Who are the Idols?
*
Rabbi Zvi Aviner
Having discussed the Seven Comm as a group,
we will move on today to discuss Noach’s Comm one by one.
Let us begin with the first Comm, IDOLATRY, which is the prohibition of idol worship.
As it is said in the Ten Comm, t forbids recognizing, bowing, sacrificing, and praying to any power in the world other than the God of Israel. In other words, it involves thought, speech, and action.
Note that although there are different lists with different order of the Comm, we start our class with IDOLATRY since the Book of Genesis starts with it, in Ch 1, as we are about to see.
Unlike the Comm listed in the Ten Comm,
The IDOLATRY Commandment appears in the Book of Genesis on the background, permeating the stories. It comes as a headline, a principle without details.
Tradition says that it is one of the Six Commandments that Adam and Eve received in the Garden of Eden before they were expelled from there to live on earth.
In fact, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they committed a sort of IDOLATRY, namely disregarding G-d’s Command.
In the Ten Comm, IDOLATRY comes as a second Comm saying
You will have no other God before me
You shall not make for yourself
every statue and every image which
In the heavens above and in the earth below
And that which is in the waters under the earth
You shall not bow down to them
and you shall not serve them.
(Exodus 20:3-4)
It forbids the making of idols as well as worshipping them.
The first Commandment of the Tablets presents the Speaker, G-d, who alone must be worshipped, while the second one presents the idols that are forbidden to be worshipped.
Hence the comm on the tablets presents the two sides of the IDOLATRY comm – the positive side – recognize and worship g-d of Israel, the second one is negative – do not worship anything else.
Hence, Adam stands in a battle of Attraction: either be attracted to God, or to the idols. There is no neutral option of being attracted to no one. God says: Man, don’t fool yourself. Either you follow me, or be attracted to idols. Atheists fool themselves – they do worship other gods.
Since the Comm was given first to Adam and Noah,
then repeated by Moses Israel, it applies to both
– Noahites and Israelites, with some differences.
Generally, Israel is expected to avoid IDOLATRY more strictly
than the Nations, particularly in the Holy Land.
That makes sense.
For Israel, as a holy nation and a kingdom of priests,
are more liable for even the smallest deviation, than other peoples.
.
After Sinai, the Torah repeats warning Israel about IDOLATRY many times, with harsh retributions for the individual person and the nation.
The Torah regards IDOLATRY as a major offense
The question is- why? Why is G-d so keen about it? Is it because he is jealous?
Or is it because oof us, the damage that IDOLATRY may inflict on us individually as well as on society.
So , what is the source of IDOLATRY?
How did it develop in history?
let’s first examine what the historians and the scholars tell us about it, then compared this to what the Torah says.
The scholars tell us that paganism originated when ancient Man encountered the harsh, threatening environment surrounding him.
It grew out of Man’s fear of the unknown. It also reflects s Man’s fascination with nature and its beauty. But most importantly – it was a way to explain the unknown.
Thus, to Caveman, the world seemed full of awesome predators, which he so artistically depicted on his Cave’s wall.
The painting reflect Man’s admiration of the awesome power of the beasts, but also with their beauty and might.
He is also fascinated and filled with awe at the sight of lightning and the fearful roar of thunderstorms. He knows their destructive powers
Since his knowledge of the world was very limited, his mind tells stories to explain what he sees.
Those stories are mythical, full of demons, spirits and angry gods.
His imagination also told stories about the interrelations between the gods
His gods struggle for power, honor and hegemony. They rape and murder and do terrible things to each other, just as a people do. Hence, the gods reflect Man’s own life, own family and society.
Typically, the gods do not care much about morality or justice; and they do not demand it from Man either. All they care for is honor and glory.
For example, the Egyptian god Ra raped the goddess Nun, impregnated her, then slushed her belly and killed the fetus, fearing that it would grow up and kill his father. The angry father also threw the fetus’s genitals into the sea near the city of Acre, and thought it was the end. But the Mother Nun pulled the embryo’s testicles from the sea and resurrected the son back to life. Similar stories were quite prevalent in the pagan world of ancient Man.
What about worship?
It stamped from Man’s belief that the spirits and the gods could be appeased, or bribed, just like people, so that they would not do him harm.
Reconciliation could be achieved by sacrifices — of vegetables, animals, and even humans.
That was the origine of IDOLATRY.
But as mankind progressed in history, and his knowledge of the world widened, so did the explanations he gave about the gods and the stories he told about them.
The Canaanites for example, admired and worshipped magnificent Mountains and trees , also Fertility and Sex. They held sacred sexual orgies in the Temples of their god Baal and his wife the Ashtoreth. No wonder their faith was very popular in Israel, raising the wrath of Israel’s prophets.
