; and you shall kill the beast. 16If a woman approaches any beast and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the beast; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.

17 “If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a shameful thing, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people; he has uncovered his sister’s nakedness, he shall bear his iniquity. 18If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood; both of them shall be cut off from among their people. 19You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for that is to make naked one’s near kin; they shall bear their iniquity. 20If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall bear their sin, they shall die childless. 21If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness, they shall be childless.

22 “You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them; that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out. 23And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. 24But I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, who have separated you from the peoples. 25You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean beast and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; you shall not make yourselves abominable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. 26You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

27 “A man or a woman who is a medium or a wizard shall be put to death; they shall be stoned with stones, their blood shall be upon them.”

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