Q&A: Drawing a Woman
Drawing a Woman
Question
I love drawing and writing. Refraining from dealing also with immodest scenes interferes with my creative freedom. I do enjoy it and in a certain sense intend it (maybe it would be called unavoidable? perhaps not). Is this permitted?
B. If sometimes I draw an immodest woman because it is aesthetic and not sexual, what would the ruling be?
C. Assuming it is permitted, is there any weight to the educational-cultural claim that one should not be immersed in these things because this is Greek culture?
D. Assuming it is forbidden, is there a concern that I’ll burn in hell?
Maybe this is also the opportunity to ask: should one take into account—even without being sure—that one day he may be severely punished somewhere? Is there a basis for that in the Torah, or is it an invention of kabbalists?
Thank you!!
Answer
If this arouses forbidden thoughts in you, that is problematic. I think it is hard to see this as unavoidable. But perhaps there is room for it.
The question whether it is permitted to look at covered body parts without improper thoughts is a question to which I don’t have a simple answer. But here we are talking about a drawing and not a woman’s actual body parts, and in my opinion the problem there is only the forbidden thoughts.
As for hell, you should turn to the experts on hell—those who have direct communication with the Divine Presence.