Idolatry’s Many Forms

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

Question: Bible/Judaism places is a huge emphasis on not worshipping false gods. It seems relatively simple not to recognize false gods. But the repetition and heavy emphasis suggests to me that it’s more complex than just recognizing the one true God. I know it encompasses things like superstition, but what else may be considered worship of a false god?

Rabbi: Bible’s opening verse teaches God’s role: the sole cause of the universe, and thus, He is also the sole guide, as nothing else can control Hs creations. Maimonides commences his Mishneh Torah with the identical message of God being the sole cause of all. But there, he informs the reader that this fundamental truth is also the basis of all truths. We already gain sensitivity that this topic is most crucial. And the Rabbis add, “If one acknowledges idolatry, it is as if he denies the entire Torah; and if one denies idolatry, it is as if he acknowledges the entire Torah” (Sifrei Devarim 54:4). Yes, there is great emphasis on idolatry, but not only repetition: there are many permutations of idolatry.

What is Idolatry? 

Idolatry is the collective set of man-made practices attempting to gain security. A psychologically and philosophically healthy person follows truth. He trusts his senses as God deems we all do. Therefore he understands the world operates through cause and effect, and through God’s providence for righteous people. He dismisses any baseless beliefs, despite his need for security. He wishes to live in reality. But many others even within orthodox Judaism, have invented or copied practices and beliefs offering the promise of security, success, marriage, and health. They deny Torah’s many warning against idols, people, signs and omens. 

The Seeds

Youth and dependency have their purpose: we are trained in respecting authority. To assist in attaining this goal, just prior to receiving Torah on Mount Sinai, God gave Moses laws of honoring parents, courts, and Sabbath. To accept God’s authority at Sinai, man is more primed to do so when recognizing his first authority figures (parents), then societal authorities (courts and judges), and finally God through Sabbath observance. Man is to transpose his recognition of authority, ultimately viewing God as the sole authority. 

Sadly, too many people and civilizations succumbed to cleaving to their first impressions of an authority figure (man/parents), the seeds of idolatry. They didn’t train in wisdom, and therefore their emotions dictated their beliefs. When realizing their parents are mere humans who live and die, they become insecure in what will now protect them. This child mindset cannot abandon a tangible authority figure and follow an abstract God, so one creates “replacement parents” in the form of idols, gold calves, Jesus, rebbes, witches and warlocks. They sought security from that which closely resembles parents: idols of man and woman (father and mother). But these dependent minds also viewed the amazing heavens as higher than man, and so worshipped the stars, sun and moon. To reassure them that through their day they were protected, they invented signs they believed were warnings, like black cats, broken mirrors, horseshoes, 4-leaf clovers, red strings, and even checked their mezuzas when sick. Nothing was off limits when it came to finding security in tangible signs. Even calendar dates and heavenly events were viewed as significant. Viewing themselves as important creations, they looked to the weekday and zodiac on which they were born to gain insight into their forecasts: “I was born on Sunday, so I will be a leader as Sunday is the lead day of the week.” 

It is due to man’s many insecurities and endless imagination that he developed such mystical solutions to his fears. God created man and knew man would deviate from truth and follow fantasy. Therefore in Torah He addressed the main categories of false security types by prohibiting star worship and heavenly signs, astrology, idol worship, human worship, omens, and all ineffective acts. 

Worship of a false god—idolatry—may be defined as following a belief or act where one attributes an effect to an imagined cause, when no effect is witnessed (Rabbi Israel Chait).

We must search our own personalities for idolatrous and mystical tendencies, as we each have false beliefs unique to each one of us. Regarding the famine in Canaan, Abraham thought, “Wait…what is happening? God told me to travel here, and this land has a famine?” A mystical thought entered his mind that Abraham felt all should go well while following God’s mission. But Abraham conquered that thought [and passed that trial]. (Rabbi Israel Chait, Pirkei Avos Chap. 5/6, p. 57). God desires to refine great people to even greater levels of perfection. So here, God helped Abraham overcome incorrect notions. 

Idolatry rejects the most fundamental truth that God alone controls the universe. God defines not only truth, but morality. Knowing God alone runs all is the goal of the entire Torah. If we reject this truth, all else we do is a lie. Even if we live “kind” lives, we are not kind based on a recognition that this is God’s will. We simply follow our emotions. At times, doctors will feel kind by medically treating Arafat, which results in more murdered Jews. If our sympathy is not based on God’s rules, the Rabbis say, “All who are merciful to a vicious person, are vicious to a person deserving mercy.”  Without knowing God’s absolute truths, we might murder through abortion. When does life start? When is life sacrificed? “If one comes to kill you, rise early and kill him” is also a Torah principle. But a liberal mindset with distorted morality may argue that this is murder. The entirety of moral answers is lost without accepting God’s authority. This trust in human decisions too can become a form of idolatry; it renders man as having a monopoly on truth. The rabbis teach that one must not greet his friend in the morning before reciting his prayers, as he renders man into an “altar.” The need for human approval must be conquered: “Remove yourself from man, whose soul is in his nostrils, for what (bameh) importance is he?” (Isaiah 2:22). The rabbis say, “Do not read bameh, but bammah” which means altar. The rabbis’ message: Don’t raise man to the level of importance where you treat him as deserving your sacrifices, to gain his approval of you. God alone must retain your trust. This is the core, raw infantile psychological dependency upon man, lying at the root of idolatry. 

Torah asks man to recognize God. Idolatry is man’s attempt to gain recognition of himself, to be favored.

 “For your gods have become as many as your towns…” (Jeremiah 11:13). Following reality—Torah—we follow cause and effect and trust in God. No other powers exist, that’s Genesis 1:1 and Maimonides 1:1. Idolatry has many expressions, as throughout man’s day and life, he encounters many situations threatening his confidence with fears of failure, from which man seeks protection. Thus, idolatry has many forms. Jeremiah states this.