Ashera

(1) (Ibid. 4) "You shall not make for yourself an idol (lit., "a carving")": I might think that a Jew may not make one that projects but they may make one that is flat. It is, therefore, written "any likeness." I might think that they may not make a flat one, but that they may make (an idol of) a planting. It is, therefore, written (Devarim 16:25) "You shall not plant for yourself an asheirah." I might think that they may not plant one, but that they may make one of wood. It is, therefore, written (Ibid.) "any wood." I might think that they may not make one of wood, but that they may make one of stone. It is, therefore, written (Leviticus 26:1) "And a covering stone, etc." I might think that they may not make one of stone, but that they may make one of silver. It is, therefore, written (Exodus 20:20) "gods of silver." I might think that they may not make one of silver, but that they may make one of gold. It is, therefore, written (Ibid.) "and gods of gold." I might think that they may not make one of gold, but that they may make one of copper or tin or lead. It is, therefore, written (Exodus 34:13) "Molten gods you shall not make for yourself." I might think that they may not make for themselves the likeness of all these but that they may make one of any form. It is, therefore, written (Devarim 4:16) "Lest you corrupt yourselves and make … of any form." I might think that they may not make one of any form, (of human being), but that they may make one of the likeness of an animal, beast, or bird. It is, therefore, written (Ibid. 17) "the figure of any beast, etc." I might think that they may not make the likeness of all of these, but that they may make the likeness of fish, hoppers, reptiles, and creeping things. It is, therefore, written (Ibid. 19) "any thing that creeps on the ground." I might think that they may not make the likeness of sun, moon, stars, and constellations. It is, therefore written (Ibid. 19) "And lest you lift your eyes to the heavens, etc." I might think that they may not make the likeness of any of these, but they may make the likeness of angels, cherubs, ofanim and chashmalim (angelic entities). It is, therefore, written (Ibid. 39) "in the heavens." If "in the heavens," I might think that they may not make the likeness (only) of sun, moon, and stars. It is, therefore, written (Ibid.) "above" — neither the likeness of cherubs or ofanim. I might think that they may not make the likeness of all these, but they may make the likeness of the depths or of darkness. It is, therefore, written (Ibid. 18) "which is in the waters beneath the earth." To include reflected images. These are the words of R. Akiva. Others say: To include shavririm (water creatures). So far did the Holy One Blessed be God pursue the yetzer hara (the evil inclination) to give it no pretext for permissiveness (in this area).

(4) In accordance with the Sabean theories images were erected to the stars, golden images to the sun, images of silver to the moon, and they attributed the metals and the climates to the influence of the planets, saying that a certain planet is the god of a certain zone. They built temples, placed in them images, and assumed that the stars sent forth their influence upon these images, which are thereby enabled (to speak) to understand, to comprehend, to inspire human beings, and to tell them what is useful to them. They apply the same to trees which fall to the lot of these stars. When, namely, a certain tree, which is peculiar to a certain star, is dedicated to the name of this star, and certain things are done for the tree and to the tree, the spiritual force of that star which influences that tree, inspires men, and speaks to them when they are asleep. All this is written in their works, to which I will call your attention. It applies to the "prophets of Baal," and the "prophets of Asherah," mentioned in Scripture, in whose hearts the Sabean theories had taken root, who forsook God, and called, "Baal, hear us" (1 Kings 18:26); because these theories were then general, ignorance had spread, and the madness with which people adhered to this kind of imaginations had increased in the world. When such opinions were adopted among the Israelites, they had observers of clouds, enchanters, witches, charmers, consulters with familiar spirits, wizards, and necromancers.

