And you shall not erect for yourself a matzeivah (stone pillar), which Hashem your G-d hates. (D. 16:22)
But why? What is the nature of such a thing that seems to offend G-d? Especially because Jacob erects no fewer than four of them: Beit-el where he dreamt, and then upon returning to that place; a pillar to mark the division from Laban, and lastly to mark Rachel’s burial-place. And Moses builds 12 of them, one for each tribe!
So what is the problem with stone pillars, and why are Jacob and Moses’ stone pillars ignored by G-d?
I think there are a few elements of a stone pillar that make them problematic to Judaism. Here goes:
1: G-d is not interested in exterior “shows” of devotion.
As the Torah tells us: You shall not make idols for yourselves, or set up for yourselves carved images or stone pillars … You shall keep My sabbaths and venerate My sanctuary, Mine, the LORD’s. (L. 26:1-2)
The juxtaposition of these two verses contains a simple lesson: guarding the Sabbath and respecting the Tabernacle are actions that require internalized awareness, consciousness and growth. These are at the heart of Judaism.
But building a stone pillar is a “check the box” form of worship, a pale proxy for what a real relationship is meant to be. G-d wants our emotional and intellectual engagement, not external symbols. Torah Judaism is never about buildings; we are instead concerned with human engagement with the divine.
2: The G-d of the Torah is about personal connection, not intermediaries.
We pray directly to G-d. In the Torah, our conversations with G-d do not go through a religious leader, or even a saint or buried ancestor. A stone pillar is not just a forbidden proxy for G-d (like an idol), it is an external buffer that blocks an intensely personal relationship.
3: Stone Pillars represent a profound misunderstanding of the nature of G-d.
All pagan deities are physical, and the vast majority engage in intercourse and reproduction. Those few who are chaste or virgin are quite notable in this respect, because even for them, their sexuality remains a definitional part of their identity.
But the G-d of the Torah stands entirely apart. He is “one” – no wife, no consort, no physical body, and not even the hint of the idea of reproduction: the very idea is repulsively alien to any Torah Jew. G-d does not create through intercourse. G-d is not a “mother” – no metaphors of G-d as a Mother Earth or Mother Mary, or even (despite Sarah and Rivka and Rachel), a fertility deity. G-d has no sexuality per sé.
A stone pillar, on the other hand, physically resembles a phallus. And the verse uses the word atzal, for its placement – which is generally translated as “next to” – as in:
You shall not set up a sacred post—any kind of pole beside (atzal) the altar of the LORD your God that you may make, or erect a pillar; for such the LORD your God detests. (D. 16:21)
But in the Torah this word atzal, “beside” has much deeper connotations than merely physical placement: it is the word Esau uses to beg his father: ““Have you not reserved (atzal) a blessing for me?” (G. 27:36) which suggests something special in Isaac’s heart to be gifted to the beloved firstborn son. And the word is next used by Poptiphar’s wife to propose an intimate connection with Joseph. She coaxed Joseph day after day, he did not yield to her request to lie beside (atzal) her. (G. 39:10) In other words, atzal has a meaning that is much more significant than mere co-location.
Putting a stone pillar next to the altar would be like suggesting an intimate and interconnected relationship between that object and G-d! It would be assigning an attribute – sexuality – to G-d that is profoundly antithetical to Him.
Indeed, the word for stone pillar, matzeivah shares a root word with tzavah – a word that is only used in the Torah for what happens to the womb of a wife who has been unfaithful to her husband: by protruding or distending, she is “umwomaned.” She loses that which makes her female and capable of reproduction.
Which then leads us to a simple answer to our question: G-d hates stone pillars as forms of worship. But He does not have a problem with using such pillars to mark a spot (which is what Jacob does). Presumably this also explain why matzeivos, which are used to mark graves for thousands of years, are not theologically problematic.
Only one question remains: how could Moshe could justify building 12 matzeivohs at Sinai, one for each tribe.
Early in the morning, he set up an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. (E. 24:4)
He even builds those stone pillars next to an altar, which is expressly forbidden later on!
How can we make sense of this?
The best I can come up with is that because the pillars represent the tribes and not G-d, Moshe is saying that although he is going up on Sinai by himself, he wants the people, each of the tribes, to understand that they themselves are going to have a close and personal connection with G-d. But I am not satisfied with this answer. And note that later stone structures, like the plastered stones at Mt. Ebal, are not described using the word matzeivah – perhaps the rule was added later?
Can you suggest a better explanation? Email me at iwe@religiousliberalism.org