MISCONCEPTIONS

Idol Worship

When I was a teenager, I had as one of my teachers a highly regarded Orthodox rabbi .

One day, when studying the Haggadah of Passover and coming to the passage  Ovday kochavim ...., i.e., “Our ancestors worshipped the stars”,  our teacher suddenly stopped, looked at us and said: Do you really believe the people who invented mathematics, science, architecture and cities actually believed that a statue made by some carver or stone mason was an actual god?   No, they used these statues to focus their thoughts.

At the time, I found this quite startling. After all, we were all taught in kindergarten the story of Abraham, Terach and the idols. 

Terach made his living as an idol sculptor, and one night young Abraham snuck into the studio and broke the statues to pieces.  Next day, Terach saw the broken pieces and Abraham more or less said: “See dad, they are not really gods, just stone .... and I am not divinely punished.  (Though his father may have consequenced Abraham for destroying weeks of commissioned work.)

 Also, Psalm 115, read near the end of the Haggadah and which is part of the full Hallel (recited on the 3 major festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Succot)  states:

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. ² Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?  ³ But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

⁴ Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.  

⁵ They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:                                          

⁶ They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:                                             

⁷ They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. 

            ⁸ They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusts in them.        (King James Version)

 

 But once I became more familiar with ancient history, my teacher’s comments made good sense.

The Greeks, for example, worshipped Zeus and his home on Mount Olympus was marked by his great temple and statue.

As Wikipedia notes:

[The] statue of Zeus ... was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Chryselephantine statue was approximately 13 m (43 ft) high and was made by the sculptor Phidias in his workshop on the site at Olympia. He took about twelve years to complete it. On his head was a sculpted wreath of olive sprays. In his right hand he held a figure of Nike, the goddess of victory, also made from ivory and gold, and in his left hand, a scepter made with many kinds of metal, with an eagle perched on the top. His sandals were made of gold and so was his robe. His garments were carved with animals and with lilies. The throne was decorated with gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory. The statue was the most famous artistic work in Greece.

But temples and statues of Zeus were commonplace as all Greeks were to worship him. Athens had a great temple to Zeus, and another for the popular and powerful sun god, Apollo. And around the Mediterranean, Apollo was worshiped in some 15 known temples. (See Wikipedia, “Catalog of Temples of Apollo”.)

 

The tradition of using stone, wood, gold and bronze statues to focus prayer and worship has also been preserved in Christianity.   While the second commandment prohibits making any images of God, Christianity, unlike Judaism and Islam, has commemorated the seminal moment in its version of monotheism  in the image of the crucified Jesus.  Every church has a central crucifix and most display some artist’s carving or other reproduction of Jesus on the cross.

Christians have this image in their homes, around their necks and in their cars.  Catholics also pray to statues of their saints, which abound in their churches and religious areas.   And St. Christopher medals and dashboard stick-on statues are common to protect travellers and sailors.

 

So, the insight of my old teacher/rabbi is important. 

“Idol worship” is too simplistic an understanding of ancient religions.  Only the most simple and ignorant of pagans would have believed the statutes were ‘alive’.   

As with Christians, it was and is a way to focus one’s thoughts and worship.

 

So why does the 2^nd commandment forbid this? 

 

As Rambam stresses in his 13 Articles of Faith, despite Biblical language and imagery of a finger of God, hand of God or words from God  (requiring a mouth, tongue and vocal cords in humans):

3. I believe with perfect faith that G-d does not have a body. Physical    concepts do not apply to Him. There is nothing whatsoever that resembles Him at all.  (from ou.org)

 

God is ethereal and He is distorted and diminished by conceptualization in human or animal shape, and representation in stone, wood, bronze, gold or any other man-made object.

 

As the title of this blog notes,

 ^{1 Kings 19}

¹¹ The Lord said [to Elijah], “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a still small voice ( or a gentle whisper).

¹³ When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.