(5) We have shown in our large work, Mishneh-torah (Hilkot, ‘Abodah-zarah, 1:3), that Abraham was the first that opposed these theories by arguments and by soft and persuasive speech. He induced these people, by showing kindness to them, to serve God. Afterwards came the chief of the prophets, and completed the work by the commandment to slay those unbelievers, to blot out their name, and to uproot them from the land of the living. Comp. "Ye shall destroy their altars," etc. (Exod. 34:13). God forbade us to follow their ways; God said, "Ye shall not walk in the manners of the heathen", etc. (Lev. 20:23). You know from the repeated declarations in the Law that the principal purpose of the whole Law was the removal and utter destruction of idolatry, and all that is connected therewith, even its name, and everything that might lead to any such practices, e.g., acting as a consulter with familiar spirits, or as a wizard, passing children through the fire, divining, observing the clouds, enchanting, charming, or inquiring of the dead. The law prohibits us to imitate the heathen in any of these deeds, and a fortiori to adopt them entirely. It is distinctly said in the Law that everything which idolaters consider as service to their gods, and a means of approaching them, is rejected and despised by God; comp. "for every abomination to the Lord, which God hateth, have they done unto their gods" (Deut. 12:3 1). In the books which I shall name to you later on, it is stated that on certain occasions they offered to the sun, their greatest god, seven beetles, and seven mice, and seven bats. This alone suffices to show how disgusting their practice must be to human nature. Thus all precepts cautioning against idolatry, or against that which is connected therewith, leads to it, or is related to it, are evidently useful. They all tend to save us from the evil doctrines that deprive us of everything useful for the acquisition of the twofold perfection of man, by leading to those absurd practices in which our parents and ancestors have been brought up. Comp. "And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, your parents dwelt on the other side of the river in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods" (Josh. 24:2). It is in reference to these [idolatrous ideas] that the true prophets exclaim, "They walked after [vain] things, which do not profit." How great is the usefulness of every precept that delivers us from this great error, and leads us back to the true faith: that God, the Creator of all things, rules the Universe: that God must be served, loved, and feared, and not those imaginary deities. According to this faith we approach the true God, and obtain God's favour without having recourse to burdensome means: for nothing else is required but to love and fear God; this is the aim in serving God, as will be shown. Comp. "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord"? etc. (Deut. 10:12). I shall complete this subject later on: now let us return to the theme [of this chapter].

(1) Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Hephzibah. (2) He did what was displeasing to the LORD, following the abhorrent practices of the nations that the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites. (3) He rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he erected altars for Baal and made a sacred post, as King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the host of heaven and worshiped them, (4) and he built altars for them in the House of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “I will establish My name in Jerusalem.” (5) He built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the House of the LORD. (6) He consigned his son to the fire; he practiced soothsaying and divination, and consulted ghosts and familiar spirits; he did much that was displeasing to the LORD, to vex God. (7) The sculptured image of Asherah that he made he placed in the House concerning which the LORD had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this House and in Jerusalem, which I chose out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My name forever. (8) And I will not again cause the feet of Israel to wander from the land that I gave to their fathers, if they will but faithfully observe all that I have commanded them—all the Teachings with which My servant Moses charged them.” (9) But they did not obey, and Manasseh led them astray to do greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites. (10) Therefore the LORD spoke through God's servants the prophets: (11) “Because King Manasseh of Judah has done these abhorrent things—he has outdone in wickedness all that the Amorites did before his time—and because he led Judah to sin with his fetishes, (12) assuredly, thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: I am going to bring such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that both ears of everyone who hears about it will tingle. (13) I will apply to Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the weights of the House of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem clean as one wipes a dish and turns it upside down. (14) And I will cast off the remnant of My own people and deliver them into the hands of their enemies. They shall be plunder and prey to all their enemies (15) because they have done what is displeasing to Me and have been vexing Me from the day that their fathers came out of Egypt to this day.” (16) Moreover, Manasseh put so many innocent persons to death that he filled Jerusalem [with blood] from end to end—besides the sin he committed in causing Judah to do what was displeasing to the LORD. (17) The other events of Manasseh’s reign, and all his actions, and the sins he committed, are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Judah. (18) Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his palace, in the garden of Uzza; and his son Amon succeeded him as king.

