The Wrong Relationship to God
Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim & Howard Salamon
Most Torah laws (mitzvos) address the very act; there are no additional laws “guarding” from a prohibition, or encouraging perfecting actions. For example, Torah prohibits eating non-Kosher animals, but it does not prohibit having such species as pets, or wearing their furs to distance one from eating them. Torah commands us to write a Torah, Tefillin and Mezuza, but it does not command us to become leather workers or scribes. Torah prohibits using unjust weights but does not prohibit becoming a produce salesman who uses such weights. Yet, regarding star worship (idolatry) the 613 commands includes additional prohibitions of “not following our eyes and our hearts” and “not turning to idols” that lead to idolatry. What demands these additional prohibitions regarding idolatry, not found elsewhere?
Maimonides lists “thoughts of the heart” and “seeing of the eyes” as 2 separate commands based on this verse (Laws of Star Worship 2:1):
And forbid that you look up to the sky and behold the sun and the moon and the stars, the whole heavenly host, and you go astray bowing down to them or serving them, to these which your God your God allotted to all peoples under heaven. (Deut. 4:19)
Meaning, don’t gaze idolatrously at the heavens and don’t make assumptions in your heart that stars, luminaries or planets possess powers. Maimonides feels this verse might be vague to some, and therefore he explains the verse’s warning:
[This verse] means to say, perhaps you will [wrongly] wander in your “heart’s eye” [you will fantasize] viewing the stars as guiding the world, that God allotted them to the whole world to be living, existing and indestructible, and thereby fitting for man to bow and serve them. (Ibid.)
Maimonides interprets the verse’s words “which God allotted to all peoples” not as describing God’s perfect actions, but depicting man’s misinterpretation conjured from his “wandering heart.” In other words, the following refers to man’s misinterpretation: “The stars guide the world, and God allotted them to the whole world to be living, existing and indestructible, and thereby fitting for man to bow and serve them.” These words are man’s error, and God vocalizes man’s error in this verse to alert us to the error. Similarly, King Solomon highlighted man’s error many times in Koheles:
As the fool, dies, I too will die, so why did I bother becoming wise? (Ibid. 2:15)
Just as a man dies the animal dies (Ibid. 3:19).
Who knows whether man ’s soul goes up or the animal’s soul goes down? (Ibid. 3:21)
These are not King Solomon’s opinions. He’s vocalizing man’s error (Ibn Ezra).
Maimonides continues:
For this reason, [Deut. 11:16] commands, “Be very careful that your heart not be tempted [to go astray and worship other gods].” This implies that the thoughts of your heart should not lead you astray to worship them and make them an intermediary between you and the Creator (Laws of Star Worship 2:1).
Maimonides says this, as human nature degenerates by following his eyes and heart. Maimonides says Abraham knew that man’s attachment and worship of the stars caused man to forget God. Meaning, man grows attached to idolatry over time. We now appreciate that Torah includes fences of not stargazing, following our emotions or exploring idolatry that can lead to idolatry.
Why did star worship require stages of human degeneration?
Idolatry is not an immediate sin; man’s reality principle can’t instantaneously deviate in extremes making large jumps, from first recognizing God, to suddenly saying God doesn’t exist and a star runs the universe. Rabbi Israel Chait taught that man works with some reality, as Jeremiah says:
Who would not revere You, O Sovereign of the nations? For that is Your due, since among all the wise of the nations and among all their royalty there is none like You. But in one matter they are dull and foolish; their doctrine is but delusion, it is a piece of wood. (Jer. 10:7,8)
Rabbi Chait taught that man cannot work without “cause and effect”; even idolaters admit that the universe has a cause. But their one error was thinking God wants man to worship His “servants,” the heavenly bodies, which they eventually formed in wood.
