Q&A: Idolatry and Religion
Idolatry and Religion
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Someone is making an argument that I think contains a grain of truth, and so it troubles me. I’d be glad to hear your response.
He says that the God of Israel commanded that no image or likeness of Him be made at all, and that in general one should strip away as much as possible from God and distance oneself from any anthropomorphism.
If that is true, then all religion is a kind of idolatry, since if one must strip away as much as possible from God, then engaging with Him and connecting to Him anthropomorphizes Him. The religious person creates an image of God—even if it is the most abstract one possible, still it is some sort of god. The most correct thing to do, if one wants to avoid idolatry, is to deal with God as little as possible and ignore Him.
There are a few holes in this theory, of course (for example, philosophical thought about God is also anthropomorphism, so how would we know He exists at all?), and still there is something true and troubling in it. I’d be glad to hear your opinion.
Answer
I didn’t understand the question. Do you mean all of religion, or engaging with God? I do not think the prohibition of anthropomorphism forbids engaging with Him, since it is impossible to worship Him without thinking to ourselves whom we are worshipping. And our thoughts are always subject to our system of concepts and perceptions. I do not see any difficulty in that. What is forbidden is making material representations of Him. That is all. I do not even accept Maimonides’ thesis about negative attributes (and the kabbalists do not accept it either).
Discussion on Answer
In my opinion there is nothing to it, as I said.
Any engagement with God—the claim is that there is a paradox between worshipping and engaging with God and the prohibition of idolatry.