Avodah Zarah, Daf 41
Our Gemara on amud aleph enumerates which statues have indications of idolatry and must be destroyed: “Any statue holding a staff, bird, or orb symbolizes dominion, indicating it is designated for idolatry.”
The Gemara explains that each item reflects the statue’s supposed divinity, signifying its rule over the world: A staff symbolizes dominion, as the idol rules the entire world, like one rules an animal with a staff. A bird symbolizes dominion, as the idol grasps the entire world, as one grasps a bird in hand. An orb symbolizes dominion, as the idol grasps the entire world, as one grasps a ball in hand.
Tosafos notes that the orb represents the world because it is round and cites a Yerushalmi stating that Alexander the Great ascended (presumably in a vision) and saw the world as a globe, indicating his future dominion.
The Zohar (Vayikra 138) also describes the world’s hierarchy and its spherical nature, noting time zones:
In the Book of Rab Hamnuna the Elder, it is explained that the inhabited world is circular like a ball, with some above and some below… There is a part where it is light when another is dark, so some have night while others have day. There is also a place where it is always day, with no night save for a short time. This account, found in the books of the ancients and the Book of Adam, is confirmed by Scripture: “I will give thanks unto thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, wonderful are thy works” (Psalms 139:15), and “O Lord, how manifold are thy works” (Psalms 104:24).
The Greeks, in the 3rd century B.C., established the Earth’s roughly spherical shape as a physical fact and calculated its circumference.
Yet curiously, if your education was like mine, based on a standard curriculum, it emphasized that people in Christopher Columbus’s time believed the Earth was flat. Columbus was portrayed as a maverick adventurer-scientist-explorer who risked sailing uncharted seas, where others believed he would fall off the edge. This mythology about Columbus was widespread across the Western world.
Why did this myth persist, and what are its origins? Common folk, uneducated, likely believed the ocean ended somewhere, and feared traveling beyond those limits. It’s logical that Columbus faced superstitious ideas when convincing Ferdinand and Isabella to fund his trip. Yet if you’re ready to be “red-pilled,” consider a subversive idea: Recent gaslighting – Covid, CRT, transgenderism, campus propaganda, and wokeness – has revealed education as an indoctrination tool. This may have been happening longer, by insidious forces, only now exposed as they have overplayed their hand.
Psychologically and sociologically, a conspiracy need not involve maniacal villains plotting world control. It can be an unconscious collusion of interests. There is a bias to educate young people to view ancients as primitive, ignorant fools, fostering a superior attitude that discounts religion and tradition.
While ancients lacked our technology, they were keen, intuitive observers. Considering they did not have telescopes, their astronomy was astounding, and their medical traditions respected digestion’s impact on the body. They knew bad food by gut feeling, not needing Prilosec or statins, and understood stable relationships or nature walks regulated moods, not antidepressants. They literally trusted their guts.
The educational bias sees ancients as foolish and superstitious. Another myth is the “noble savage” – a simple tribesman in a loincloth, dimwitted yet serene. This is exaggerated nonsense. Given modern weapons, many ancients would have hunted animals to extinction or waged savage warfare, no better or worse than today. By casting them as simple yet harmonious, denying their intellectual depth and morality, we discount valuable traditions and wisdom.
Another subtle indoctrination is the fetishized fascination with dinosaurs. In my childhood, we played with action figures, Lego, and farm animals. By the 1980s, dinosaurs became a craze – on cereal boxes, in movies, and children’s shows. Was this coincidental, or did a mastermind push dinosaurs as fact, promoting evolution, which many religious people view as contrary to the creation narrative?
Some may think I’m paranoid with a conspiracy-laden imagination. Perhaps, but consider this: In history, nearly every scientific or technological discovery usable as a weapon – steel for swords, gunpowder for bullets, airplanes for bombs, rockets for V-2s, nuclear power for doomsday – was weaponized. Chemical and biological weapons, though illegal, have been developed. Why would psychological theories – a new technology – be exempt? Do you think entities creating nuclear weapons would hesitate to manipulate the human psyche? As psychology uncovered unconscious levers of thought and motivation, nefarious actors likely exploited and weaponized them.
This is scary, but don’t worry – you’ve been conditioned to deny and forget it. Soon, you’ll return to Candy Crush or Instagram. And don’t forget to mask, and vaccinate early and often, because that’s surely better than eating unprocessed food and exercising.
Hands-Off Idols
Daf 42
Our Gemara on amud aleph discusses whether finding a hand or foot figure constitutes an idol or merely a fragment: If one found an object shaped like a hand or foot, it is forbidden, as similar objects are worshiped. Rabbi Yoḥanan asks: Why are they forbidden? Aren’t they fragments, which Reish Lakish permits?
