Idol Chatter
by Jim Long
 The Noahide movement continues to spread and to thrive. This growth is fueled by sincere people who literally yearn for G-d’s truth and are responding to the depth and riches of Torah. Like any burgeoning movement, there are growing pains manifested in the form of misperceptions. The most problematic and most common of these misperceptions is the question of just what exactly is a Noahide.
In contemporary terms, the simplest answer is that any non-Jew who observes the Seven Universal Laws, also known as the Seven Laws of Noah, is an observant Noahide. However, there are those equally sincere souls who, upon first reading the list of the Seven Laws, believe that they are already observing them. In reality, they may not be.
Most often, it is the commandment that forbids idolatry that they are violating.
I bring this up because I have encountered websites that profess to teach the Seven Laws while encouraging their readership to continue in their worship of persons/beings/entities other than the One true G-d of Israel.
And some of them should know better.
Recently, one site posed the question, “Can I be a Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, or whatever, and still keep the First Covenant?”
The term “First Covenant” was a reference to the Seven Laws and the website’s response to the first part of this question was, “Yes.”
Really?
An atheist can keep the Seven Laws of Noah?
He would reject the whole concept outright. If an atheist even bothered, he might observe five of the laws. But non-Jews are commanded to keep all seven—not just five. In fact, it is incumbent on the Jewish people to teach all Seven Laws. And the first two are inextricably linked:
Do Not Worship Idols
Do Not Commit Blasphemy
To be sure, the word “idolatry” conjures up comic images of people dancing around a scowling icon or prostrating themselves before a graven image. Sadly, idolatry is much more subtle and very much alive in our present world. At its core, idolatry is and has always been man’s tendency to place his own ideas, concepts and values above that of the Creator. That is why the great sage, Maimonides (Rambam) positioned the commandment against idol worship as the very first of the seven laws.
The other six are so bound up in the first commandment that, historically, when whole cultures took up idolatry, observance of the rest of the other commandments fell—like dominoes—and those cultures descended into barbarity. In Genesis 4:26, we learn that with the birth of Seth, “men began to pray with G-d’s name.” Rashi, however, teaches that this verse can also be rendered, “men began to profane the name of G-d.” This was the generation before the Flood of Noah. Mankind began worshipping the celestial bodies. With this practice, the antediluvian world moved away from G-d into calamity and eventual destruction.
Though I am concerned with the soul of the atheist, I alarmed that there are those who attempt to teach the Seven Laws but who are soft on the issue of idolatry in its most contemporary form. It is here that we confront the controversial issue of people already involved in religion (the above referenced Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist) and whether they are keeping all Seven Laws. One is not required to possess a rudimentary grasp of Hebrew, it is available in plain English translations that allow us to comprehend basic Biblical precepts in respect to believing and worshipping in One G-d, not three—not a hundred.
“Realize it today and ponder in your heart; G-d is the Supreme Being
in Heaven above and on the earth beneath—there is no other.”
— Deuteronomy 4:39
“G-d is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent.
Shall He say something and not do it, or speak and not fulfill?”
– Numbers 23:19
“Hear O Israel, the Lord thy G-d is One.”
– Deuteronomy 6:2
“To whom then can you liken G-d?
Or what likeness will you compare unto Him?”
— Isaiah 40:18
The Torah and other books of the Bible (the Tanakh) are replete with this kind of clear-eyed, directness in regards to the Creator. Some would attempt to prove their thesis that G-d is more than one being or a physical creature (G-d forbid) by citing Torah verses wherein the Creator states, “Let us make man in our image…” or, at the Tower of Babel, “Let us go down…”, as if G-d needed help or was forced to go anywhere.
This kind of thinking reveals a woeful misunderstanding of the Torah.
The word, Torah, literally means “instruction” and that is, first and foremost, the reason it was given to mankind—specifically the nation of Israel.
The Torah is instruction transmitted in the language of man.
The attributes of the Creator are often expressed in human terms so that humans can grasp concepts that apply to us in the physical realm. When we read of the “hand of G-d” we know that it is an expression of His strength or of His direction. The aforementioned verses from Genesis, teach us that undertaking any creative task, requires seeking the wisdom and direction of a team of experts. In the example from the Tower of Babel story, we learn that judges should endeavor to visit the scene of the crime with other witnesses.
A true Noahide is never confused on the issue of G-d’s Oneness.
A Noahide will seek those who have understood and transmitted Torah from the very beginning: the Jewish People. This is why the Jews are designated as Chosen. The Torah was given to them along with the enormous task of protecting it and disseminating its truths to mankind. It would seem to me that, after three-thousand years, if they had found some disparity in the fundamentals of the unity of G-d, they would have shared it with the world. But the concept is as unchanging as G-d Himself.
Finally, let me quote a few relevant passages from the chapter on Idolatry in Michael E. Dallen’s The Rainbow Covenant—Torah and the Seven Universal Laws to underscore our need to be vigilant against the subtle influences of idolatry. He states his case in salient, precise terms on pages 276-277:
“Even though He is perfectly and purely One, people insist on teaching “the Godhead”—Divinity—as multiple, as something He shares with others.”
“Idolatry is the root of all evil.”
“Does associationism and intermediation in worship, expressed by physical acts of worship, violate the minimal requirements of the Noahide Law? Most Jewish scholars believe that it does.”
“Simple prayer, please note, is a private manner. One’s thoughts and feelings are one’s own. God gives no human court authority to punish anyone absent of some wrongful action—unless one has committed some sort of unequivocal physical act. So addressing a silent prayer to a no-god, without bowing and scraping before an image of it, for instance, isn’t necessarily a crime that must be addressed by law. Even though sending off such prayer is utterly idolatrous and foolish.” [Emphasis added]
Some might find the above to be hard sayings but anyone who truly knows his Torah will not be dismayed by the clarity of the words. In times past, when finding a Torah was difficult or even dangerous, we might be excused for our lack of understanding. But that was a world of darkness that, thank G-d, we have not experienced in hundreds of years. If we are truly entering an age where the words of the prophets are materializing in our daily newscasts, then surely we have arrived at a time when we can finally teach humankind to throw off the shackles of idolatry in all its subtle permutations and embrace the whole of the Seven Laws of Noah.
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