The Egyptians were also fascinated by nature. Worshipped the Nile as a source of life, including the birds and the animals and the creatures in the Nile.
Thus, they worshipped the Birds of the Riverbanks, the crocodile and the hippopotamus. You can see this in the statues and the carvings on the walls they left. They also worshiped the sacred cow, as we still see in India. The Passover Lamb is considered a slaughter of the Egyptian god. They also worshiped the sun and the moon and the stars. They believed in witchcraft, magic, and in the afterlife.
Those believes shaped their society. The pyramids were built to carry on the dead Pharaohs into the afterlife. But building the pyramids, in turn, required hundreds of thousands young men as workers, coming from all over the land to participate in the holy project.
This by itself shaped the notion of Egypt State in their minds, as w a pyramidal hiarchy with Pharaoh at the top. THUS, WE SEE HOW MYTH SHAPES SOCIETY. On one hand society’s special faith and believes invent IDOLATRY and mythical stories, but in turn a those mythical stories shape the society.
It is perhaps for that reason that the Torah is so keen about IDOLATRY. It is not only the false believes, but also the shape of society and its structure that is on the Torah’s mind.
As we progress in history we see
The Babylonians,
Who went further up compared to the Egyptians and were fascinated by celestial constellations and the Heavenly Wheels
They develop astrology,
believing that the celestial structure could affect Man’s destiny. They too told mythical stories about the gods, more sophisticated
than the stories told by the Egyptians and the Canaanites.
In turn, those stories shaped their culture and society. They built their High Towers, the Ziggurats, not as a burial for their kings but rather to get closer to the sky, as shown in the story of the Tower of Babylon in the Torah.
Their belief in astrology dictated their actions. One would not purchase land or anything, if the constellation of the stars are not in his favor.
And from the Babylonians, humanity rose in understanding the world, with the advent of the Greek science and philosophy.
The new human imagination created the gods of Olympus on a new level.
Here, for the first time, the idols are concepts.
Athens was the goddess of wisdom and craft,
Apolo the god of music, poetry and healing,
Hera was the goddess of marriage
Mars was the god of war
Afrodita the goddess of love, beauty and pleasure
Poseidon was the god of the sea and storms
And so on.
Although it was an advance,
Yet these idols too ran immoral life, and could be bribed by temples, sacrifices and magical rituals.
Certainly, the Greek faith shaped their society, to the good and bad. They invented democracy, but also oligarchy and tyranny.
What about today?
The scholars claim that IDOLATRY is obsolete. Even those in the far East who still seem to worship idols of wood and sone, are in fact only faithful to their parents’ believes.
But if we define IDOLATRY as adoring anything that chases away the believe in G-d, then there are modern forces that have replaced the old idols, such as Science.
People have come to believe that Science and technology can solve all our problems. The secularization of society has diminished the role of faith.
Other modern Idols that can subject our lives are political parties such as Communism and Fascism.
Some add drugs and alcohol as modern idols which can completely control a person life. A person may subject his life completely to Art or science, forgetting G-d and morality.
So far we have seen what is commonly thought of IDOLATRY and its source, how it came, and how it has changed over centuries.
What does the Torah tell us about it?
The Torah is familiar with the historical evolution of IDOLATRY. Moses, growing in Pharaoh’s house, knew well what the Egyptians and the Canaanites and the Babylonians told about the world.
The Torah addresses, however, a question that no scholar has ever asked:
Why is Mankind so prone to be attracted by the magic of the dols? Why do we invent them and worship them?
The answer of the Torah to that q: It is by design.
Adam was made specifically to withstand the IDOLATRY Trial.
What do I mean by this statement?
Where is the source for that in the text?
In Genesis Ch1, when the CREATOR was planning to make Adam, He said in the plural :
“Let Us make Adam
In our form and our image”
This was an enigma. Because until then, during the Six Days of Creation, the CRETOR worked only by commands given in the singular –such as:
“Let there be light,”
“Let the earth grow trees”
In Hebrew it is clear from the text that He spoke as an individual.
Yet before creating Adam, He changed His way and spoke in the plural:
Let Us make an Adam in Our form..”
Why the change?
I hear you. The Creator spoke in Royal plural,
Like “We, the King of England.”
By speaking in plural, the king is saying – I am not a dictator. I have a council with me to discuss the state’s issues before I make the final decision. Although I am the king, the superior and they are Inferiors, yet I consult their opinions in modesty.
No one in England should make the fatal mistake of concluding that the king’s councilors are powerful as the king. power. Under the Tudors, not too long ago, such a mistake would have cost them their heads.
In Genesis too, the CREATOR speaks in the Royal plural
as the King of the Universe Consulting His Councilors.
