From the Rabbi’s Study

Cleaning Our Temple from the Idols We Worship

Two seasoned sailors heard the chaplain preach on the Ten Commandments. When the sermon was over, one sailor muttered to his friend, “Well, at least I never made any graven images.”

That sailor, like most of us, looked upon the worship of idols as an ancient practice, characteristic of primitive people. Yes, the Bible reports many stories about such idols. And our holiday of Hanukkah, in part, celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, after cleansing it of the accoutrements of idol worship there. Yet we all presume that idol worship, at least in the Western world, is literally ancient history. Indeed, the second commandment has been called “the obsolete commandment.” But is it? Has idolatry really disappeared in our day? Not according to some of the most perceptive observers. Indeed, the great twentieth-century philosopher Will Herberg wrote that “contemporary life is idolatry-ridden to an appalling degree.”

In many of the cults that have proliferated in our time, idolatry has appeared in the blind, submissive worship of the guru, the infallible leader, the one who has gained the power to get one’s followers to believe all and do all.

In his important book, Crazy for God, Christopher Edwards, a one-time Moonie, provides a glimpse into the nightmare of cult life and, in the process, reveals its idolatrous character. He shows us the Moonies swaying back and forth around a picture of the Reverend Moon, bowing down on commande before the portrait, and praying to him as “our new Messiah, the Creator and giver of true life…Father, we pledge our lives to you, our hearts, our souls!”

We human beings, it appears, are born believers. Believing is as natural to us as breathing. And nature abhors a spiritual vacuum. When we stop believing in G!d we do not believe in nothing. We believe in anything. When G!d departs, the little gods come rushing in and, in Robert Browning’s words, “some dark spirit sitteth in His seat.”

The brutal madness called Nazism dethroned G!d and replaced G!d with a malicious idol. This grace was recited by small children in Nazi Germany: “Fuhrer, my Fuhrer, sent to me from G!d, protect and maintain me throughout my life. Thou who hast saved Germany from deepest need, I thank thee for my daily bread. Remain at my side, and never leave me, Fuhrer, my Fuhrer, my faith, my light. Heil, my Fuhrer.”

In our own day, we can all find plenty of examples that seem parallel or analogous to these examples. Yet I wish to probe further.

The word worship is derived from an old English word meaning “worth.” That which assumes supreme worth in our eyes, that is what we worship, that becomes our G!d. Understood in this light, it is not only cultists and Nazis who are idolaters.

We can and do make graven images of power, status, or wealth. On their altars we bring supreme sacrifices. To obtain them we often surrender our honor, compromise our character, neglect our families, destroy our health.

A recent cartoon shows two aristocratic-looking gentlemen sitting in heavily upholstered chairs. One moans to another, “It was terrible! I dreamed the dollar was no longer worth worshipping!”

It is only when we understand the powerful appeal of idolatry that we appreciate the Maccabean victory, not only or even primarily, against the Syrian Greek armies. The more insidious enemy was the dark side of hellenism, which promotes mindless obeisance and its concomitant relinquishing of precious values. We can now appreciate why a Jew is expected to repeat morning and evening, every day of one’s life, Sh’ma Yisrael, A-d-nai E-l-heinu, A-d-nai echad; “Hear O Israel, HaShem is our G!d, HaShem alone.”

Whatever our conception of G!d, it is G!d alone that is to be worshipped. To G!d alone we are to dedicate all that we are and all that we possess.

A shoe manufacturer condensed this whole philosophy of life in a small sign that sat on his desk, “God first; shoes second.”

Let us reprioritize our priorities to ensure that we, like the Maccabees, eliminate the idols we erect in our very own Temples. In so doing, the miracles of Hanukkah will become ours.

Rabbi J.B. Sacks