- What is an idol?
- Do people worship the idol itself or what the idol represents?
- When we call someone 'an idol' like "American Idol", what are we saying about that person?
- What does it mean to "idolize" someone or something? How does that point of view impact us, the way we see the world?
Definition of "idol" (www.m-w.com, Merriam Webster)
1: a representation or symbol of an object of worship; broadly : a false god
2a : a likeness of something
b obsolete : pretender, impostor
3: a form or appearance visible but without substance
- an enchanted phantom, a lifeless idol
- —P. B. Shelley
4: an object of extreme devotion
- a movie idol
; also : ideal 2
5: a false conception : fallacy
Definition of "idolatry"
1: the worship of a physical object as a god
2: immoderate attachment or devotion to something
From the Etz Hayim Chumash (Rabbinical Assembly, USCJ: p. 443
- 'You shall have no other gods besides Me...' The God of Israel demands uncompromising and exclusive loyalty, because He has redeemed them to serve Him.
- 'You shall not make for yourself...' Later thinkers took this revolutionary Israelite concept to mean that God is wholly separate from the world of His creation and wholly other than what the human mind can conceive or the human imagination depict. Therefore, any material representation of divinity is forbidden. This does not prohibit artistic representation, only the use of images in worship.
- 'You shall have no other gods besides Me...' Some take the words translated as "besides Me" to mean "in addition to" not only "in place of". It is forbidden to worship idols along with God. Arama takes this passage not as a prohibition but as a promise: As longs as you have Me, you will not need any others.
- 'You shall not make for yourself...' God is not merely invisible, i.e., possessing a shape that we cannot see. God has no physical form. It is only our limited human imagination that drives us to think of God as a heavenly being with bodily parts. To picture God is to limit God: male not female, old not young, of one specific race or skin color. Heschel suggests that we may not make an image of God because we ourselves bear the divine image in the world. We alone are God's agents, not any idol we might fashion. A homiletic interpretation of the same words comes to a contrasting conclusion: "You shall not make yourself into an idol, and come to believe that you are God."
Daniel Septimus
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-thirteen-principles-of-faith/
The following is largely based on Marc Shapiro’s “Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles: The Last Word in Jewish Theology?” published in The Torah U-Madda Journal, volume 4 (1993).
Maimonides wrote his Thirteen Principles of Faith in his introduction to the tenth chapter of Talmud Sanhedrin.
According to Maimonides, anyone who denies–or even doubts–any of these principles is a heretic with no place in the World to Come. Yet, these principles were hardly undisputed. Many scholars who preceded and succeeded Maimonides held contrary beliefs.
Below, is a list of the Thirteen Principles with references to some of these divergent beliefs. Unless otherwise noted, all the scholars mentioned are medieval authorities.
The Principles
Principle 1
God exists; God is perfect in every way, eternal, and the cause of all that exists. All other beings depend upon God for their existence.
Objections
Some medieval authorities believed that God created the world from eternal matter (see Principle 4). Thus, according to these scholars, it would not be true to say that God is the cause of all that exists.
Principle 2
God has absolute and unparalleled unity.
Principle 3
God is incorporeal–without a body.
Objections
In the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides asserts that anyone who believes that God is corporeal is a heretic. In reference to this, Abraham ben David Posquieres (also known as Rabad) comments that people greater than Maimonides have believed that God has a physical form. Rabad himself does not subscribe to this view, but objects to the claim that those who do are heretics.
In addition, Moses ben Hasdai Taku, a tosafist (medieval commentator on the Talmud), believed that God could take a physical form. Finally, Samuel David Luzzatto, a 19th-century scholar, defended the idea that God has a body, claiming that an embodied God was the only God conceivable to most people.
Ironically, Maimonides himself seemed to share this view. In the Guide of the Perplexed (I, 46) he writes: “For the multitude perceive nothing other than bodies as having a firmly established existence and as being indubitably true.”
Principle 4
God existed prior to all else. (In a later version of the Thirteen Principles, Maimonides included the notion that God created the world from nothing [creation ex nihilo].)
