Liability for Bowing to a Foreign God Even Outside Its Worship

Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 34:3

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

"For you shall not bow down to another god" (Exodus 34:14). This is to render one liable for the act of bowing down, even when it is not the customary manner of that idol's worship.

Themes

IdolatryDivine JusticeCommandments

Continue Reading

Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiWhat Counts as Worship and How Sin Is Carried Across GenerationsWhat exactly turns an act into worship? The Mekhilta presses the question hard. Bowing was already forbidden, yet the Torah singles it out so we can learn from Sifrei DevarimDestroying Idolatrous Trees That Keep Growing BackSifrei Devarim turns to Destroying Idolatrous Trees That Keep Growing Back. The rabbis, masters of extracting layers of meaning, saw something more. What if youYalkut Shimoni on TorahThe Warning Against Idol Worship Hidden in Plain SightThe Torah threatens death for anyone who sacrifices to other gods, but the rabbis notice something missing. A punishment without a prior warning is unjust. WherBook of JubileesHow Humanity Descended Into Slavery and IdolatryChapter 11 of Jubilees isn't exactly a feel-good story. It describes a rapid descent into moral chaos. The people, newly populating the earth, "began to captureLegends of the JewsLegend of PhinehasThe Talmudic sages certainly did, wrestling with these questions in their interpretations of scripture. Take the story of Phinehas and the eleven tribes, for inBaal HaSulam's Introduction to ZoharBaal HaSulam Rejects the Idea God Abandoned UsEver felt like the universe is just... ignoring you? Like you're shouting into the void, and all you get back is silence? Some people take that feeling and run