Rabbi Freedman’s Shabbat Message

The word ‘idolatry’ stems from Classical Greek and refers specifically to the worship of an image, a form or an apparition. In Judaism, although the Torah legislates against the worship of objects – be they statues, figurines or physical bodies such as the sun or the moon – the name given to this form of worship is more general than the word idolatry – it is called עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה Avodah Zarah – literally – Strange or Foreign Worship, a term which could refer to the type of figure being worshipped, or possibly to the individual or group of people practising this form of religion.

Either way — עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה stands at the very centre of Judaism’s moral and theological struggle. The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) presents a double prohibition; banning both the manufacture, as well as the worship of idols:

לֹא־תַֽעֲשֶׂ֨ה לְךָ֥ פֶ֨סֶל֙ וְכָל־תְּמוּנָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֤ר בַּשָּׁמַ֨יִם֙ מִמַּ֔עַל וַֽאֲשֶׁ֥ר בָּאָ֖רֶץ מִתָּ֑חַת וַֽאֲשֶׁ֥ר בַּמַּ֖יִם מִתַּ֥חַת לָאָֽרֶץ:
You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

לֹֽא־תִשְׁתַּֽחֲוֶ֥ה לָהֶ֖ם וְלֹ֣א תָֽעָבְדֵ֑ם
You shall not bow down to them or serve them

Throughout all of Jewish tradition idol worship is treated not merely as an error but as one of the gravest of human sins. Never more so than in this week’s sidra, which describes how the Israelites, frustrated at Moses’ prolonged absence from the camp, persuaded Aaron, the High Priest, to fashion a calf made from molten gold. The accusation that God levelled at the Israelites was damning:

סָ֣רוּ מַהֵ֗ר מִן־הַדֶּ֨רֶךְ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר צִוִּיתִ֔ם עָשׂ֣וּ לָהֶ֔ם עֵ֖גֶל מַסֵּכָ֑ה וַיִּשְׁתַּֽחֲווּ־לוֹ֙ וַיִּזְבְּחוּ־ל֔וֹ
They have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it.
(Exodus 32:8)

Although this idol is referred to in later rabbinic literature as the עֵגֶל הַזָּהָב Egel Hazahav (The Golden Calf), this description is never used in Tanakh. However, a similar phrase is found in II Kings 10:29, where the Bible makes reference to the two golden calves that had been placed in Dan and Bethel by the idolatrous King Jereboam 1st following the division of the kingdom on the death of King Solomon.

The words used there are – הַזָּהָב עֶגְלֵי Eglay Hazahav – The Golden Calves. Scholars such as Richard Elliott Friedman suggest that the sages took these words and applied them retrospectively to the story in Exodus – albeit using the singular form – עֵגֶל הַזָּהָב Egel Hazahav – The Golden Calf.

In a way we should not be overly surprised at the turn of events recorded in Parashat Ki Tissa. Bull worship was common in many cultures in the ancient Middle East. In Egypt, for example, the Israelites would have seen the worship of the bull-god known as Apis. Even though the Israelites had witnessed many miracles in the preceding weeks and months, and had been commanded to abandon all forms of idolatry – it would have been virtually impossible for them to purge all memory of these practices from their psyche – and as shocking as it appears nowadays, it could almost be described as a normal reaction by the Children of Israel to revert to idolatry in a moment of crisis.

Nonetheless, the text of the Torah together, with all future rabbinical commentaries, sought to establish a precedent here with respect to all future cases of idolatry. As a consequence, virtually all Judaic texts felt it necessary to express shock and outrage at the Israelite response to Moses’ forty day absence from the camp. In the event, the Talmud lists idolatry alongside murder and sexual immorality as unique transgressions, for which one must accept martyrdom rather than violate them.

