פרשת יתרו תשכ"ט - מעמד הר סיני

And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off.

ראים את הקולת [THEY] SAW THE SOUNDS — they saw that which should be heard (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:15:1) — something which is impossible to see on any other occasion.

And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off.

וינעו THEY MOVED — The root נוע denotes trembling (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:15:3).

לא יהיה לך THERE SHALL NOT BE UNTO THEE [OTHER GODS] — Why is this said? Does not the preceding verse state: I — and no other — shall be thy God? But since it states immediately after this, “Thou shalt not make unto thee [any graven image etc.]” I might say that I have only a prohibition that one may not make such gods; whence could I know that one may not retain an idol that has already been made? Perhaps there is no such law! Therefore it states here: “there shall not be unto thee” (thou shalt not have other gods) (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:3:1.)

לא תעשון אתי YE SHALL NOT MAKE WITH ME — Ye shall not make an image of My ministers that minister before Me in the heights (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:20:1).

לא יהיה לך THERE SHALL NOT BE UNTO THEE [OTHER GODS] — Why is this said? Does not the preceding verse state: I — and no other — shall be thy God? But since it states immediately after this, “Thou shalt not make unto thee [any graven image etc.]” I might say that I have only a prohibition that one may not make such gods; whence could I know that one may not retain an idol that has already been made? Perhaps there is no such law! Therefore it states here: “there shall not be unto thee” (thou shalt not have other gods) (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:3:1.)

It is written: “You shall not make with Me gods of [elohei] silver and gods of gold” (Exodus 20:20). The Gemara asks: It is gods of silver and gods of gold that you may not make, but are gods of wood permitted? Rather, Rav Ashi says: This verse discusses a judge, called elohim, who comes, i.e., is appointed, due to payment of silver, and a judge who comes due to payment of gold.

One may also interpret the words לא תעשון אתי וגו' to mean that “while you are engaged in prayer to Me, do not think of your gold, your silver, etc.; in other words, when you address Me I expect to have your full attention, do not share Me in your thoughts with anything else at such a time. If you were to do that, I would consider it as equivalent to your having made competing deities.”

The second category of idol worshiper is the person who is well aware in his heart that such deities are worthless and ineffective but they perform such service in order to reap some immediate and indirect benefit therefrom for themselves. For instance, such a person may ask a third person to pay him a sum of money in order to go through the motions of consulting such deity on the third person's behalf. The person who performs such sham service says to himself that inasmuch as G'd wants to be served by the heart, and he himself believes in the One and only G'd with all his heart, he has not really done anything wrong seeing in his heart he despises any kind of idolatry. Concerning such form of pro forma idolatry the Torah writes ואלוהי זהב לא תעשו לכם, do not perform idolatrous rites even if your intention is merely to earn some gold pieces.