Objections
In his commentary to Genesis 1:1, Abraham Ibn Ezra suggests that the word bara(created) implies cutting or setting a boundary. Scholars such as Joseph Tov Elem and David Arama understood this to mean that Ibn Ezra believed that God sculpted the world from eternal matter. Gersonides also believed that the world was created from eternal matter.
Principle 5
God should be the only object of worship and praise. One should not appeal to intermediaries, but should pray directly to God.
Objections
Some of the selihot prayers–prayers of repentance recited on fast days and during the High Holy Days–and the third paragraph of the Shalom Aleichem hymn, sung prior to the Shabbat kiddush, are directed to angels. In addition, one of the Geonim–the leaders of Babylonian Jewry from the 7th to 11th centuries–defended the use of angels to intercede with God (Ozar ha-Geonim, Shabbat 4-6). He added that angels could sometimes fulfill the petitions of a prayer without consulting God.
Jacob Emden (1697-1776) is among some of the others who have approved of petitioning angels to intercede on ones behalf. Nissim Gerondi (Ran) maintained that there is one specific angel whom one may pray to.
Principle 6
Prophets and prophecy exist.
Principle 7
Moses was the greatest prophet who ever lived. No prophet who lived or will live could comprehend God more than Moses.
Objections
Nahmanides and Gersonides believed that the Messiah would gain more knowledge of God than Moses. Shneur Zalman of Lyady (1745-1813), the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, in his Likutei Amarim, notes that Moses’ prophetic abilities weren’t as great as those of Isaac Luria, the renowned medieval kabbalist.
Principle 8
The Torah is from heaven. The Torah we have today is the Torah that God gave to Moses at Sinai.
Comment
This principle assumes that there is and has always been one text of the Torah and that the Masoretic text–the text established by ben Asher in 930 CE–is this text.
Objections
The Talmud (Baba Batra 14b-15a; Makot 11a) relates that Joshua wrote the last 8 verses of the Torah. Abraham Ibn Ezra believed that Joshua wrote the last 12 verses. The Midrash Tanhuma, a rabbinc text, cites cases of tikkun soferim, instances where the scribes of the Great Assembly (the leaders of the Jews during the Persian exile) emended the Bible–including the Torah.
Menahem ben Solomon ha-Meiri mentions the “Masoretic works” instead of a singular “Masoretic text.”
Solomon ben Aderet (Rashba) discussed when we should change our Torah to accord with the Talmud’s version (which differs from the Masoretic text). Aryeh Loeb Guenzberg (18th century) opined that the commandment that every Jew write a Torah scroll no longer applies because of our doubts about how certain words are to be written. Similarly, Moses Sofer (1762-1839) believed that there’s no need to say a blessing before writing a Torah because, perhaps, the Talmud’s version is correct and the Torah being written is invalid.
Principle 9
The Torah will never be abrogated, nothing will be added to it or subtracted from it; God will never give another Law.
Objections
Joseph Albo suggested that, in theory, if a prophet came whose mission could be verified in the same way Moses’ could, then commandments–except for the Ten Commandments–could be abolished.
Principle 10
God knows the actions of humans and is not neglectful of them.
Objections
According to Ibn Ezra, “The Whole [God] knows the individual in a general manner rather than in a detailed manner.” Some interpreted this to mean that God knows the general actions of humans, but not the particular details. Gersonides developed this idea fully: God knows universals, but not particulars.
Principle 11
God rewards those who obey the commands of the Torah and punishes those who violate its prohibitions.
Principle 12
The days of the Messiah will come.
Objections
The talmudic Rabbi Hillel (not to be confused with the earlier Hillel) stated that: “There shall be no Messiah for Israel, because they have already enjoyed him in the days of Hezekiah (Sanhedrin 99a).”
Principle 13
The dead will be resurrected.
Conclusion
In Judaism, disagreement is not anomalous. However, whereas in the legal tradition we can speak of a mahloket l’shem shamayim–a debate in the name of heaven (God)–according to Maimonides, debate is not possible when it comes to dogmatic principles. The consequences of diverging from Maimonides’ principles are severe.
