Idolatry

Mezuzot, Bronze Serpents and other Idols

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Can kissing an object be an act of idolatry?

In 2006 I opened a massage shop in Central California where I gave massage therapy and sold herbs for people with health problems. At the time I attended a Conservative Jewish Synagogue that was community led. The woman whose husband had purchased the synagogue was a marriage and family psychologist, leader in the synagogue and sold Jewish items in the lobby of her clinic. She encouraged me to purchase a mezuzah for the front door of my new office so that my business would prosper. At the time I thought only of the commandment to write the Torah on our doorposts and thought it was a good idea. I bought the little case and the kosher scroll that went inside it, spent around $100 for the set and followed her advice to invite the Jewish community to come and install the mezuzah one evening. I provided Kosher wine and cookies and happily entertained 9 or 10 Jewish guests who did the honors of saying the appropriate blessings and nailing the mezuzah to the door post in the correct manner. As everyone made there way out of the office all stopped to kiss the new mezuzah and wish me Mazal Tov. This item had now become part of my office experience and served as a testimony to the neighborhood that there were Jews in the vicinity.

So after this, whenever I noticed a mezuzah on a doorpost, I would stop, touch it and kiss my hand and feel I had done my duty. But was I really doing my duty in honor of the mezuzah rather than doing what the Torah requires? And does the Torah say anything about giving reverence to an object? What is the purpose of the mezuzah anyway? Obviously it is not even necessary to have a physical box with the words of the Shema written inside it if you recognize what the Torah says. (And interestingly, the words are hidden from view in most mezuzot!) The words of the Torah are what must be obeyed and writing them on the doorpost as a reminder is what is commanded, not buying a mezuzah and kissing it everytime a person passes through the door! It is not about a box and it’s contents that is commanded!

Recently I fell and broke my leg by stepping on a loose manhole cover in the parking garage under the apartment in Bat Yam. When I returned from the hospital, a couple of my friends asked me if I had checked the mezuzah in my apartment. I would have been shocked, if I had not run into this suggestion before. Of course it bothered me that one faded letter or tear in the parchment inside the little box could cause a person to have a serious accident! Seems like witchcraft to me!

My neighbor, whom I love dearly, had fallen and twisted her arm that same week, so that she could not work and blamed her mezuzah for the accident. From her viewpoint there was definitely truth to the belief that the mezuzah holds power and that her’s was defective or she would not have fallen. She said the same to me. She bought a new one, very pretty and very expensive and replaced the old one. Why do we give power to an object allowing it to bless or curse us? Are there indeed any “holy” objects in our world that hold power to do this? The Torah warns of giving power to objects, and kissing an object is a form of worship!

Is there anything about a mezuzah that gives success or protection? Look at what the Torah says:

Deut. 11:18-23: “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land YHVH swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love YHVH your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him—then YHVH will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.

Deut. 6:1-9: “These are the commands, decrees and laws YHVH your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear YHVH your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as YHVH, the God of your ancestors, promised you. Hear, O Israel: YHVH our God, YHVH is one. Love YHVH your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

The promises of HaShem’s protection and provision are fulfilled by obedience and not by the purchase of a Mezuzah or Hamsa or Amulet of any kind!

I am not sure how to approach my friend next door about the idolatry involved and I suppose it is far beyond my scope to teach her anything or even get her to think about it, yet for those who have not been indoctrinated in this way, I believe we must re-examine what is idolatry and how it has crept into Judaism and other religions.

When Christians go on pilgrimage to the Vatican or Jerusalem, they bow down and kiss their sacred objects, be it the cross, rosary beads, Saint Peter’s toe or anything related to the graves of the Saints. As Jews, why would we do the same thing? (And yes, Jews do kiss the graves of their sages, which is also a no, no!)

And why are we kissing the Torah scroll? While it is true that it contains the written will of the Most High, Almighty God, the object itself is not to be worshipped. The Torah is to be obeyed, not held up as a physical manifestation of YHVH!

The Torah speaks of idolatry in a very simple manner:

Exodus 20: 4-6: “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. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, YHVH your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Here is one example in the Tanakh where a good thing was later made into an idol by Israel and later destroyed by righteous King Hezekiah:

2 Kings 18:-34: “He did what was right in the eyes of YHVH, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it.”

So rendering lip service, bowing to and kissing objects that were given as reminders of the commandments destroys the purpose of that object and creates an idol!

Yours in the quest for Truth in Torah!

Ariella Tiqvah

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A New World Golden Calf—Shall we Dance?

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A New World Golden Calf—Shall we Dance?

