We have a very hard time today, trying to understand the concept of Avoda Zara, idol worship. It seems like a very foreign thing. People bowing down to a statue? Chazal tell us that people used to have the desire to worship idols like we have for the opposite sex. Does that mean that if someone from an earlier generation would see the Statue of Liberty, he would feel an intense drive to bow down to it? It doesn’t make sense to us, how could that be?
Furthermore, idolatry must be a big deal, because everyone agrees G-d HIMSELF related this prohibition to the entire Jewish people on Sinai, in the first two commandments. It’s also one of the three things that a Jew must give his life for, rather than violate. So apparently, it’s pretty important not to do it.
I think we can understand the whole concept a bit better, based on one Pasuk in this weeks Parsha.:
(Devarim 4:23) “Guard Yourself, lest you forget the covenant Hashem, your G-d made with you, [by] make[ing] for you a statue image that is forbidden by Hashem, your G-d.”
The Pasuk implies that the way one breaks the covenant is by making an idol.
So we have to understand exactly what this covenant is. Then we can understand why idol worship breaks it, and then we will hopefully be able to understand idol worship a bit better. Here we go.
There has always been a question as to what exactly we commemorate on the holiday of Shavuos. If one looks in the Torah, he will see that on the 6th of Sivan (The day we celebrate Shavuos), we heard G-d’s voice on Sinai. We didn’t get the Luchos (tablets) then, that was forty days later when Moshe broke the first ones because of the Golden Calf. We didn’t get the Torah, we didn’t get anything! All that happened was we heard G-d say two of the Ten Commandments. So what is it that we got on Shavuos? What was the point of Sinai?
Moshe says explicitly what the purpose of Sinai was: (Shmos 20:17) “Moshe said... [Sinai was] to test you, and in order that there will be fear on your faces, so you won’t sin.” The Gemara comments (Nedarim 20a), what is fear that is “on the face?” - This is embarrassment, teaching us that embarrassment prevents one from sinning.
Keeping this strange comment in mind (How does embarrassment prevent one from sinning?!), lets try and understand what the Bris is. The Torah refers to what occurred at Sinai as a covenant (Bris). The two tablets are called the Luchos HaBris, “tablets of the covenant,” so they are tablets which contain, or somehow represent what the covenant is. And in our Parsha the whole beginning is discussing what happened on Sinai when it gets to our Pasuk, so the word Bris is obviously referring to what happened on Sinai.
Rav Blachman explained that a covenant is when two people bond, and no longer have any identity outside of the other. When a man and woman get married, they become one personality, one being. Mystically, they are two halves becoming a complete whole. People say that “opposites attract.” Actually, it’s two people finding the expressions that they lack, in another person. For example, a very outgoing person will often marry a person who is very subdued. Not just because he is attracted to the opposite of himself, but because to be complete he must also be able to express himself as subdued. So a man and wife are only a complete personality when they are working together, providing the other with the expression he or she lacks. So too at Sinai, the Jews married G-d, under the Chupah which was a mountain over their heads (See Shabbos 88a - Har KeKigis, which mystically refers to a wedding canopy). G-d found the expression he “lacked;” the ability to express his wisdom in the world (through the Jews learning his Torah, which is his wisdom), and the Jews found a way to express themselves eternally (Doing Mitzvos gives us life forever in the next world). So the Jews and G-d became one. The Jews have no identity outside of that covenant. Our completion is dependent on working together with G-d. The covenant was Sinai, which was a marriage between the Jews and G-d. The Jew’s identity, his ego, became this covenant to express G-d’s wisdom, his Torah in the world.
So when the Gemarah says that what we got at Sinai was “fear on our faces,” which means embarrassment - It means that we got a new identity, and because of Sinai (being face to face with G-d, he SPOKE to the entire nation!) we realized their is nothing more important than this new identity. The Jews job, his identity, his ego became bringing G-dliness, spirituality, whatever you want to call it, into the world. Embarrassment is the smashing of one’s ego, losing ones identity. When someone is embarrassed, it’s because he had an image of himself, and that image is now shattered. When a person thinks he is smart and the teacher calls him stupid in front of the class, he gets embarrassed, because his ego has been burst. His identity has been shattered. At Sinai, G-d himself gave the Jews a new identity. The fear they got, was the fear of losing this identity, that’s what embarrassment is. If a Jew does something that doesn’t bring G-d into the world, if it doesn’t reveal his wisdom in the world, he should be embarrassed, because that is ALL he has to do! That is his identity, that is his ego, that is who he is.
Now we understand the first half of the Pasuk in this weeks Parsha (Dev. 4:23 - in case you forgot), not to forget the covenant. The covenant is our identity. The Pasuk means, don’t forget who you are, don’t forget your job, your identity. Don’t forget you are to reveal G-d in the world. But he second half still requires clarification. How does making an idol break this covenant?
On the surface, it should seem very obvious, how can we reveal G-d in the world if we are worshipping an idol? But the Rambam explains idol worship a little differently. At the very beginning of his laws regarding idol worship (Hilchos Avodas Kochavim 1:1), the Rambam explains why idolatry really isn’t so weird. He says that idol worship began very understandably. The people alive in the generation of Enosh, made the following error. They said, “Hey, G-d created the stars, right? And nature, right? And he runs the world through them, right? So we should give them great honor as messengers of G-d. They thought that G-d would want this. A King wants the people to honor his messengers, because that shows how much they honor the King. So they began to sacrifice to the stars and nature, and it went from there. So aren’t they revealing G-d in the world? They are honoring G-d’s messengers, the King’s messengers!
