Idolatry (1)

 

The Kuzari's starting point is idolatry, or paganism.  Although this seems like a dead option for our generation, we must devote a few lines to the idea.

 

Idol Worship Interpreted

 

     In a certain sense, idol worship has not disappeared.  Many modern thinkers look at it in a larger, more figurative sense.  According to their approach, an idol worshipper is a person who has many foci in his life, and has no one central ideal which directs his actions.  Such a person can be compared to a weathercock, which changes direction with each gust of wind.  A person who is lacking a center in his life is governed by each passing whim.  He cannot account to himself for his own life.

 

Modern Idols

 

     This description is basically a portrayal of polytheism.  However, it seems to me that there is another current interpretation of idol worship which is much closer to the mark.  Perhaps, modern-day idol worship is the doctrine which makes the means into an end.  This is a position which discards the faith in God as an absolute barometer, and replaces it with other values which become absolute, such as money, sex, respect, sports, etc.  Thus money and wealth become an idol.  Both Chasidic and Mussar [Ethics] Masters interpreted the verse "Gods of silver and gods of gold ye shall not make" to mean, do not make silver and gold into gods.  Sports and entertainment also become idolatrous when they take over the center and meaning of life.  While we must understand the importance of sports to a person who is actively involved in them, we must realize that sports and entertainment can become, or have already become, a form of idol worship, which continues to develop its own idols.

 

     All these values are not negative in and of themselves, if they serve greater ideals.  One of the most powerful examples of this is patriotism, when it becomes the ultimate value, without relation to any other goal and without being subject to the criticism of any outside source.  In Judaism, the concept of the nation is closely connected to the religious ideal.  When this interdependence disappears, the nation becomes a religion, and in essence it becomes an idol. 

 

     One of the best examples of this type of idol worship was the philosophy of Achad Ha'am (a Jewish author and thinker at the turn of the century).  He believed that we must turn our perceptions inside out; we must understand reality differently - that religion merely serves the nation.  We know that the nation is of great importance, but as Rav Kook teaches, this is also because God reveals Himself through the nation.

 

     One of man's central problems is that sometimes he is so involved in achieving the means that he stops thinking about the goal.  Sometimes we stop asking why we need the means, and we get stuck at some intermediate point.  The classic example of this is the man who works in order to support himself; yet imperceptibly, his work becomes the central goal in his life.  Consequently, when this man retires, his life loses all meaning.  Certainly, one of the objects of the Shabbat is the battle against this strange type of idolatry.

 

     Rav Kook maintains that the moment we place a single value as our goal, instead of making God, who contains all values and ideals, into our focus, we are worshipping idols.  Monotheism means unity of ideals.  Every pagan idol represented a particular ideal.  If God is one, this means that we are expected to fulfill all the ideals.  The belief in Divine unity  means not only that God is One, but that He is complete.  The Jewish ideal must be a complete model, containing all the ideals.  Therefore, God will not accept the sacrifices of one who exploits his fellow man, because he is emphasizing one ideal and ignoring another. 

 

     The meaning of our belief in Divine unity is expressed in the conflict between mythology and Torah.  Let us look for example at Homer's account of the Trojan War.  The war begins with the capture of Helen, wife of Menelaos the king of Sparta, by Paris, the son of the Trojan king.  However, the war is actually sparked by the jealousy which exists between the three godesses of Olympus.  Hera, the queen of the heavens, Athene, the queen of wisdom, and Aphrodite, the queen of beauty; their differences arose over the question of which goddess was the most beautiful of all.  This story foreshadows what will become clear later on: that the fact that there are many gods means that there is no single moral standard.  The gods on Olympus who must judge this act are of different opinions.  The god of justice of course is against it.  However, the goddess of love disagrees.  The Jewish prophet demands that one change one's entire life.  The Jewish alternative to the story of Troy is the story of David and Batsheva, in which the prophet stands before the king representing the unequivocal quality of justice.

 

     This is also the meaning which our Sages use when they teach us that the man who worships his evil inclination worships idols.  "Let there be no foreign god within you" means, on the most basic level, that the Jews should not worship any foreign gods.  According to our Sages, however, the interpretation is: let there be no foreign gods within you, and the only foreign god that could possibly be inside you is the evil inclination.

 

     Thus we see that even lofty ideals can be transformed into idolatry.  Communism took the social ideal and made it into idol worship.  It created a church with holy books, accepted readings and interpretations of the sacred texts and outlawed interpretations; it also created an inquisition.  Millions of sacrifices were offered up on the altar of this idolatry.

 

Actual Idol Worship In Our Day

 

     Until now we have discussed allegorical interpretations of idol worship.  However, in the modern world we are witness to the revival of genuine idol worship.

 

     The most outstanding expression of the revival of pagan mythology is found in Nazism.  Wagner chose motifs from early German mythology for his compositions.  In this way, he expressed his opposition to Christian culture, and indirectly to its Jewish origins.  In his music, Wagner returned to German myth, which was a world of gods of war, and thus he heralded the revival of German mythology in Nazi philosophy.

 

     Another, no less important example, is connected to the phenomenon of witchcraft and Satan worship, which often go hand in hand.  In my opinion, these customs explain the strong  opposition in the Torah and the Sages to the phenomena of witchcraft.  There are various customs that are forbidden because they are groundless superstitions.  However, other things are forbidden because they are dangerous, to individuals and to society in general.  We know of the existence of groups all over the world, which continue to worship Satan through cruelty and torture.  Every so often we even hear that human sacrifices are still offered to Satan, even in our modern world.

 

(This lecture was translated by Gila Weinberg.)