Facial Theology

Toward the end of The Star of Redemption (Modern Jewish Philosophy and Religion) , Rosenzweig finds the star in the human face: “The basic level is ordered according to the receptive  organs; they are the building blocks, as it were, which together compose the face, the mask, namely forehead and cheeks, to which belong respectively nose and ears.  Nose and ears are the organs of pure receptivity.  The nose belongs to the forehead; in the sacred tongue it veritably stands for the face as a whole.  The scent of offerings turns to it as the motion of the lips to the ears.  This first triangle is thus formed by the midpoint of the forehead, as the dominant point of the entire face, and the midpoints of the cheeks.  Over it is now imposed a second triangle, composed of the organs whose activity quickens the rigid mask of the first: eyes and mouth . . . . Just as the structure of the face is dominated by the forehead, so its life, all that surrounds the eyes and shines forth from the eyes, is gathered in the mouth.  The mouth is the consummator and fulfiller of all expression of which the countenance is capable, both in speech as, at last, in the silence behind which speech retreats: in the kiss.  It is in the eyes that the eternal countenance shines for man; it is the mouth by whose words man lives.”