The Rambam doesn’t say why people back then felt the need to give honor to the messengers? What did they feel was lacking that they needed to swirve from worshipping G-d directly? Rav Blachman explained that there are two ways to relate to the fact that G-d is Malei Olam, he fills the world (or to the fact that Ein Od Milvado, there is nothing besides him): You can say, “Wow, this is my connection to infinity!” Or, you can say, “I know G-d fills the world... there’s no room for ME!”
When someone really understands what G-d is, he understands that everything is G-d, there is nothing else, and that makes man feel very small and insignificant. This is what the world was like at the time of Enosh, the beginning of history. G-d wasn’t in a book, like today, just a few generations before, he had created man! It was like part of the family tree! They knew G-d existed like we know our father exists! And they felt small. So instead of relating directly to G-d, they related to G-d through one of his messengers. They said, “G-d, it’s too overwhelming to think about you, to relate directly to you. I need room for me.” So they related to G-d through the sun, who didn’t push them around, he just gave them light.
Of course this led to lower forms of idol worship, when people saw that they couldn’t control the sun, so they worshipped something they could control, like a sheep. After all, it is one of G-d’s creations, it is his will (related to us in the form of a sheep). Idolatry began because people didn’t have a sense of self, because their sense of G-d filling the world was so great. Their ego was too small, they felt insignificant, they had no identity outside of G-d. So they increased their ego, their identity, so that they would have a sense of ego, of identity outside of G-d. That is what idolatry is. It’s not worshipping a graven image, a piece of gold! It’s relating to G-d in a way that is more comfortable for you. It’s worshipping your ego. It’s saying, “G-d wants me to relate directly to him? That’s nice, but It’s too uncomfortable for me, so I’ll do it in a way I like better.” Idolatry is worshipping yourself. That’s how it started.
Now let’s try to understand our Pasuk: “Guard Yourself, lest you forget the covenant Hashem, your G-d made with you, [by] make[ing] for you a statue image that is forbidden by Hashem, your G-d.” The covenant, as we said earlier is to make our identity nothing other than our job, which is to reveal G-d in the world. How does idolatry break the covenant? Because if we were to worship an idol, even if we were doing it to relate to G-d, we wouldn’t be doing our job. When are we revealing G-d in the world? When we make it our identity, when our ego is revealing G-d. But if you are busy revealing yourself, G-d isn’t being revealed. Idol worship is expressing your identity, your ego, making room for “ME”. The covenant is to express G-d in the world. Both cannot be done simultaneously. The covenant is that we have to have NO sense of self outside of G-d! We aren’t to do anything other than what G-d’s wisdom dictates. If we did something other than that, we wouldn’t be doing our job. And that is breaking the covenant. G-d’s wisdom is only expressed when the Jewish people express it, when they live according to Halacha, according to the Torah. If a Jew is busy expressing himself, G-d isn’t being expressed.
This is why we have so many statements about humility in Chazal. Humility isn’t low self esteem, or saying you aren’t talented at something, when you really are. Humility is realizing that whatever talents you have, are because G-d wants you to have them. When you think of a new idea, where do you think the idea came from? You? We have such big ego’s we think that tanks win wars. Things happen because G-d wants them to, not because you are such a good business man! Why can’t vinegar be used as oil to light candles? Because the chemical compounds in vinegar are not flammable, because.... Why does it have to be that way? Why does nature obey the laws it does? Because that’s the way G-d made it. Us thinking that the harder we work, the more money we’ll make isn’t true. What about all those people working so hard and make no money? What about those lucky people who win the lottery? Our job as Jews is to be humble, to realize that everything comes from Hashem. A Jew doesn’t have a lot of money because he worked hard and deserves it. A Jew has a lot of money because G-d wants to be revealed in the world through it.
We see this most clearly at Sinai. God spoke two commands to them and they died both times. The Midrash says that when G-d spoke, the Jews all died. Their souls left their body. They had to be rejuvenated twice. Then they said to Moshe, ”Listen, why don’t you tell us the rest, we can’t handle this.” What were the two commands? The first two of the Ten Commandments: 1) To recognize Hashem as G-d, and 2) Not to worship idols. It should be very clear why their souls left their bodies; because the second command (the first one too) was not to have a sense of existence outside of G-d. So they died. Life its self is a sense of existence outside of G-d, so they forfeited it. But we can’t do our job of expressing G-d in the world if we’re dead, so we live.
The Gemarah (Sotah5a) says that any man who is arrogant, G-d says, “He and I can’t live in the same world.” The explanation of the Gemarah should be obvious. Why can’t God and an egotistical man live in the same world? Because if man is busy expressing his ego, he can’t express G-d in the world.
A Jew’s job is to reveal G-d in the world. When he is arrogant, and thinks that something occurs because of man’s doing, he quits that job, and pushes G-d out of the world. That job is the covenant, it is our identity both as an individual and as a people. And that is why idolatry breaks the covenant, because it is an abandonment of the job. When someone loses his job, and that job is his identity, he should be embarrassed, just as a beggar who was once wealthy is. Our generation isn’t embarrassed, because our generation doesn’t understand that it’s identity is bringing spirituality into the world. Our generation is a bunch of beggars who aren’t embarrassed to ask for food, because we don’t understand what it means to be wealthy. We should all merit a taste of wealth, a taste of our true identity, and hang on to it. For it is the Jew’s job, it is his identity, to reveal Hashem in everything we do, everything we see, everything we think. Through that we will merit the coming of Mashiach soon in our days.
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