Re'eh

The third principle Denial of His physicality and that is that we believe that this Unity that we mentioned is not a body and not the power of a body and that actions of a body do not relate to Him, not in His essence and not in His doings. And hence the sages, may their memory be blessed, denied [the possibility of] His composition and dissolution and said (Chagigah 15a), "Above there is no sitting or standing, no backside (aoref) and no weariness (aipui)," which is to say say no dissolution, and that is aoref, and no composition, and that is aipui, as per the usage (Isaiah 11:14), "And they aifu on the shoulder of the Philistines," which is to say they pushed themselves onto [their] shoulder to connect to them. And the prophet said (Isaiah 40:25), "'And to whom do you compare Me and I be equated,' says the Holy."[But] were He a body, He would be comparable to [other] bodies. And everything that comes in the holy Scriptures that describes Him in physical ways, such as walking or standing or sitting or speaking, or similar to it, it is all by way of metaphor. And so did the rabbis say (Berakhot 31b), "The Torah speaks in the language of people." And the sages already spoke much about this matter. And this third principle is indicated by that which is stated (Deuteronomy 4:15), "for you did not see any image" - which is to say, you did not perceive Him as something with an image, because He is - as we mentioned - not a body and not the power of a body.

Tear down their altars, smash their pillars, put their sacred posts to the fire, and cut down the images of their gods, obliterating their name from that site.

Do not worship your God יהוה in like manner,

All of these prohibitive commandments are concentrated on one subject, namely: Not to turn after idolatry, and whosoever does turn after it by doing aught resembling its practice is guilty of an offense punishable by lashes. And, yet, not turning after idolatry alone in one's thoughts is forbidden, for even concerning all thought which causes man to delete a principle of the fundamentals of the Torah are we charged not to offer it to our heart, not to concentrate our mind thereon and reason it out and be drawn after the swerving fancies of the heart. Preceding all, behold, the short-coming of man's intelligence, more particularly that not all minds can attain the purity of truth. Now, if every man be drawn away after his heart's fancies, he will be discovered demolishing the world to fit in the shortsightedness of his intelligence. For example: some of the time he will search after idolatry, and some of the time he will meditate about the Unity of the Creator, perhaps He is, and perhaps He is not, what of above and what of below, what of the beginning and what of the end; some of the time he will meditate concerning prophecy, perhaps there is, and perhaps there is not, and some of the time about the Torah, perhaps it is from heaven and perhaps it is not. Whereas, he knows not the standard of thinking wherewith to discover the knowledge of pure truth, as a consequence whereof he goes without to atheism. Even on, this subject there is a warning in the Torah, for it says therein: "And that ye go not about after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go astray" (Num. 15. 39.), as if saying: "Let not any of you be drawn after his short-sighted intelligence and imagine that his fancy attains the truth". Thus did the wise men say: "After your own heart", is a warning against atheism; and "After your own eyes", is a warning against prostitution (Berakot, 13a). But the violation of this prohibitive commandment, although it causes man's disability to share in the World to Come, is not punishable by lashes.