Halachot and Customs
Is It Permitted to Draw the Sun, Moon, and Dinosaurs?
Question
Shalom,
My question is in connection with the prohibition of You shall not make for yourself a graven image:
1. Is it permitted for children to take part in a crafts class where they make figures from materials/clay?
2. Is it permitted to draw the sun, moon, dinosaurs, etc.?
Answer
Shalom,
1. It is forbidden to make the form of a human being when it is complete in all its limbs, but it is permitted to sculpt only a head, or a body without a head. Likewise, if one omits one limb, it is permitted (Shulchan Aruch and Rema, Yoreh Deah, siman 141, seif 7; Responsa Yabia Omer, part 3, Yoreh Deah, siman 8; and part 10, Yoreh Deah, page 372, end of the section beginning Ve-hineh).
2. It is forbidden to draw the sun, moon, and stars (Shulchan Aruch there, seif 4), but it is permitted to draw dinosaurs, etc., and even to make a protruding form of them, as the Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah (there, seif 6) wrote: the forms of domesticated animals, wild animals, birds, fish, and the forms of trees and grasses and the like may be fashioned, even if the form is protruding.
With blessings,
Hillel Meirs
