The Telling by Mark Gerson

Author:Mark Gerson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

FINDING THE IMAGE OF GOD (IT’S NOT HARD)

Originally, our ancestors were idol worshippers.

We started telling the story by referring to our origin as slaves. Here is where we begin again, referencing our origin as idol worshippers. Seder-goers may ordinarily go quickly through this section of the Haggadah because of how we conceive of idolatry. We might associate idol worship with praying before graven objects, and take comfort in that we don’t do that. We might think that we are over idolatry.

There are two problems with that.

First, idolatry is the most frequently prohibited activity in the Torah. The Talmud says that the denial of idolatry is akin to accepting the entire Torah—a belief echoed by Maimonides, who writes, “Whosoever denies idolatry admits the whole Torah, all of the prophets and all in that which the prophets were instructed since Adam even till the end of time. Thus it is the most outstanding commandment of them all.”1 Since the Torah is our eternal guidebook, the most frequently prohibited activity—the one practice considered akin to accepting the whole of it—must still be relevant.

Second, the Haggadah says that originally our ancestors were idol worshippers but now God has “brought us nearer to His service.” “Nearer” is a tantalizing word. It clearly suggests that we are not there yet. It seems, then, that there is a continuum from idolatry to service to God. We might be “nearer” to God than our idol worshipping ancestors were, but how much closer? The Haggadah does not say.

If idolatry is a persistent problem and is not a matter of worshipping wooden icons, what is it? It is defined, perhaps best, in the Second Commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” A created icon is only one kind of god a person can place before God. If serving God is the ultimate end that all other rules and goals serve, then any other ultimate goal—anything “before me”—is an idol.

An idol can therefore be recognition or money, social approval or physical beauty, bodily pleasure or even, as we’ll see, one’s Judaism. This does not suggest that everything beautiful is an idol. The same thing can be, depending on how it is considered and used, a holy object or an idol. One can love making money in order to alleviate the suffering of God’s most vulnerable children. Another can love making money to accumulate the stuff that it can buy. The same thing can, depending on the perspective and use of the person controlling it, be idolatrous or sacred.

Even if we can identify idolatry, a fundamental question remains: What is so bad about it? There are a lot of ways to reject God. There are atheism and agnosticism, but neither is even mentioned in the Torah or the Haggadah. What is it about idolatry that makes it uniquely condemned?

There are at least two possibilities. We have discussed that we banish chametz on Pesach to focus on permanent things. One of the great teachings of Judaism is that the genuinely permanent things are invisible.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.