(1) At the king (Josiah’s) summons, all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem assembled before him. (2) The king went up to the House of the LORD, together with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and prophets—all the people, young and old. And he read to them the entire text of the covenant scroll which had been found in the House of the LORD. (3) The king stood by the pillar and solemnized the covenant before the LORD: that they would follow the LORD and observe God's commandments, God's injunctions, and God's laws with all their heart and soul; that they would fulfill all the terms of this covenant as inscribed upon the scroll. And all the people entered into the covenant. (4) Then the king ordered the high priest Hilkiah, the priests of the second rank, and the guards of the threshold to bring out of the Temple of the LORD all the objects made for Baal and Asherah and all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and he removed the ashes to Bethel. (5) He suppressed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to make offerings at the shrines in the towns of Judah and in the environs of Jerusalem, and those who made offerings to Baal, to the sun and moon and constellations—all the host of heaven. (6) He brought out the [image of] Asherah from the House of the LORD to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, and burned it in the Kidron Valley; he beat it to dust and scattered its dust over the burial ground of the common people. (7) He tore down the cubicles of the male prostitutes in the House of the LORD, at the place where the women wove coverings for Asherah. (8) He brought all the priests from the towns of Judah [to Jerusalem] and defiled the shrines where the priests had been making offerings—from Geba to Beer-sheba. He also demolished the shrines of the gates, which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city prefect—which were on a person’s left [as he entered] the city gate. (9) The priests of the shrines, however, did not ascend the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread along with their kinsmen. (10) He also defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, so that no one might consign his son or daughter to the fire of Molech. (11) He did away with the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance of the House of the LORD, near the chamber of the eunuch Nathan-melech, which was in the precincts. He burned the chariots of the sun. (12) And the king tore down the altars made by the kings of Judah on the roof by the upper chamber of Ahaz, and the altars made by Manasseh in the two courts of the House of the LORD. He removed them quickly from there and scattered their rubble in the Kidron Valley. (13) The king also defiled the shrines facing Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of the Destroyer, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom, the detestable thing of the Ammonites. (14) He shattered their pillars and cut down their sacred posts and covered their sites with human bones. (15) As for the altar in Bethel [and] the shrine made by Jeroboam son of Nebat who caused Israel to sin—that altar, too, and the shrine as well, he tore down. He burned down the shrine and beat it to dust, and he burned the sacred post.

