Beauty is said to be skin deep, but ugliness goes down to the bone. Despite a tradition of avoiding pictorial representations (based on the commandment not to make graven images), and an assumption that Jews have not been interested in beauty, philosophically speaking, Jewish thought has always been interested in the parameters of aesthetic interests: perfection and imperfection, good and bad taste, moral and immoral behavior, and the inherent meaning of physical appearance. This presentation explores the relationship of physical appearance and moral judgment by looking at religious notions of beauty and ugliness in Judaism and about Jews.

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