Why Are Idols Problematic?
The Torah spends quite a lot of time discussing idol worship, which is difficult for modern readers who generally do not see “classic” idol worship in the world around us today. We often tend to think of the desire to worship idols as really an ancient and primitive instinct, one that has been outgrown in the modern age.
I think, however, that this understanding does not give the Torah sufficient credit as a timeless document. I would argue that the core problem that the Torah has with idol worship is every bit as much of a problem today as it was in the ancient world!
What support is there for such a claim?
You know well that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we passed through the midst of various other nations; and you have seen the detestable things and the fetishes (גלל ) of wood and stone, silver and gold, that they keep.
This word, גלל , is odd. In the above verses גלל is translated as “fetishes”, but elsewhere in the Torah it means something else entirely! Here are those meanings:
[Avram to Sarai] “Please say that you are my sister, that it may go well with me for your sake, and that I may remain alive because of you (גלל).”
Sarai has the power to save her husband – to intervene on his behalf. But what could this possibly have to do with idols?
Similarly:
And from the time that the Egyptian put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed his house for Joseph’s sake (גלל), so that the blessing of the LORD was upon everything that he owned, in the house and outside.
From this verse (and other uses) we have the idea that גלל refers to a transferable benefit of some kind.
There is one other use of גלל in the Torah: the rolling of the stone off the well, as in:
When all the flocks were gathered there, the stone would be rolled (גלל) from the mouth of the well and the sheep watered
How are all these connected? Does it make any sense at all?!
I think that it does. The word, used either as “rolling” or “for the sake of” represents displacement – shifting from one person or place to another. So Sarai saves Avram, and Egypt is blessed for Joseph’s sake, and even Lavan is enriched for Jacob’s sake. גלל, when a person acts for another person, leads to blessings and success.
The other meaning in the text would thus be related: the stone is rolled (גלל) in order to change the underlying reality. And that act, done by one person, can show care for others, sharing life-sustaining water. But it also removes responsibility from those who do not roll the stone!
Which might help us understand why idols are described using this same word!
After all, a person who has idols is invested in them: inert wood and stone, silver and gold. Instead of investing into a person, they are invested into a thing.
But I think there is an even deeper and richer explanation, one that connects back to our initial question: How is the Torah’s view of idol worship relevant to our modern lives?
Think back to the Garden of Eden, and how Adam and Eve were only expelled after they refused to take responsibility for their own actions. And then Cain, in the first “sin” named in the Torah, does precisely the same thing. G-d is very interested in mankind being responsible for our own decisions. (I think this is a leading source of anti-semitism – nobody likes someone who tells them that they are responsible.)
But idol worship is גלל, a displacement of our free will, and responsibility, into an external object. It is a way to mentally distance ourselves from the consequences for our actions!
And now, I think, the modern relevance of the Torah’s perspective on idol worship, becomes clear. We live in a world – do we not? – where people fetishize ways to not be responsible for their own actions? People claim victimhood, they assert that everything that happens to them is the result of external forces and external actors – certainly not their own decision-making. People can blame their genetics, or their parents, or their teachers, or just dumb luck. Anything but themselves!
Examples abound. Think, for example, of how a woman who does not wish to have children “becomes” pregnant. Falling pregnant could seemingly happen to anyone – after all, accidents happen. Right?
The language that surrounds us in the modern world is the very same גלל, shifting responsibility from ourselves to impersonal, inexorable external forces.
Could this be the consequence of modern idol worship? Displacing one’s spiritual energies into an inert idol led to immoral and evil societies (to cite but one example: every known pagan culture in history, at some point, ritualized sacrificing and/or eating other people). And so too, today: everything can be justified because none of us are responsible for our own actions?
Is this what the Torah is telling us? That idol worship is relevant because the fruits of idol worship are actually every bit as present and relevant today as they were thousands of years ago? That to deny the responsibility for our own actions is to roll that responsibility off our ourselves, and place it on external and impersonal objects and forces. Fate, or karma, or astrology or “the universe” pair nicely with racism and victimhood and accidental pregnancy and “circumstances” to achieve the very same result today that an idol delivered in the ancient world.
If a relationship with G-d requires us to be mindful of our actions and responsibilities, then it makes sense that the Torah warns us to avoid all those idols that give us license to indulge our flaws and failures. And גלל can be the key.
Unless you have a better answer?