Man corrupts his thinking in steps, where each new error can only be made based on a previous error. Then slowly, over time, man’s deviation grows and reaches extreme corruption. Similarly, man didn’t say the first computer had free will. First, computers merely computed math. As advances were made, the computer animated images and then could talk. Now, people use computers’ speech and AI as grounds to debate if the PC can become self-aware. Sudden jumps weren’t justified. Therefore, regarding idolatry which works similarly, Torah seeks to restrain man at every interval of deterioration towards idolatry: “Don’t gaze at stars, don’t wander in your heart, don’t look at idols, and finally, don’t serve the stars.” But other areas of human nature like sexuality and eating are not progressive, but are sudden urges, because we possess those raw drives for those very acts. Thought is absent in raw instincts. But idolatry by definition requires mental acceptance, and to accept something, takes time.
Maimonides cites the steps of deterioration towards idolatry precisely to express idolatry’s unique character of slow degeneration: 1) man first honored the stars as they were viewed as God’s ministers, 2) progressing to lies that God told man to worship the stars which will yield success, and finally 3) to the abandonment of God and serving the stars alone as man claimed the stars commanded them. Unlike sexual or appetitive offenses which are sudden urges, idolatry also includes an element of mind—a belief—and deviation in thought is not like an urge which is sudden. Corrupted thought takes time.
Torah warns not only against accepting and worshipping false gods, but against following the drive to look at false gods and to wander in one’s heart, considering any value to them. “Lifting one’s eyes to heaven” conveys man’s search for the tangible, as following the intangible true God fails to satisfy primary infantile instincts, namely, tangible parental security. In idolatry, mans seeks to replace the parent. The additional mitzvos of not looking, not wandering and not turning to idols intend to counter the deteriorative stages into which one descends before committing idol worship.
Maimonides refers to the “essence” of the prohibition. We don’t see him saying there’s an “essence” of the mitzvah of Lulav, Tefillin, or Mezuzah. This is because idolatry is committed after man degenerates through other matters, namely gazing at the stars sinfully, and then drawing false conclusions in his heart. Torah warns against this again in Deuteronomy 11:16, “Lest your heart turn aside, and you veer away and worship other gods.”
Idolatry’s Primary Sin
In his Laws of Star Worship 1:1, Maimonides repeats 3 times that man erred in his assumption that God “desires” man honors the stars. Maimonides says the “essence” of idolatry is equating God to a human ruler who wishes his subjects to honor his ministers. He quotes Jeremiah 10:7 who says all people recognize God, but that they erred in assuming we are to use intermediaries to gain God’s favor. The error was projecting onto God human institutions of authority.
The essential “command” is not worshipping creations (Laws of Star Worship 2:1). But the “essence of idolatry”, the primary sin of idolatry, is relating to God “psychologically,” just as you relate to a human king. In this relationship, one relates to God emotionally, to satisfy his needs: “The stars will do good or bad to mankind” (Laws of Star Worship 1:2). Maimonides repeats 3 times that man’s mistake is about God’s “will.” His message is that man wrongly thought God’s will is like a king desirous of praise, distorting man’s relationship with God by throwing it into the world of psychological needs. In such a relationship, man is not searching to discover God as Abraham did, as the source of creation, the source of all wisdom. Idolatrous man lives psychologically like a child, seeking to satisfy his insecurities. He believes by honoring the stars, and then worshiping them, he will attain his needs. He does not search for God’s wisdom.
But the true relationship to God was validated through Abraham: a search for wisdom and a love for it, not a search for physical security, not a search for the “self.” Abraham was validated as correct, as God endorsed his ways and helped him learn more and teach the world:
God said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land, from your birthplace and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing” (Gen. 12:1,2).
God endorsed Abraham’s life of exploring God and teaching mankind. Rabbi Israel Chait said “Serving God is service of the self.” How so? Torah is for man’s good and his greatest happiness. Through Torah study and practice, one comes to appreciate Torah brilliance, drawing closer to the true Source of reality. After much study, one loses sight of himself and is no longer focused on the self, but in exploring Torah’s vast sea of amazing concepts and learning more about the Creator. Knowing Torah truths, one will not deviate from Torah with idolatry and other sins in emotional quests for personal security, as the self is no longer of significance in the face of God’s brilliance.
The real, true relationship to God, the way God desires we live, the way we are most fulfilled…is to follow our minds in exploring God’s great gift of Torah and marvel at His righteous statutes (Psalms: 119:7,62,106,164).