Q&A: Censorship
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Censorship
Question
It is known that because of the censor, the term “foreign worship” throughout the Talmud was changed to “worship of stars.” In fact, however, in the first editions and manuscripts it is written “foreign worship.” If so, one has to wonder how the censor allowed them to print in the Vilna Talmud the name of the tractate itself, “Avodah Zarah,” not only on the title page but on every single page??!!
Answer
If that also appears in the first editions, then it really is difficult.
On Wikipedia, a quotation is brought from an early work on the rules of censorship: “Every occurrence of the term ‘foreign worship’ whose meaning is not explicitly understood as referring to the particular foreign worship that existed in the past (before Jesus) should instead be written as ‘idol worshippers,’ meaning: ‘worshippers of stars and constellations.’ However, if it is understood as referring to the foreign worship that existed before the coming of our lord, there is no issue with that at all.”
And even if afterward they censored all instances of the words “foreign worship” altogether (I do not know), one could say that the last generation of censors did not want to be stricter about something whose permission had already been explicitly publicized in the teachings of the earlier censors.
https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A6%D7%A0%D7%96%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%94_%D7%A2%D7%9C_%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D_%D7%A2%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9D