God is not “in” the World
Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim & Dani Roth
Dani Roth: Moses’ critique of idolatry is that wood and stone idols are man made, they “cannot see, hear, eat or smell”:
When you have begotten children and children’s children and are long established in the land, should you act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness, causing your God displeasure and vexation, I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you that you shall soon perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess; you shall not long endure in it, but you shall be utterly wiped out. God will scatter you among the peoples, and only a scant few of you shall be left among the nations to which God will drive you. There you will serve gods of wood and stone, made by human hands, that cannot see or hear or eat or smell. (Deut. 4:25-28)
But even if the idols could “see, hear, eat or smell”, that would not make them gods. Furthermore, God Himself doesn’t do these actions. So what is Moses’ critique?
Rabbi: Moses critiques the Jews’ belief in idols on 3 counts:
1) Stone and wood are inanimate and can’t move, or help man. 2) Idols are man made, meaning, a true God isn’t made by another entity. Furthermore, the idol can’t do more than its maker can do, and the maker (man) himself isn’t worth worship. 3) stone and wood have no senses, so man’s fantasy that his idol recognizes him so as to help, him is false.
Moses is not denying powers of a living deity, as God does in fact recognize man in His own way, although not through human vision or hearing. God knows and controls all since He created everything.
Moses’ critique is that idols don’t even possess the basic properties of a deity. What then motivates one to make the error of idolatry? Earlier in Deut. 4:16-19, Moses says:
Do not to act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness whatever: the form of a man or a woman, the form of any beast on earth, the form of any winged bird that flies in the sky, the form of anything that creeps on the ground, the form of any fish that is in the waters below the earth. And when you look up to the sky and behold the sun and the moon and the stars, the whole heavenly host, you must not be lured into bowing down to them or serving them, which your God allotted to other peoples everywhere under heaven.
Notice the first idols Moses mentioned are man and woman. This reveals the motivation behind idolatry: replacement of parents. A child begins life as a dependent infant who projects great powers onto his parents. As he matures, the intelligent course is to reject the previous belief that parents are super-human. The intelligent teen now accepts that all people are identical, with powers limited to muscles alone. He should then replace his authority figure with God. But many adults remain too attached to that which is tangible; they cannot abandon their physical parent. So they replace the parent with either Jesus, a mystical rebbe or a human idol. The next type of idol simulates the human figure, as those animal idols also have eyes and facial expressions, expressed in Egyptian animal gods. And then as Rambam cites, man will also deify the stars and planets.
9 times in Torah Moses warns the Jews that they saw no form at Revelation on Mount Sinai; they witnessed only a voice. Moses urges the nation to abandon any belief in or attachment to a fantasy physical authority figure. The creator of everything physical—by definition—is not physical. As before God created the universe, before all physicality, there was nothing but God alone. This is the definition of what God is: the first, and not physical.
Regarding the last verse above, “God allotted to other peoples everywhere under heaven,” I think it was you Dani who once explained that as God created the stars and planets, this renders them creations—not deities—and a creation means it is not the Creator, so we should worship the stronger being!
Dani Roth: Rambam’s Laws of Idolatry reads as follows:
During the times of Enosh (Adam’s grandson), mankind made a great mistake, and the wise men of that generation gave thoughtless counsel. Enosh himself was one of those who erred. Their mistake was as follows: They said God created stars and spheres with which to control the world. He placed them on high and treated them with honor, making them servants who minister before Him. Accordingly, it is fitting to praise and glorify them and to treat them with honor. [They perceived] this to be the will of God, blessed be He, that they magnify and honor those whom He magnified and honored, just as a king desires that the servants who stand before him be honored. Indeed, doing so is an expression of honor to the king.
You say that Enosh and his generation believed God was literally “in heaven” having a location in the skies, and Enosh believed the stars and planets were “close to God’s proximity” thereby deserving human honor. But if that was the idolaters’ belief, that God has location, why doesn’t Rambam clearly accuse the original idolaters’ for believing God has location in the sky? Why doesn't Rambam say that the mistake of the original idolaters was thinking God was physical?
Rambam says 3 times that the mistake of the original idolaters was in wrongly assuming God's will. So Rambam is not saying the mistake was thinking God was physical.
Rabbi: When Rambam says about the stars and spheres, “God made them servants who minister before Him,” he says the idolaters equate this to a king who desires his servants who “stand before him” be honored. This is where Rambam accuses the idolaters’ view that God is in heaven. While Rambam says 3 times that the mistake of the original idolaters was in “[wrongly] assuming God's will,” that was not their only mistake. They made a few prior errors leading them to their worst error, of assuming God’s will. Included in those prior errors was assuming God is literally “in” the heavens.
Now, as Rambam says, what’s so great about their mistaking what is God’s will?
Once one errs about God’s will, he cannot fulfill his purpose in existence, for he does not know it. His life results in a complete waste. That is the greatest loss. God created man to gain truths and eternal life, and with errors about what God is, why we exist and what God intends for man, the greatest good God wished to bestow on us is lost.