Although He is the Superior and the councilors are inferiors,
He speaks in the plural to teach Adam HUMILITY. How to rule with humility.
That makes sense.
Adam is born to be the ruler of his habitat,
and as such he might become arrogant,
and his ego inflated.
The King of the Universe, G-d, therefore,
showed Adam how to rule with humility,
by the art of listening and consulting
rather than by tyranny.
Yet, speaking in plural carries a major risk.
Rashi, who quotes that Midrash,
brings up the rest of the story.
When the angles heard G-d they asked:
“Our KING, aren’t you afraid that by speaking in the plural
you’ve opened the door for IDOLETORS to think
that there is more than one Creator, You?”
The CREATOR said – I risk IDOLATRY, for
I wish to show Adam humility, that he too should
consult his inferiors.”
Thus, Adam was made
while the door of IDOLATRY was opened.
The same verse that describes making Adam,
also opens the door for IDOLATORS to believe
in more than One and Only CREATOR.
Adam is therefore made directly for the trial of IDOLATRY,
which is a trial of Kingship:
Either he accepts God as a King,
Or err and accepts one of the Councilors as his king!
Each oof rhe councilors would serve as an idol,
Attracting Adam to worship it.
It is as if the very fact that God consulted
that item to make Adam, has rendered it
magic charm in Adam’s eyes, so much
that Adam would be tempted to worship it
instead of worship his true KING.
But why did the Creator do this?
Why did He build man into the test of idolatry?
Isn’t He a Loving God who only seeks our
goodness with endless Love?
The answer is given in the first verse of the Torah.
Who CREATED the world? For what purpose?
I know, the answer of most people on Earth will be:
Of course, God created the world, as it is written:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth
But if I keep asking – for what purpose?
Here you’d have no answer.
In fact, the Grrek and English translations are inaccurate.
The Torah does not say God. It says:
In the beginning, ELoHiM created the heavens and the earth
ELoHiM? Who is He?
ELoHiM means in Hebrew a Judge, even a human judge.
Hence, the first message of the Torah in the first verse is that
the World was created by the Almighty Judge
to stand judgment.
Iti does not mention endless Love.
It mentions a Judge who expects from us
responsibility for our actions.
You see ELoHiM acting as a Judge during the Six Days,
where He created and judged each Day.
At the end of each Day, He judged that Day
whether it was good or not in His eyes.
If the Day was good, He allowed it to stay
And went on to create the next Day on top.
If the verdict was bad, He eliminated
the day and its creatures, like the Dinosaurs.
Here ‘good’ is in the eyes of a builder,
meaning solid and strong.
But when He comes to judges Adam,
His judgment is based on moral values
Spelled out in the Torah.
foremost of man’s judgment is the CREATOR’S Kingship,
meaning the challenge of IDOLATRY.
A point –
If you assume that the CREATOR is just
a Loving God that seeks only to shower on us
goodness and love, hen Why is there so much pain
and sorrow and evil in the world?
Ubder that premise, of Loving God,
you must therefore believe in Satan,
or another evil force that rule beside the Loving God.
But that negates the Torah teaching that
there is only One Creator and no one else.
Neither a devil nor an angel.
But saying that the CREATOR set on the throne of judgment
When He created the world,
It means that he created both good and evil,
to put man to the test of Kingship
both when it is good for him
and when it is bad for him.
As the prophet Isaiah says,
He creates light and creates darkness.
Note that the Name EloHiM designates an Attribute.
The Infinite CREATOR has many Names and Attributes.
At the time of CREATION, the Infinite One set
on the Throne oof Judgment and created the world,
including Adam, for Judgement.
On other occasions, the CREATOR sits on other Thrones
and Creates Other Universes by different moral values.
For instance, He Creates a different Universe based on Joy, Holiness and Love, which is called the eternal Sabbath.
In the Sabbah, ELoHiM Abstains from Judgment
and yield to another Attribute to Rule the Day.
Now, who are the Councilors of ELKM ,
With whom He Consulted to make at Adam?
We need to know them, since they act as
Our IDOILATRY Traps, attracting us to
Accept them as our kings instead of the true CREATOR.
Their identity must be hinted in the text.
The Midrash says simply –
He Consulted whoever is mentioned in Ch 1.
Wisdom 6 Days Let us make Adam
ELoHiM 1—-2—-3—-4—5—6————/Sabbath
Be Fruitful
Rule Over
ELoHiM consulted each of them, saying Let Us Make…
and He made Adam layer by layer,
each consultant providing a layer in Adam’s body and soul.
Each layer is a precious gift by ELoHiM,
needed for us to thrive on Planet Earth.
After all, ELoHiM is kind; He is the ultimate Provider,
He cares for the creatures He creates.
Yet, characteristically, EKHM the Judge
gives and asks back in return. No free lunch.
