Q&A: Doubtful Amulet, Doubtful Idolatry
Doubtful Amulet, Doubtful Idolatry
Question
With God's help,
Hello Rabbi,
I wanted to ask: I came across, in the house of a deceased woman, a fairly old picture in which you can see a somewhat muscular man holding a rose with long fingers and a large halo around him, maybe doing some kind of magic, and at the bottom of the picture the Tetragrammaton is "imprinted."
The house belonged to a religious woman, but this picture seems very unusual to me, and I have never seen anything similar in a Jewish context. The interpretation that it is Christian is quite reasonable, given that one could understand the painter as trying to associate God's name with Jesus, and his fingers reminded me of pictures you see on Wikipedia of Jesus.
So I wanted to ask: what is the law regarding the picture? Should it be put in genizah, or torn into pieces and thrown in the garbage / burned (including God's name)?
Answer
I do not think there is any halakhic prohibition against keeping such a picture. It is not an item that was used for worship. But I personally would not keep it. Because of the doubt, I would cut out God's name and place it in genizah.