God VS gods: How Did Idol Worship Begin? - Rabbi Yitzchak Botton

[Music] how did idol worship begin what are its origins so for this we look to the Torah the Torah records they be the with the birth of Anoosh the son of shed and the Torah records that also shed gave birth to a nosh and at that point in time who Carla kobish a machine Rashi explains the word who Hal means it became profane to call out in the name of God which explain Russia's comments are based on of course teaching from the sages that he began to attribute God like you know powers and me--don't attributes to false gods he began to worship idols and therefore his calling out to God became profaned because it was to false gods this began in the days of Enosh which is when we think about it it's almost mind it's still very hard to understand he was the third generation from from Adam there was Adam and then the direct child of other most shed and a direct child of share it was enough so we'll talk about three generations from Adam Adam spoke to God and know she already worship in Annals this is also very puzzling we're gonna have to explain exactly how this works out ironically though the first recording in the Torah of idol worship is before the birth of not timeline wise but the descendants of kind who were all wicked the teachings explain that they're all of the tens of kind of all wicked and also involved in idol worship so it comes you foul and and your vow to brothers born to lemon who took two wives he was a descendant of kind and as a matter of fact he in the end as you know that's the tour record zoom is the first person that takes two wives although it was common in those days to take two wives discussions for another time trust me one life is enough you know so but anyway so over there you violin you're Val similar names they also the tour records them one as building tents and the other as making instruments the first one that built the tents so the they explain whether that he built you know houses of worship for idols and the brother that played that invented the playing of instruments played instruments also to avodah Zarah so the first reference to idol worship and the Torah is from these two brothers of course the Torah itself doesn't explicitly mention that it was a lower ship it's the Midrash ABBA that tells us that this is a reference to idol worship right after that it talks about the genealogy of Adam shed and Anoush and it mentions and knowledge being also worshipping idols but the generation avinash is credited as being the beginning of idol worship okay now according to the Rambam in his book of laws it's called mission of Torah the first Holika that he brings in the laws of idol worship he explains over there that in the days of Enosh the wise people of that time made a crucial mistake Anoush included amongst them was a part of this mistake they they wrongly concluded that it was proper to to give honor to the celestial beings above the stars the constellations the Sun of the Moon and also the different spiritual you know intermediaries that exist in the in the heavenly realms they said if God a lot of them such honour and powerful positions being the intermediaries through which the world is sustained that seemingly just the same way that you give honor to a king's ministers and that's appropriate and actually what the king wants so too it's appropriate and what God wants is for us to give honor to these intermediaries above this was a big mistake because the difference between these intermediaries and regular earthly people that help you are that people have free will and these intermediaries did not have free will they were just doing the will of God and it was inappropriate and a mistake for them to directly praise in worship and pray to these intermediaries but he explains very clearly that the first generation of idol-worshipping recognized that god was the supreme ruler of creation they just were giving honor to these intermediaries now they knew what they were doing it was wrong but they understood that there was a God still and that God was still in control but of course simple people they just follow the masses and you know they don't ask too many questions you know why do we do this we just do it you know like you can even see today that simple people that don't learn the details of why we do things can completely have the entirely wrong idea why we do things so - then the masses that began worshipping these idols did not clearly understand this differentiation between that God is in control or not and after time the people then started to wrongfully and think that the actual intermediaries had free will and that they could decide who to bestow benevolence and wealth and the different things that people wanted or not suit bestow so they began praying to the intermediaries to gain from them the physical statues and and and symbols that they built in this world were symbols for higher forces and their goal was to manipulate these higher forces to grant them their wishes and requests money power pursuit of lusts all of the things that people wanted then they would begin to pray now to these intermediaries to try to gain them that's the way it's explained that's of course after time now this did not stop they continue to further make mistakes that you know distance distancing themselves more from God because eventually they started to adopt the philosophy a very very corrupt for our philosophy that that God actually after creating the world just left the world on its own because you know God is so exalted and so holy and so lofty that it's beneath God to get involved and even the heavens are are below God certainly the earth God would have nothing to do with you know the human beings or any creatures on earth does they there's a human being take concern for each individual ant in an anti what do you call it an enter in an anthill of course not so God infinite being why would he care about what goes on in the world so they began to teach in that generation many many years later that God didn't even about what happens in the world he created the world and he created you know intermediaries through which the world is governed and run and they're the ones in charge and they are the ones that do everything and God is a completely up removed and far away disconnected from the world entirely this is recorded in King David talks about it in Tehillim that you know that God is this they bring some sukima Kofi agimo to helium and Cofield gimel yeah it's the first to heal him that we say in Hallel that's right he says mom I'll call that God is high up above all of the nation's completely removed from them is God a sham al hashamayim kavod o his honor is even above the heavens how much more so the earth then of course devour Malekith the tell'em responds to the Jewish perspective which is the opposite of this me camel okay know who is like God our God of course right away mentioning it it's true there is God let us you'd cave of K which is the creator which is very high above the world but it's also a location he descends to become our God and unites his name with us we are he's called the God of Israel Hammarby Lash Evatt that he even comes and sits to dwell and brings himself speedily a lot and he lowers himself to dwell to look to govern this word to look Leo old means to to govern the world with Providence divine providence right Bashar Mayan over islets first of all he lowers himself to take control over the heavens furthermore he lowers himself to take control of the earth that's what that's the Jewish approach and we see that he's involved in all the happenings of mankind that can continue makini man our Father thou he raises the low and destitute from and things him up to a high position and so on and so on let's you can look there for the rest of the details so we see here in this t helium this this dis debate the wrong philosophy of what idol worship eventually became you know thinking that God was completely gone from the world versus the Jewish philosophy that God is not only in the world but he's all that exists in the world he's everywhere you can't escape hashem as the verse says can a person hide from Hashem of course not anyhow so this is unfortunately the history of avodah Zarah the conclusion of the of its history really is it going even a step further which we we experienced today unfortunately people that you know present themselves as wise people yes they're so why is they can't even figure out the first rule of life that we were created by God you have people that are skeptical whether God exists and even so bold as to say that God doesn't exist so that's of course a result of all of this you know turning in the direction of idol worship the negative results that we still experience today is people denying God's very existence and we I miss well the nation of Israel are are here to really you know combat that to work against that false ideology anyhow that's the history of idol worship according to the Rambam [Music] [Applause]