Q&A: Idolatry
Idolatry
Question
Hello Rabbi, with your permission I have several questions of Jewish law:
1. In my work with special-needs populations, we create art through drawings, pictures, and “sculpting” by gluing various natural materials (flowers, branches, etc.) onto poster board or separately. We create animals, people, the sun, the moon, stars, and so on. Is there any halakhic problem with this when it is not done for the sake of idolatry? If so, what should I avoid?
2. A similar follow-up question: I wrote a biology book. The book includes scientific information and various artistic illustrations.
– As for the scientific knowledge, as I understand it there should not be any halakhic problem. Is that correct?
– As for the artistic illustrations—they include realistic and non-realistic animals, plants, and bacteria, as well as the sun, moon, stars, and so on. Does this require checking with a rabbi, or is there definitely no halakhic problem here when it is not done for idolatry? And if there is, what is it?
3. I wrote several children's books, and beyond the previous questions, the books include children who do not have a religious appearance, and there is no mention at all of the Creator of the world in the books. Would it be proper to change them?
*I don’t know how much this should affect the answer, and in any case I am looking for the Creator’s will, but if this has any weight as a consideration then it is important for me to note that the biology book and the children’s books are all edited and typeset; a great deal of money, much effort, much time, and many professionals—including a doctor of biology—were invested in them, really years of work.
Thank you very, very much in advance.
Answer
Hello David.
In artwork, people generally have not been strict about this. When it is not an exact figure of a person or an animal, it is even more straightforward that there is no prohibition. In any case, the main prohibition concerns human figures, not animals, and even regarding a person there are halakhic decisors who are lenient when one makes only the head and not the whole body. And if a limb is missing, or if it is recognizable that it is not a picture of a real person, it seems to me that it is permitted.
By logic, it seems that a book intended for study involves no prohibitions, because it is clear that its purpose is different. And in any case, when the form is not protruding, they did not prohibit it.
As for children’s books, there is no prohibition in pictures of non-religious-looking children or in the absence of any mention of the Creator of the world.