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Regarding the first discourse in the Torah

שו”תCategory: faithRegarding the first discourse in the Torah
asked 1 year ago

I thought about the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.”
It sounds like Judaism recognizes that there are other gods, but it simply commands belief in the God who gave the Torah. Do you think there are other gods besides God?
For example, there is the Greek goddess Asherah, and I understood that she is mentioned in the Torah as “…and he set up the Asherah that he had made in the house, as the Lord had said…” (2 Kings, Chapter 21, Verse 7), “…you shall not plant for yourself an Asherah of any tree near the altar of the Lord”…


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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 2 months ago
I didn’t understand the question. It is clear that there are other gods, statues, and celestial bodies. But anyone who thinks that there is substance in them (according to the Rambam and his faction) and worships them is violating a prohibition.

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ע replied 1 year ago

A’ It's not that clear, there are those who believe in only one God and that there are no other gods, B’ What do you mean by someone who thinks that there are really any? That they are useful or important?
If someone believes in God and even believes that he gave the Torah but simply doesn't accept it because he prefers to believe in other gods, is that wrong?

מיכי Staff replied 1 year ago

This discussion is delusional. Do you think there is anyone who denies the fact of the existence of idolatrous statues or celestial bodies or Asherah trees? The question of whether there is anything real in them (i.e. are these really gods with power and who should be worshipped) is a different question. Some of the first people believed that there was, meaning that there are sources of power other than G-d, but it is forbidden to worship them. Maimonides and his followers believed that there was nothing to it. Nonsense. And even my little self agrees with this.

ע replied 1 year ago

I didn't say that they deny physical statues that people used to worship, but as you said there are spiritual sources of power, other gods besides the Almighty that exist, which you yourself believe do not exist and there is nothing wrong with that, the Maimonides by the way also does not believe in demons and spirits, and from what I understand you do not either.
So there are those who believe yes and there are those who do not, the question of whether they are powerful gods that are worthy of worship is really a different and interesting question, the answer depends on the person, if you accept the Torah then it is forbidden to worship them, if you do not accept the Torah and its commandments then you can believe in other gods and there are those who truly believe in other gods even though they also recognize God.

מיכי Staff replied 1 year ago

Well, I don't understand what the discussion is about. For example, what were you trying to prove by planting or placing an Asherah near the altar? To prove that there are Asherah trees in the world?

ע replied 1 year ago

No, Judaism simply presents belief in one God and it is interesting to know that gods like the Asherah are mentioned in it or that the first commandment instructs not to believe in other gods, which implies that they exist, but not to believe and worship them, even though you say again that you do not believe in demons, spirits, or as you described, sources of power other than God, but it seems that the Torah has hints that it recognizes this. The first commandment is an example of this. The Asherah may be a less good example because it only deals with statues and not spiritual gods, but it seems that the Torah also recognizes spiritual gods. Therefore, this discussion also shows that the Jewish religion is not exactly monotheistic, because monotheistic religions recognize only one God without any mention at all. The very commandment not to worship other gods demonstrates the recognition of these gods. If they do not exist, why should it be commanded?

מיכי Staff replied 1 year ago

I don't know how to begin to answer such a strange argument. They forbid idolatry because many did it at the time. How did you come to the conclusion from this that the Torah recognizes their existence? It's beyond my comprehension.

ע replied 1 year ago

If the Torah intended to prohibit only idolatry in the practical sense, then of course this does not prove that it recognizes other gods. It simply implies to me from the verse “You shall have no other gods before you” that there are other gods in the spiritual sense that exist and that it is forbidden to worship them. This can be interpreted that way. It is very logical.
If your interpretation is that it is a prohibition on idolatry and that it does not mean that the gods they worship exist, then okay, legitimate.
In short, I brought the verse that made me think that perhaps the intention is specifically for real gods that should not be worshipped, and not to prohibit idolatry in itself.
There is also no explosive argument here. It is simply a thought that occurred to me that perhaps this interpretation is legitimate and logical. If it seems strange to you, it would be.

כנען בן חם replied 1 year ago

On the sidelines of the discussion, a small note – Asherah is not Greek, but Canaanite (:

אנא replied 1 year ago

Linguistic note:
In the plural – the Ten Commandments. And in the singular – one spoke.

ע replied 1 year ago

Canaan Ben Ham-After I sent the question, I checked Wikipedia and such and indeed saw that it was a Canaanite goddess.
Please-it's true, I also thought about that later, I also wrote ‘said’ in my third response (not including the question)”…The first statement is an example of this…” etc’

But thanks for the clarification anyway 🙏

y0534372487 replied 1 year ago

The meaning of God is complete obedience to His words (the rabbi wrote a whole column about this, I don't remember which one it was in the last two months)
Therefore, when it says “You shall have no other gods before Me” the meaning is that you shall not blindly obey any entity except Me, Yaqoob

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