Daily Mitzvah, Day 16: Prohibitions for Communication with the Dead, Witchcraft and more

Negative Mitzvah 43 If sideburns is a negative Mitzvah in the Torah how does the Hassidic movement justify Payot? Reply

An Idol Worshipper in ancient times, from what I know, were religions, many even not around today, where the statue itself was either a representation of, or the actual, god they had.

The biggest point was them believing and worshipping man made gods, be it that the god was that literal statue, or the statue was the home version, so to speak, in every house of that god, or that the statue was just a representation, of the god they made up.

The problem was they made up their own and worshipped them, and gave them, in their belief, all these supernatural powers.

Since there is only One G-d, this is the problem. But from what I know for Jewish people, praying before any physical 'thing' to represent G-d is not something we do. We bless on certain books sometimes but that's about as close (if you can even call it that) as it gets.

Please don't compare us to how Christians do things. They do have the same G-d but don't do what we do.

I'm Not a rabbi, so I hope I didn't miss anything, this is just what I remember learning from religious school when I was young. Reply

What exactly is idolatry. I thought I knew until I actually started thinking about it and now I'm not so sure, I have a few friends who are Wiccans. They keep certain statues around their house so one day I asked them if they worshipped idols. They were highly offended. A friend of theirs was there and he said: "Well, that's no different than a Christian who kneels before a Cross with Jesus on it and prays." I also have an aquaintance who is a Hindu (which you mentioned) and she also said the statue is just a representation of the god not the god itself. So what is an idol worshipper? I'm confused. Reply