Q&A: A Statue Doll
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
A Statue Doll
Question
Is it permissible to keep in the house a doll in human form or made of clay?
Figures of the moon? Or stars?
Just some monument in the street of a foolish man who, as expected, led the masses?
Permitted?
Forbidden?
Answer
https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3816125,00.html
Nowadays people are lenient about this (without saying so explicitly, because it looks like a deviation from Jewish law; see also midrashic conservatism), and it seems to me that this is because nowadays it is clear that there is no connection to idolatry, since it has disappeared from the world.
Discussion on Answer
I'm not sure that was the consideration there. It's like annulment of leavened food, which serves as a substitute for burning it.
Something along the lines of the process by which the Torah said to actually destroy idolatry,
and the Sages were already uncertain whether annulment alone is enough?