He acts Measure for Measure.
Thus He gave us many gifts, layer by layer,
But uses the same gifts to form our trial and judgment.
The foremost of our trial is our IDOLATRY trial.
Namely –
Should we recognize and enthrone him, as the true King of the Universe, Or enthrone the consultant as our king,
Worshiping it as an idol.
Who were the Councilors?
We’ve said, whoever is mentioned in chapter 1.
Councilors
1 The Six Days
2 Wisdom and science
3 Art and Music: His spirit
4Me and You, Self Consciousness, ego
5 Be Fruitful – Sex drive
6 ‘Rule Over’ drive
7 Sabbath
Let’s see how it worked.
Thus, to build our body,
He consulted the Six Days, nature, and made Adam accordingly.
Is it true? Yes
.
we see this in every human embryo, as it evolves
in the uterus from a single cell to a mature baby.
Through that process,
The embryo passes all the sages of the Evolution,
All the Six Days.
Did this consultation opened the door for IDOLATRY?
LET’S SEE.
ELKM consulted Day Six and made Adam.
It was a precious gift. Adam can understand
the cattle and the beasts and rule over them
Yet it also opened the door for IDOLATRY,
For Mankind worshipped beasts and cattle
created next to us on the sixth day.
Like the ancient Man did.
Next, ERLHM consulted Day Five and made Adam.
It was a gift, yet it opened the door for Man to worship
Fish and Burds and Crocodiles, like the Egyptians did.
Next, ELKM consulted Day Four with its luminaries,
Making a distinct layer in Adam.
It was a precious gift, yet it opened the door for Man
To worship the celestial bodies, as the Babylonians did.
Next, ELKM consulted the Vegetation of the third Day ,
and made Adam accordingly. It was a precious gift,
Yet it opened the door for Man to worship
mountains and trees, as the Canaanites did
ELKM then consulted the Ocean of Day Two and made
alayer in Adam accordingly. It was a precious gift, yet
It opened the door for the Greek to worship Poseidon ,
the god of the Sea.
THIS DOWNFALL OF HUMANITY OVER IDOLATRY
IS DESCRIBED BY MAIMONIDES IN DETSAILS.
HE STSARTS IT WITH ENOSH, NOAH’S GRANDFATHER,
WHO ERRED BY WORSHIPPING GOD’S COUNCILORS,
NAMELY THE SON, THE MOON,
AND ALL OTHER NATURAL FORCES.
There were more consultants.
Next to the Six Days,
ELKM turned to His own Wisdom
By which He had created the world (RMBN)
And said – let us make an Adam…
That was a precious gift from ELKM, making our brain
smart enough to unravel all the mysteries of the Universe.
Yet it has also opened the door for idolators to think
That science can replace God as our King.
To install in us appreciation for art
ELKM consulted His Spirit and made us.
ELKM also turned to His Own Self and consulted it
To create a strong self – consciousness in Adam.
This was extremely important gift,
yet it opened the door for Adam’s most prevalent form of IDOLATRY
Worshipping ourselves, our inflated Ego.
No wonder that of all our faults,
The CREATOR elected to address our arrogance
First thing at our creation.
Adam may overcome and eradicate other idols,
but it would be extremely difficult to tame our Ego
into accepting the Kingship of ELKM.
Next, to move Mankind forwards,
ELKM consulted the sexual desire
That He blessed Adam with, saying
Be fruitful and multiply.
This was a precious gift, yet opened the door
for the Canaanites to worship Sex and fertility
.
He then consulted the instinct to rule over,
which He blessed Adam with. It would propel Adam
forwards to rule over our habitat,
but has also served as a nidus for IDOLATRY.
Adam would seek his own glory
Instead the glory of the King oof the Universe.
Rosh Hashanah.
All the above is reflected in the Rosh Hashanah holiday
Which is the annual anniversary of CREATION.
We celebrate this day as a day when
the CREATOR ascends again on
the Throne of Judgment, as it was in the Beginning,
assuming Kingship, Judging the entire world
from the mosquito to Mankind.
We also pray on that day for one thing –
That we’ll merit to see the End of IDOLATRY in the world
And the Kingdom of the God of Israel be accepted by all Mankind.
If we summarize so far, we will say that according to the Torah,
Man was created directly into the test of idolatry. He is built in such a way that his mind and heart will be enchanted and drawn to different forces and to serve them, instead of serving the Creator, the God of Israel. These forces are found in him himself. Therefore, idolatry is man’s projection of himself onto the world.
Note that the Torah does not speak here of other mitzvot of man, such as the discovery of one’s cities, or bloodshed, or theft and injustice. We are dealing only with the possibility of idolatry. Everything else will come spontaneously.
וה