כׇּל עֲבֵירוֹת שֶׁבַּתּוֹרָה אִם אוֹמְרִין לָאָדָם ״עֲבוֹר וְאַל תֵּהָרֵג״– יַעֲבוֹר וְאַל יֵהָרֵג, חוּץ מֵעֲבוֹדָה זָרָה וְגִילּוּי עֲרָיוֹת וּשְׁפִיכוּת דָּמִים
With regard to all other transgressions in the Torah, if a person is told: Transgress this prohibition and you will not be killed, he may transgress that prohibition and not be killed, because the preserving of his own life overrides all of the Torah’s prohibitions. This is the halakha concerning all prohibitions except for those of idol worship, forbidden sexual relations, and bloodshed. Concerning those prohibitions, one must allow himself to be killed rather than transgress them. (TB Sanhedrin 74a)

This being so, it is entirely reasonable to ask why Judaism considered idolatry so destructive? The answer lies in how the Biblical text and later the sages understood idolatry. Certainly it was not just viewed as a futile act of bowing down before wood or stone, or the blasphemous worship of celestial bodies that primitive man considered to be deities; it was much more than that – Judaism argued that idolatry was a fundamental rejection of truth, morality, covenant, and human dignity, but above all it was seen as a betrayal, a form of spiritual adultery.

Sacks wrote on marriage in his work, The Politics of Hope: “Betrayed once as partners, we are reluctant to give ourselves wholly and unconditionally to another person; we keep our distance, lower our expectations and when that happens something of our world has been lost.” The sages feared that if Israel turned to other gods, sought solace outside of their covenantal arrangement, then their relationship with God, with their Eternal Partner, would be permanently affected, seriously flawed, perhaps God forbid, irreparably damaged.

When adultery takes place, the entire structure of marriage is weakened. Hosea, the eighth century prophet from northern Israel, built his entire book around this concept and at one point describes how God, on entering the marriage, made a number of promises to Israel, His bride:

וְאֵֽרַשְׂתִּ֥יךְ לִ֖י לְעוֹלָ֑ם וְאֵֽרַשְׂתִּ֥יךְ לִי֙ בְּצֶ֣דֶק וּבְמִשְׁפָּ֔ט וּבְחֶ֖סֶד וּבְרַֽחֲמִֽים: וְאֵֽרַשְׂתִּ֥יךְ לִ֖י בֶּאֱמוּנָ֑ה וְיָדַ֖עַתְּ אֶת־ה’:

And I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in love and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness: and you shalt love the Lord. (Hosea 2: 21-22)

It is no coincidence that these words are recited as we bind the tefillin to our body – just as their intent is to bind God to Israel and Israel to God – for all time. The sages never wanted us to forget these words, nor the corrosive nature of idolatry and the damage that it can inflict and the worst example that they could find was the story of the Golden Calf. Little wonder, therefore that the sages remark in Sifrei Devarim 54:4 that idolatry is equivalent to denying the entire Torah.

Judah Halevi, the author of The Kuzari, introduces a new perspective that is useful in understanding modern forms of idolatry. He explains that human beings crave tangible expressions of spirituality. The error of idolatry lies not in the use of symbols per se but in mistaking those symbols for the Divine – for ultimate reality. Modern Western society, for example, being largely secular, is replete with new idols – nation, race, wealth, celebrity and technology. One of the most visible modern idols is the idol of the self. Since the Enlightenment, Western thought has increasingly centred the autonomous individual as the primary source of meaning and authority. Philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche proclaimed the “death of God,” leaving humanity to create its own values. In popular culture, this has morphed into expressive individualism: the belief that authenticity consists in the unrestrained expression of inner desire. While personal dignity and freedom are invaluable achievements, if treated as if they were the absolute, supreme God, they have the potential to become destructive, for when the self is enthroned, the significance of community dissolves proportionately. Duties to family, nation, and tradition are dismissed and the result is fragmentation—loneliness epidemics, declining civic engagement, and a crisis of meaning. Creating an idol of oneself promises liberation but often delivers isolation.

Closely related is the idolatry of the market. Capitalism has generated unprecedented prosperity, yet when economic growth becomes an ultimate value, an absolute value, rather than a means to human flourishing, it demands sacrifice. The financial crisis of 2008 illustrated how markets can wreak devastation. Consumerism encourages individuals to define identity through acquisition; advertising cultivates perpetual dissatisfaction, ensuring that desire is never stilled; environmental degradation, exploitative labour practices, and unsustainable debt are the offerings laid on the altar of growth. When profit becomes sacred, human beings become instrumental.

