I come from humble roots. My Dad sold toys and stationery goods as a wholesaler in
Later, when it came time for Yeshiva University (YU) to place me after I had studied for smicha (ordination), I had no well-connected relatives, no big donors, no name rabbis in my family pulling for me to get a desirable synagogue placement. So YU's rabbinical placement office tried to farm me off to a synagogue in
Many institutions select the people whom they will honor at their annual banquets based on the honorees’ wallets, not on their hearts or deeds of kindness. In one shul where I was rabbi, the person elected Shul President actually was — and still is — the subject of a public internet warning by the County District Attorney, advising the public of a $100,000 settlement and eleven-point injunction that bars the person from engaging in one-after-another form of deceit and business fraud. Yet that person was selected as President of the synagogue, and the person’s spouse now sits on that same Shul Board, even though the spouse was and is named equally in the injunction, monetary settlement, and on the warning website. People value access to money.
There should be a problem with the calculus that if I steal $10 million dollars and keep $9 million of the loot for myself but disperse the remaining $1 million to charitable causes, then I deserve to be guest of honor at an institution's annual dinner dance. There seems something far more noble in the person who never gets honored but who awakes at 5:30 in the morning, dons tefillin, prays to G-d, goes to work, works hard and accounts for every penny, davens again, feeds a family honestly though humbly, comes home late at night, perhaps after finishing a second job because it takes two jobs to break even, then davens a third time and drops into bed from exhaustion after spending a few moments with the children to teach them values like love, honor, respect, honesty, loyalty, trust, devotion.
The people who score the most “Likes” on Facebook and “Hits” on Youtube are idolized. Psy has half a billion hits on one of his posts. Miley Cyrus over a million for her VMA performance. Many of our athletes, who will turn down a one-year-contract offer of $5 million or $10 million because they feel they can command more, are not stars off the field. Is their charity proportionate to their earnings? Are their deeds commensurate with their influence? What have they done to inspire the teenagers who drop out of school classes to watch and imitate them on the playground basketball courts?
It is true that societal values are convoluted. And that brings us back to the Torah, where Judaism’s values are emphasized: Abraham and Sarah for hosting wayfarers and Abraham praying desperately for the survival of people in two cities he barely knew. Moses living the life of humility and teaching. Aaron the life of duty.
If there was one Biblical figure uniquely wealthy beyond all others, it would seem to have been King Solomon. Yet, in his Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), he recalls all the vain pursuits he tried to enjoy thanks to his wealth, and he looks back on a lifetime of vanities. Again and again, he laments that they all were and are vanities. In the end, this wisest of all men figures out that life is about serving G-d, living by His commandments, devoting oneself to one’s spouse and family. In the end, that is what matters. The glory and gold is left behind, to scatter in the wind as in the final scenes of “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (John Huston, 1948). In the end, the idols crumble. The legends are forgotten. As they age, the celebrities desperately hide from the tabloids. The athletes in their 60s sue their professional sports leagues for early-onset Alzheimers. The idols crumble. Norma Desmond is a recluse. But rabbinic scholars will be mulling the thoughts of Rambam and Rashi from a thousand years ago.
You have asked a great question:
The subject of idolatry is a fascinating. Before answering your question, it is important to define our terms. The word “idolatry” derives from the Greek words εi δωλολατρεία; , (L. idololatria = adoration) , which comes from the noun εiδωλον (= idol). Hence, it means the worship of images.
Historians of religion have long debated whether the ancients believed that the images housed the spirit of a deity, or whether the statue was said to be alive and animate. In many ancient rituals dating back to Egypt and India, it was customary for the potter to breathe into a vessel to symbolically represent bequeathing unto the idol—new life. Thus, the ancients believed that the image somehow mysteriously and magically participated in the life of the deity being worshipped. Thus, in many of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian records we discover special rituals designed to “open” the eyes of a newly constructed deity; the priest will “wash” its mouth, and so on. The prophet Jeremiah cautioned against those who worship “stones that have no breath in them.” Every man is stupid, ignorant; every artisan is put to shame by his idol: He has molded a fraud, without breath of life (Jer. 10:14).
According to Jewish theological tradition, Maimonides warned generations about the danger of thinking that anthropomorphism (human like personality traits) are an attribute of God. Interestingly, Maimonides felt that wrongful concepts of God can transform even a monotheistic faith like Judaism into an idolatrous cult and fetish.
Some 20th century theologians think that idolatry involves making something that has no existential existence apart from God into something that apart from God. Take money for example, one can easily think that money has an independence and ontology that exists apart from God. The same may also be said of the human ego, for in our wildest imagination we often imagine as though we are “God.”
According to the Hassidic tradition, the Kotzker Rebbi once observed, “ The ‘I’ is a thief – because it takes the partial and mistakes it for the whole. In theological terms, in our search for self-fulfillment, we tend to seek meaningful existence in terms of our own existence and needs—rather than see the world from God’s perspective.
The theologian and philosopher Paul Tillich once defined religion as “man’s ultimate concern.” This rather ambiguous definition has a certain amount of elasticity. For many people, their ultimate concern might be the possession of power over others—that is what they live for. For others, it might be the acquisition of wealth—and that is what they live for. Each of these things by itself is not necessarily bad unless the pursuit of these things overwhelms one’s relationship with the Divine.
In capitalistic societies, we frequently see the exploitation of workers, of the environment, and the lusting toward unlimited profits at the expense of the consumer. Political philosophies can also promote idolatrous attitudes whenever government tries to usurp the power of God as the center of people’s spiritual lives. According to Jewish tradition, man does not live on bread alone—he is a creature who must find spiritual contentment through the worship of God. Idolatry can occur whenever people fail to pay attention to the deeper human and moral issues that are at stake, such individuals risk worshipping the works of their hands and ego.
One of the ways the Tanakh helps us avoid this mistaken attitude is by tithing from our best to God. Tithing teaches us that the world does not belong to man; we are merely God’s steward of the Divine treasure and are responsible to God alone for how we use our prosperity.
Even great people after their death have frequently been worshipped as deities. In the Torah, nobody knows the burial spot of Moses; God wanted to make sure that nobody would come to worship Moses as a substitute for God. Yet, in the history of paganism, holy people have been venerated with rituals that ought to be exclusively given to God.
Over the last two and a half decades, the Lubavitcher Hasidim visit the tomb of their late Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schnersohn and ask him to intercede on behalf of his followers. If Maimonides were living in the present, he would have condemned such acts of devotion as idolatrous[1] Similarly, the Hasidim in the Rebbe’s headquarters re-enact rituals of handing out sacred dollars to the Hasidim—as though the Rebbe were physically among them. Conferring celebrity status to any human being is dangerously close to treating that person as a god. Some of the Hassidic teachers have historically believed that their Rebbe was the body of God in this world (!).
I often thought that the Rebbe of Lubavitch—and rabbis in general, regardless of their denominational labels—could greatly benefit from the Eagles’ famous song, “Take it Easy.”
Well I’m a runnin’ down the road
Tryin’ to loosen my load
I’ve got seven women on my mind
Four that wanna own me
Two that wanna stone me
One says she’s a friend of mine
Take it easy, take it easy
Don’t let the sound of your own wheels
Drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
Don’t even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand
And take it easy
The moral of this song is especially important for any kind of leader—religious or secular. We are not the movers and shakers of the world that we sometimes think we are. As human beings—each of us has a gift to offer the world. However, the world will never revolve around the human ego. The universe is God-centered and not human centered.