The Gemara answers: Shmuel interprets the Mishna as referring to objects standing on pedestals, showing they were designed as idols initially.
Tehillim (115:4-7) describes the inertness of pagan deities: “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak; they have eyes, but cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear; they have noses, but cannot smell; their hands do not feel, their feet do not walk; they can make no sound in their throats.”
Commentaries note a linguistic shift: Mouths, eyes, ears, and noses are prefaced with “they have,” but hands, feet, and throats lack this prefix.
Chanukas HaTorah uses our Gemara to explain this anomaly. Since hands and feet can be standalone idols, the verse treats them as independent entities, not attached to a larger form. But this clever answer doesn’t explain why the throat lacks the prefix. Perhaps, once the pattern breaks, the verse omits it, but why place the throat last instead of grouping it with other non-standalone parts?
The Maharal (Gevuros Hashem 64) offers another explanation, based on hierarchy. The verse doesn’t merely mock idolaters for believing in inanimate objects, as this underestimates them, akin to Rav Ashi’s error with Menashe (Sanhedrin 102b). Menashe rebuked Rav Ashi in a dream: “Had you been there, you would have lifted your cloak and run after me!”
Maharal explains that idolaters believed idols channeled spiritual forces symbolized by their form (e.g., sun, rain, thunder). Tehillim disproves this: Objects lacking the power they represent cannot channel it. Mouths or eyes that cannot see or speak lack such ability. Conversely, humans, through spiritual acts (mitzvos), channel energies via body parts. Waving willows on Succos, a mitzvah, helps bring rain.
Maharal says the verse follows a hierarchy: mouth (speech, intelligence), eyes (distant perception), ears (lesser perception), nose (subtle sense), hands (touch), feet (ambulation), and throat (grunting). From highest to lowest ability, idols possess no power, incapable of channeling anything.
The prefix “they have” for mouth, eyes, ears, and nose denotes functions beyond the body (intellect, soul), while hands, feet, and throat perform localized physical functions, thus lacking the prefix, as they are the body itself.
This sophisticated explanation of idolatrous philosophy echoes Daf 41’s theme: Don’t underestimate ancients as primitive. The Gra (Biur Seder Olam 30) notes that prophecy waned as paganism’s compulsion lessened, as both stemmed from a spiritual consciousness modern man lacks. Our post-Newtonian world of cause-and-effect science yields technological marvels but deprives us of intuition for unprovable truths. We miss G-d’s quiet whispers, like the Bas Kol, a “daughter of a voice,” subtle and delicate (Tosafos Yom Tov, Yevamos 16:6:3), notably not, as many people imagine, a booming thunderous voice from Heaven. G-d is found in subtleties, unheard by closed hearts or minds.
Menorah Of Mettle
Daf 43
Our Gemara on amud aleph describes the makeshift Menorah used by the Chashmonaim after liberating the Temple: “During that era, the Menorah’s branches were fashioned from iron spits (shappudin), covered with tin (beva’atz). Later, when richer, they made it from silver. When even wealthier, they crafted it from gold.”
Pri Tzaddik (Chanukah 7), citing Pesikta Rabbasi (2), explores the Menorah’s structure. Pesikta Rabbasi suggests finding rods to fashion the Menorah was the Chanukah miracle, not mentioning oil. Pri Tzaddik proposes this answers the Beis Yosef’s question: Why is Chanukah eight days if the oil miracle was seven days (since there was oil for one day)? The first day’s miracle was finding utensils for a makeshift Menorah.
Pri Tzaddik says the branches, ending in cups for oil and wicks, symbolized the (outstretched arms) of one seeking Divine wisdom from the Torah.
Penei Menachem (Chanukah) adds that the Menorah’s progression – tin to silver to gold – reflected the gradual recovery and repentance from Greek religious oppression. While physical liberation occurred instantly, restoring Torah civilization took years.
This mirrors Rambam’s view (Moreh Nevuchim III:32) on the Jewish people’s spiritual development post-Exodus. Shemos (13:17) states: “G-d did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, though nearer; for G-d said, ‘The people may have a change of heart when they see war, and return to Egypt.’”
Rambam notes that G-d could have miraculously granted courage but instead chose a path avoiding immediate warfare. The wilderness journey built their spirit and strength. G-d influences man through nature’s laws. In spiritual matters, man must do his part: “Everything is in the hands of Heaven, except for fear of Heaven” (Berachos 33b).
