“Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him: Remove the foreign gods that are in your midst, and purify yourselves, and change your garments” (Genesis 35:2). “Jacob said to his household” – Rabbi Kruspedai said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: We are not expert in the minutiae of idol worship, like Jacob our patriarch, as we learned: One who finds vessels, and upon them, a figure of the sun, a figure of the moon, or a figure of a dragon, he casts them into the Dead Sea.17Mishna Avoda Zara 3:3.
The mishna prohibits only items adorned with specific pictures, whereas Jacob insisted that the members of his household change their garments, meaning dispose of any garments with any pictures whatsoever, fearing that they were also made for the sake of idolatry. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: All garments are included in the category of idols.18Rabbi Yoḥanan derives from the actions of Jacob that garments with any images are prohibited due to idolatry, contrary to the statement of the mishna.
“They gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their possession, and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob interred them beneath the terebinth that is near Shekhem” (Genesis 35:4). “They gave to Jacob” – Rabbi Yishmael ben Rabbi Yosei ascended to pray in Jerusalem. He passed Mount Gerizim and saw a Samaritan there. [The Samaritan] said to him: ‘Where are you going?’ He said to him: ‘I am ascending to pray in Jerusalem.’
He said to him: ‘Is it not preferable for you to pray on this blessed mountain,19See Deuteronomy 11:29. and not on those ruins?’20Is it not better to pray on Mount Gerizim, which was considered sacred to the Samaritans, rather than in Jerusalem? He said to him: ‘I will tell you to what you are comparable – to a dog that is eager for a carcass. So, because you know that idols are interred under [the mountain], as it is written: “Jacob interred,” that is why you are eager for it.’
They said [to each other]: ‘This one seeks to take them.’21The Samaritans believed that Rabbi Yishmael ben Rabbi Yosei wanted to steal the idols that were interred underneath the mountain.. They reached a consensus to kill him, and he arose and fled at night.