After listing and describing his Thirteen Principles, Maimonides states: “When all these foundations are perfectly understood and believed in by a person he enters the community of Israel and one is obligated to love and pity him…But if a man doubts any of these foundations, he leaves the community [of Israel], denies the fundamentals, and is called a sectarian, apikores, and one who ‘cuts among the plantings’ [a reference to the talmudic heretic Elisha ben Abuyah]. One is required to hate him and destroy him.”
According to this assessment, revered authorities–such as Ibn Ezra, Nahmanides, Rabad, ha-Meiri–whose works are studied to this day, would fall into the latter category. They would be considered heretics who not only have no redemption in the afterlife, but who are not true members of Israel and who deserve nothing but our scorn.
What are we to conclude from this?
Probably not that these scholars were heretics, nor that Maimonides’ principles were incorrect or untrue (for in most cases, even the divergences from Maimonides were relatively minor). If we can conclude anything from this analysis, it is that the Thirteen Principles of Faith–as articulated–were never normative, never as defining and consequential as Maimonides believed them to be.
(1) When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who shall go before us, for that man Moses, who brought us from the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.” (2) Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” (3) And all the people took off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. (4) This he took from them and cast in a mold, and made it into a molten calf. And they exclaimed, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” (5) When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron announced: “Tomorrow shall be a festival of the LORD!” (6) Early next day, the people offered up burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; they sat down to eat and drink, and then rose to dance. (7) The LORD spoke to Moses, “Hurry down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted basely. (8) They have been quick to turn aside from the way that I enjoined upon them. They have made themselves a molten calf and bowed low to it and sacrificed to it, saying: ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’” (9) The LORD further said to Moses, “I see that this is a stiffnecked people. (10) Now, let Me be, that My anger may blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation.” (11) But Moses implored the LORD his God, saying, “Let not Your anger, O Lord, blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. (12) Let not the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that He delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth.’ Turn from Your blazing anger, and renounce the plan to punish Your people. (13) Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, how You swore to them by Your Self and said to them: I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I will give to your offspring this whole land of which I spoke, to possess forever.” (14) And the LORD renounced the punishment He had planned to bring upon His people. (15) Thereupon Moses turned and went down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Pact, tablets inscribed on both their surfaces: they were inscribed on the one side and on the other. (16) The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing, incised upon the tablets. (17) When Joshua heard the sound of the people in its boisterousness, he said to Moses, “There is a cry of war in the camp.” (18) But he answered, “It is not the sound of the tune of triumph, Or the sound of the tune of defeat; It is the sound of song that I hear!” (19) As soon as Moses came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he became enraged; and he hurled the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. (20) He took the calf that they had made and burned it; he ground it to powder and strewed it upon the water and so made the Israelites drink it. (21) Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such great sin upon them?” (22) Aaron said, “Let not my lord be enraged. You know that this people is bent on evil. (23) They said to me, ‘Make us a god to lead us; for that man Moses, who brought us from the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.’ (24) So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off!’ They gave it to me and I hurled it into the fire and out came this calf!” (25) Moses saw that the people were out of control—since Aaron had let them get out of control—so that they were a menace to any who might oppose them. (26) Moses stood up in the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come here!” And all the Levites rallied to him. (27) He said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Each of you put sword on thigh, go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay brother, neighbor, and kin.” (28) The Levites did as Moses had bidden; and some three thousand of the people fell that day. (29) And Moses said, “Dedicate yourselves to the LORD this day—for each of you has been against son and brother—that He may bestow a blessing upon you today.” (30) The next day Moses said to the people, “You have been guilty of a great sin. Yet I will now go up to the LORD; perhaps I may win forgiveness for your sin.” (31) Moses went back to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people is guilty of a great sin in making for themselves a god of gold. (32) Now, if You will forgive their sin [well and good]; but if not, erase me from the record which You have written!” (33) But the LORD said to Moses, “He who has sinned against Me, him only will I erase from My record. (34) Go now, lead the people where I told you. See, My angel shall go before you. But when I make an accounting, I will bring them to account for their sins.” (35) Then the LORD sent a plague upon the people, for what they did with the calf that Aaron made.