Parashat Ki-Tissa (5760)

With God’s help, on the eve of the holy Sabbath of Parashat Ki-Tissa, 5760

Idolatry – Past and Present

Our parashah relates that when the people saw that Moses was delayed in descending from Mount Sinai, they turned to Aaron

the priest and said to him, “Rise, make us a god who shall go before us” (Exodus 32:1). They decided to make a calf

of gold, and when it was formed they said of it, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt” (Exodus 32:4).

The sin of the calf, and idolatry in general, are phenomena that we cannot grasp. How can human beings

who are intelligent fashion a calf of gold with their own hands and say of it that it is the one that will go

before them, and that it is the one that brought them up from the land of Egypt?

The Sages describe (Genesis Rabbah 38:13) that Terah, the father of Abraham, placed him in his shop to sell idols for

idolatrous worship. Abraham smashed all the idols in the shop, and placed a large hammer in the hands of the largest idol,

the one he had left intact for this purpose. When his father returned to the shop and asked him who had smashed the idols, Abraham

answered him that it was the large idol, with the hammer in its hand. A brilliant device by all accounts, which ought

to convince Terah that there was nothing real in the idols. Terah, as expected, did not believe Abraham, and was very angry with him.

One should note the simple fact that if Terah had indeed believed seriously in the idols, it would have been impossible

to convince him of the folly of his belief in this way. He really would have “bought” Abraham’s story that

the large idol was the one that smashed all its companions, for according to his view idols really are beings

with the power to do harm or good. If Abraham laid this trap for Terah, he must clearly have known in advance

that Terah did not believe at all in the ability and power of idols; if so, what was the whole exercise meant to accomplish?

There may be two ways to explain this strange phenomenon: a. idols are made as a protest

against the true God, of whom everyone is aware and in whom everyone believes. In the case of the sin of the calf, this too

seems to emerge from the verses. The people of Israel do not cease believing in the Lord merely because Moses delays in descending

from Mount Sinai; rather, they decide to perform an act of protest and defiance and say, “These are your gods, O Israel” (Exodus 32:4). b.

Usually, to be sure, we assume that idolaters are entirely serious about their actions

and their beliefs. In ancient times there was apparently an “evil inclination” toward idolatry, which caused

people to believe in strange things of this kind. The Sages in tractate Sanhedrin (64a) relate that the Men of the Great Assembly,

at the beginning of the Second Temple period, when they saw that coping with this inclination was extraordinarily difficult,

“abolished the inclination toward idolatry.” This implies that in their time it was an inclination like any other, and just as there was

an inclination toward sexual immorality, so too there was an inclination that drove a person to idolatry.

It may be that the correct explanation is some combination of these two directions. When people wish

to protest against God, or not to observe His commandments, they create a fictional construct and say

of it that it is the god that brought them out of Egypt. In the end they reach a state

in which they truly believe what they are saying. A person can deceive himself with great absurdities as though they were

absolute truths, if he indeed has a motive, or a desire, to do so. This is the influence of imagination upon

the intellect. The Sages say that “Israel did not worship idols except in order to permit themselves sexual immorality” (Sanhedrin 63b).

People begin with a self-interested motive, some desire, and arrive at empty beliefs that are perceived by them

as truths. At the beginning of Maimonides’ Laws of Idolatry in the Mishneh Torah (1:1-2), this is how

the process by which the world came to idolatry is described. Idolatry means the subjugation of one’s perception of reality to one’s will.

There are many examples of such failures, even today, and many of them

are highly topical. For example, there are those who oppose returning the Golan Heights for religious reasons (because it is part of the Land of Israel), and there are those who support

it. There are those who oppose returning the Golan Heights for security reasons, and there are those who support it.

It is clear that these are two entirely independent positions. A person may hold that there is religious value to the Golan Heights

yet that the security danger in handing them over to the Syrians is tolerable, and vice versa. Like any two

independent questions, one would seemingly expect four groups of positions to emerge

in the population. In fact, one may say that in general there are only two (and perhaps three). Whoever thinks

that it is desirable to hand over the Golan Heights from a security standpoint also generally tends to minimize its national-

religious value, and vice versa. The group that is “split” between the two planes is surprisingly small.

Another example, one of many. During the period of the Rabin government, a public debate was conducted over whether the prime minister

was permitted to act differently from the position he had declared before his election to the premiership, a position that maintained

the necessity of the Golan Heights for Israel’s security. This is a debate concerning political morality. Another debate

concerned the question whether it was indeed proper to return the Golan Heights, and this is a debate about security, values, and religion. In two

independent questions of this sort, we would expect four groups of positions to emerge.

In reality there were only two significant groups. Both the opponents and the supporters enlisted

both planes to their side. Again, there were almost no “split” people.

What lies at the foundation of these absurd phenomena is the idolatrous mechanism described above. One who wishes, because of some interest,

to oppose (or support) returning the Golan Heights will sometimes subordinate

his perception of reality in all spheres to this desire. We have seen that when desire determines one’s perception

of reality, this is a kind of idolatry. The antithesis of idolatry is rationality, and that is what

the Torah demands of us. Today it is easy for us not to stumble over the notion that idols are beings with powers.

Another task, more relevant to us, is to shape a worldview in every complex issue,

by means of an independent discussion of each of its components, and only afterward to reach a decision on the basis of weighing all

the relevant components. We must not subordinate our perception of reality to our desires. One must see

reality correctly, and only afterward formulate a position toward it rationally.

Have a peaceful Sabbath.

This may be deposited for respectful disposal in any synagogue or Torah academy. Comments and responses will be welcomed.

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