Another powerful modern idol is the nation-state when held to be Godlike. Patriotism can be noble, binding diverse peoples into a shared destiny. But nationalism, when deified, becomes a form of collective idolatry. Twentieth-century totalitarian regimes illustrate the catastrophic potential of this impulse. In Germany under National Socialism, the state was elevated to a quasi-divine status demanding unquestioning obedience. The consequences – genocide, world war, moral collapse – remain seared into Western memory.

Race and ideology function similarly. The 20th century witnessed political religions, such as communism and fascism. These movements demanded total allegiance. In the Soviet Union under Stalin, Marxist ideology assumed sacred status, justifying purges and mass repression in pursuit of utopia.

Examine for a moment the way in which radical, anti-Zionism has mobilised itself in the wake of October 7 for the sole purpose of spreading lies, misinformation and hatred on the streets of our leading cities, on the campus grounds of our leading universities and through the dissemination of anti-Israel material throughout social media.

All of this can be categorised as a form of ideological idolatry which simplifies complex reality into binary categories of good and evil. It transforms political opponents, such as the Jews in this case, into heretics. Partisan affiliation to the cause becomes an identity so total that dialogue becomes impossible. Truth, for example, is never allowed to get in the way of their propaganda machinery that releases the latest news (more accurately, fake-news) on the hour, every hour of the day and night; nor is it allowed to silence the pretentious outrage of their political gurus whose position in the organisation is comparable to devout priests in the Church.

It is in this context that the entire movement is able to offer salvation and redemption – terms generally reserved for religious orders – but just as with fundamentalism in religion, compromise becomes a sin, aggression is lauded and opponents are criminalised, just as they were during the Inquisition.

It is now even more obvious why Judaism wished to outlaw all forms of idolatry.

It is possible that our sages of old could see long into the future and they knew what was coming if idolatry could not be stamped out. It is no surprise therefore that Rabbi Jonathan Sacks frequently described idolatry as ‘the sanctification of power’. In his writings, he argued that monotheism introduced the revolutionary idea that no ruler is divine and no institution absolute. Idolatry, ancient or modern, occurs whenever something finite is treated as infinite.

Judaism therefore regards idolatry as uniquely evil for several interconnected reasons. First, it is falsehood at the deepest level: a misapprehension of reality. If God is the ultimate unity, then attributing divinity to fragments distorts truth. Second, it undermines morality: when multiple gods represent competing forces, ethics becomes relative to power. The biblical insistence on one God grounds universal justice. Third, idolatry enslaves. The Exodus narrative contrasts divine service with Pharaoh’s tyranny. Worship of God is liberation; worship of idols is bondage to human constructs.

Moreover, idolatry diminishes human dignity. Bereishit teaches that humans are created in the image of God. If God is reduced to material form, then humanity’s spiritual stature shrinks accordingly. Maimonides emphasised that pure monotheism elevates the intellect and refines character. Idolatry, by contrast, anchors consciousness in the material.

Finally, idolatry threatens covenantal identity. The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4) proclaims, “The Lord is One.” This declaration is both theological and political. It affirms exclusive loyalty. Throughout history, Jews accepted martyrdom rather than publicly renounce this principle. The reason is not fanaticism but recognition that surrendering divine unity dissolves the covenantal framework that sustains Jewish existence.

Judaism’s uncompromising opposition to idolatry reflects more than ancient polemic against pagan cults. It expresses a profound vision of reality: that there is one transcendent, incorporeal, moral God and that all finite powers are subordinate to Him. Idolatry – whether in the form of statues, celestial bodies, rulers, ideologies, or material forces—represents the absolutisation of the partial. It fractures truth, corrodes morality, enslaves the spirit and endangers society. For biblical prophets, Talmudic sages, medieval philosophers, and modern rabbis alike, idolatry was not merely theological error; it was the root from which injustice and dehumanisation grow. To reject idolatry is therefore to affirm unity, morality and human dignity under the sovereignty of the One God.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi David Freedman