The monetary system of the world begins to tremble as the powers of world government take the reigns and dictate what will and what will not be available to the average hard-working Joe or Jill. Fear clutches at the hearts of even God-fearing souls who see nothing normal about the New Normal. Where is God anyway? People cling to their bank accounts, invest in gold, or play the stock market, thinking of their own security as the world spins out of control. What will be our future? Will there even be a future? People believed “the science” and took the shot. Now they claim everyone needs lab-cultivated meats because methane gas is a problem for the environment. Backyard chickens are now suspect. Baby formula has been destroyed. People are no longer static in the biological gender in which they were born. Children are pariahs to society and no longer welcome to this world. Abortions are blessed and provided for. And no wonder, the world is an unfriendly place for the innocent and the God-fearing.

But what if we step back a moment to view the polarity that is taking place? What if we could see everything from the eyes of the Universe and God? What would we see?

And what do I see? I suddenly see that there is darkness and there is light. But that light is no longer visible to those who have stepped into the empty chaotic void created by the so-called leaders of this New World Order. There is light, but only to those who dwell in the Secret Place of the Most High (Psa. 91). The light is there, but only to the eye of faith and the heart of willing obedience to the eternal principles established by the Creator in His love for mankind—and it is not about making money or temporal prosperity. That most likely will come to an end, and once again the chosen will look to the Great Hand that gave manna in the wilderness as they make their exile out from under the evil regime that demands control of everything and everybody. And it will be a test of the wilderness and of complete trust in the great YHVH who continues to send the rainbow to assure those of us that believe in Him that he still runs the Universe. But how many will face the complete failure of this world’s provision for their needs without selling out to those who dictate their captivity? If we could only see that the world in all it’s splendor awaits the great Day of Judgment. Better to lack for the moment than bow to the Golden Calf, which is what this is all about.

I mean, what was the Golden Calf all about anyway? Was it really about a desire to worship an idol? It was for sure about idolatry! But think about the following and see if there might be some idolatry involved in the way we sustain ourselves today?

The sons of Jacob went to Egypt and stayed there and increased in number until they were promised success in exchange for employment—A decent lifestyle in exchange for hard labor. It became more and more exacting until they had every aspect of their lives under the hand of the Egyptian whip. It turned into what we call slavery little by little just as you can boil a frog little by little and he will not jump out of the pan. Soon they got to the point where they ask themselves how they would eat if they did not obey their taskmasters? But, they cried out to God and God heard (Exo 2:23) and sent Moses to deliver them. But their way of thinking was changed by their dedication to work in exchange for sustenance. It was all about work. And later, after having the tremendous deliverance at the Red Sea, when Moses went up into the mountain of God to bring down the 10 commandments in tablet form and stayed a bit longer than they anticipated, they built a golden calf (which showed their dependence on the false god of money and slave labor) by which they could save themselves by their own provision just as they were accustomed to doing. They had been slaves too long and when their physical leader upon whom they depended, disappeared, they turned back to the lifestyle that they knew. Was it just about idolatry? Well, yes! But what is the full picture of idolatry? Bowing down to gold to save our lives? Provision for ourselves apart from trusting the Hand of the Eternal? And how many more times did Israel ask to return to Egypt that they not “die in the wilderness?” It is true that Israel was tested as are we even now:

“And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord does man live.” (Deut 8:3, Koren Jerusalem Bible)

So what of us today? If suddenly the expressed goal of the so called “Elite,” that people will “own nothing and be happy” scares us all to the place where we will knuckle under and take the whip on our backs—repeated shots, the countless nonsensical rules of Climate Change, the transgender agenda where people must refuse to recognize a man as a man and a woman as a woman just to save their skin, or go to jail for being “racist”–then where will we be? Where will it all end? If we take even one step down the path of their indoctrination, the second step will be at a greater cost and so on until we stand under the whip of the Egyptian slave masters once again. And this time there will be no way out. It is time to make a choice.

As I said at the beginning, there is darkness and there is light.

“Choose you this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15).

Many of us feel that these things are wrong, yet will we go over to their side just to save our jobs? our skin? Our families? Our lifestyles? To choose to stand in the light is to throw all our trust on the Invisible God of the Universe and His promises, some of which we do not know personally because we are accustomed to the life of providing for ourselves in the way the world has mandated. What if there is no way to provide for ourselves? What if All we have is hope in the Eternal? Will He once again sustain us with manna? Do we have enough Emunah (faith) to step through the door into that unknown Shelter of the Most High and listen for His voice—waiting upon Him for our every need? My friends, it is coming to that. It is not going to be easy, but it will be worth it.

After all the only other option is joining in with those who are dancing around the Golden Calf while the dark rulers of this world control every aspect of their lives. Many have unwittingly drunk the Kool-aid, so to speak. But though a first wrong choice has been made, there is still time to turn around and embrace truth and light and the Shelter that is promised!

It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it!