God vs. gods: Idol Worship, Fools or Rebels? - Rabbi Yitzchak Botton

[Music] let us first of all address perhaps the biggest question I think that I myself had when learning about the concept of idol worship we hear about it as even as kids we're told about famous stories with Avraham Avinu fighting against the false idols of his time the you know breaking wall the idols in a shop that his father where he sold different you know idols so what what what bothers me and I think many people is in today's world when we think about the concept of worshipping stones it seems ridiculous beyond foolish and we might mistakenly conclude that our predecessors the people of old were were brainless or even if they could be anything less than that I mean hard for us today to relate to the concept you know when you hear about the great album of Eno the father of our people what was his main mission in the world was to fight against these false ideologies of idol worship and he became the founding father of Judaism which we follow in his footsteps and today we continue in this overall responsibility in this world to to direct the world of course Jews people but the world at large to this loyalty towards God and we say well what I don't get it who would be dumb enough to worship idols so let's first start by explaining really what we're not aware of which is that once upon a time meaning a long time ago idol worship was not what we understand it to be today there was a big change in ancient times the power and the allure the the temptation for idol worship was so strong that even the righteous people among those generations were sometimes caught up in its trap if they were pulled to the temptation it was so great and these we're talking about even righteous people not to mention the average person it was like coca-cola as anybody in a drink coca-cola have a cup of coffee in the morning you know it's like everybody indulged in idol worship if you didn't you were like lost you were you know society really when it gives something a license and its approval then everybody you know you know explorers and and endeavors into these type of things that are supposed to be okay without even a second question a second guess so the average person of those times is completely took idol worship as it was a hundred percent Glatt Kosher without even questioning it and that's because their original founders of the concept of idol worship were the ones that were common they were wise men but they made some basic mistakes which got it all started but but let's right now first address the the power that was behind it in the temptation so there's a story that's recorded in the Gemara that is very enlightening and it'll help us appreciate how things might have been was a little bit back then so one of the greatest rabbi's of the Talmud period Rav Ashi who himself is the you know accredited for actually writing down the entire Gomorrah he's the one who gathered and collected and and edited what we today have as we call the Gemara similar to the way we're of Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi the great you know they call him Rebbe you know organized the Mishnah soaks many years later there was a need to further and explain the oral torah their old tradition and a she was one of the greatest rabbits at the end of the period of talmud and he's the one who recorded that for us the Gemara so the the Talmud records a story between him and King Manasseh King Manasseh was one of the kings of you who'd uh the eighteenth actually King in order and he was unfortunately one of the wicked kings and he along with two other kings are recorded in second son head lean in the mission that talks about having a portion in the world to come after mentioning the that all Jews have a portion in the world to come and then starts to exclude people that don't have a portion in the world to come and stated there are the three wicked kings yella vom aha and Menasha in this discussion Ravi she basically gets up to the mission and that's going to discuss the three kings it's the end of the class and he says to all of the students tomorrow I'm going to start discussing about our colleagues so all he does is simply refer to these three kings as their colleagues him and his students as if equating these three monarchs to him and his colleagues so that night Menasha comes to of Oishi in a dream to teach him a lesson so to speak because he felt it was out of line for even the great Ashi who was who called Menasha a colleague we said that that wasn't appropriate because the kings of Israel in their time period were such great Torah scholars and on such a high level that it's not fair to compare them selves to him so he opens up the conversation in that way says you call you caught yourself a colleague of of ours what do you what basis do you have to compare yourself to us so he asks him a very simple question in Halawa yes where are you supposed to break the bread when you make a moat see you know a simple question everybody should know it I guess in Menasha is time everybody knew it and to this question Ramar she wasn't able to answer he had no answer for the question so he says you can't even answer such a question and you call yourself a colleague of ours sorry ma she said okay if you know the answer great so teaching me this lesson and tomorrow when I give my class I'll give it in your name and it'll be an honor to the King and and a merit also to teach tower in his name so Menasha teaches him the lesson where do you break bread when you make a mold see you're supposed to bake it from the part that's cooked the most from the part that's the most cooked you know as a side point the banished guy explains that whether the Menasha was really giving room Oishi a sign he said that just like all the souls of israel they come out into the world when they're ready and the ones that came out earlier were ready first so to where you split the bread is the part that was ready first to show that it has an advantage it's more cooked it's more prepared so to the earlier souls that came out into the world are much higher more prepared souls and the ones that come later are considered to be on the lower because they were prepared to come into the world later that's the what Spanish guy explains on this why specifically chose a law of us breaking the bread in any event after her Masha learns this simple halacha he is very puzzled and he he can't help himself so then asks King Menasha if you're such a great Torah scholar you and your colleagues were you when the other Kings were such a great Torah scholars how could you fall prey to this the most obvious sin the second sin in the ten commandments and a sin that disconnects a person completely from my ship how can you follow idol worship how could you have found what I don't worship in those in your times Suribachi answered I'm sorry so King Menasha answers him back and says listen if you yourself talking about the greatest rabbi of his time Urvashi you would have been alive in my time you would have been chasing me to go worship those same idols so don't be quick to judge in those early days the that pull the power in the Lord to idol worship was thousandfold what it is in that what it is today now one or less where did this way to this change come from so the Gemara records in Yama that the rabbi's got together and realized that this this Yates aha this evil inclination towards idol worship is a beast it's too too dangerous and it's too hard to contain it the people can't help themselves they're all being pulled in that direction so many we can't even imagine let's imagine today how many movies for example in Hollywood produced subtle subtle ideas which are borderline heretical or you know borderline even you know an idol worship or even just how much promiscuous and how much how much sin is filled in these movies and now how many people run to go see those movies every day and they watch them again and again so just take that as an example and imagine if there was such a it Sahara in the early times for idol worship how many people were running in the masses to these houses of idol worship to worship them in any event the rabbi's of that generation the men of the great assembly very powerful collection of rabbis and prophets all with or ha'qodesh divine the communication got together and cancelled the vote the ate Sahara for avodah Zarah so from then onward there was no longer the temptation they reasoned that why did God create this yet Sahara for avodah Zarah it's for a person to battle with it overcome it and only serve Hashem but they saw the risk in feeling so great and so many people failing they said we don't need it's it's it's challenge and we don't need its reward better it doesn't exist and they were given heavenly permission to eradicate that that I that the X aha so with this in mind all what we said we could appreciate and understand that our predecessors were not fools they were actually very wise [Music] [Applause]