(2) And so you find that Israel did everything that he had said to them in the days of the judges, as stated (in Jud. 10:6): <AGAIN THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID WHAT WAS EVIL IN THE EYES OF THE LORD> AND SERVED THE BAALS AND THE ASTARTES. So also Jeroboam, as stated (in I Kings 12:28–29): SO THE KING TOOK COUNSEL AND MADE TWO CALVES OF GOLD <….> THEN HE SET ONE IN BETHEL AND THE OTHER HE {SET} [PUT] IN DAN. Moreover, he did not allow Israel to go up to Jerusalem. Instead he said: These are your Gods, O Israel. So also Ahab sinned and made Israel sin more than all the wicked ones who came before him. (I Kings 16:30:) AND AHAB [BEN OMRI] DID MORE EVIL IN THE EYES OF THE LORD THAN ALL WHO <HAD COME> BEFORE HIM. You yourself know that he sold himself to idolatrous worship, as stated (in I Kings 21:25): <INDEED THERE WAS NO ONE> LIKE AHAB WHO SOLD HIMSELF TO DO EVIL IN THE EYES OF THE LORD. He also made them forget the name of the Holy One. How? He blotted out the references <to the Divine Name> and wrote in their place, <e.g.,> "And Baal spoke," "In the beginning Baal," "And Baal said." And for all the whole Torah he did likewise. That is what the prophet says (in Jer. 23:27): THE ONES WHO INTEND TO MAKE MY PEOPLE FORGET MY NAME. But Menasseh did more than all of them, as stated (in II Chron 33:7; cf. II Kings 21:7): AND HE SET UP A SCULPTURED IMAGE <WHICH HE HAD MADE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD>…. (II Chron. 33:6 // II KINGS 21:6): AND HE HAD HIS SONS PASS THROUGH FIRE {FOR MOLECH} IN THE VALLEY OF BEN-HINNOM. HE ALSO PRACTICED SOOTHSAYING, AUGURY, [SORCERY,] NECROMANCY, AND WIZARDRY. [HE DID MUCH EVIL IN THE EYES OF THE LORD TO PROVOKE HIM TO ANGER.] And how <did he do it>? Molech was in the valley of Ben-hinnom.⁶Cf. Lam. R. 1:9 (36). It took place outside of Jerusalem and in a remote place. There was also an image <there> with the face of a calf and with its hands extended like a human [whose hands are open to receive] something from one's friend. Then they heated it until its hands became like fire. It also had seven latticed gates,⁷Qanqalim. Probably from the Gk.: kingklis, or the Lat.: cancelli, but Buber, n. 5, suggests the word comes from coenacula, which means “upper rooms.” with <the image> behind the innermost of them. Each and every one would enter in accordance with his offering. Whoever offered a bird entered the first lattice gate. With a goat he entered the second lattice gate; with a lamb, the third; with a calf, the fourth; with a bullock, the fifth; with a bull, the sixth. To whoever was offering his child the idol priests would say that there is none higher than that. He entered within the seventh lattice gate. Then he went and kissed it, as stated (in Hos. 13:2): THOSE WHO SACRIFICE A HUMAN BEING KISS CALVES. Then the idol priests would take his child from him and put the young child⁸Tinoq. “Young child” rather than “infant” here, because a parallel description in Lam. R. suggests that the offering might be an offspring somewhat older than an infant. upon the hands of Molech, while they took the drums and beat on them, so that the father would not hear the voice of his child. Then they pressed the young child's entrails upon it, while the young child screamed until <its spirit> left its body in the hands of <the idol>. R Judah the Levite said: That is what is written (in Jer. 7:31): AND THEY HAVE BUILT THE HIGH PLACES OF TOPHETH, WHICH ARE IN THE VALLEY OF BEN-HINNOM <TO BURN THEIR SONS AND THEIR DAUGHTERS IN THE FIRE>. What is the meaning of TOPHETH? That they beat on their drums (tuppim, sing.: toph). What is the meaning of HINNOM? That the idol priests said to Molech, when the young child screamed (rt.: NHM): May it be pleasing to you! May it be appealing to you! Look at how fervent they were for idolatry! The Holy One said: It is on account of the evil drive (yetser hara) that you have sinned and gone into exile; but in the age to come I am rooting it (i.e., the evil drive) out of you,⁹Cf. Deut. R. 2:30. as stated (in Ezek. 36:26): I WILL REMOVE THE HEART OF STONE FROM YOUR FLESH AND GIVE YOU A HEART OF FLESH.

The members of the Nasi's household once appointed an incompetent teacher, and the Rabbis said to Judah b. Nahmani, the interpreter of Resh Lakish: Go and stand at his side as interpreter. Standing by him, he [Judah] bent down to hear what he wished to teach, but the teacher made no attempt to say anything. Thereupon R. Judah took as his opening text: Woe unto him who saith unto wood: Awake! — to the dumb stone: Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it (Habakuk 2:19); but the Holy One, blessed be God, [he proceeded], will call to account those who set them up, as it is written: But the Lord is in God's holy Temple; let all the earth, keep silence before God (Habakuk 2:20).

Resh Lakish said: One who appoints an incompetent judge over the Community is as though they had planted an Asheirah in Israel, for it is written (Deuteronomy 16:18) : Judges and officers shalt thou appoint unto thee, and soon after it is said (Deuteronomy 18:21): Thou shalt not plant thee Asheirah of any kind of tree. R. Ashi said: And if such an appointment be made in a place where scholars are to be found, it is as though the Asheirah were planted beside the Altar, for the verse concludes with the words: beside the altar of the Lord thy God.