14 Jul 2024

Menachem Gottlieb’s Audio Shiur on Rambam, Islam, and Avoda Zara

by | posted in: English Divrei Torah | 0

Introduction by the main editor of vilnagaon.org

Jewish woman destroys her wig when she discovered the hair came from an idol worship ceremony
Jewish woman destroys her wig when she discovered the hair came from an idol worship ceremony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvm9gmM8kJA

Bamidbar / Numbers 29:21 as translated by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan states:

29 Woe is to you, Moab;

you are destroyed, nation of Kemosh.*

Your* sons have become refugees,

your daughters are captives

To Sichon, king of the Amorites.

In his footnotes, Rabbi Kaplan adds:

21:29 Kemosh. Moabite deity, possibly a war god; see Judges 11:24; 1 Kings 11:7, 2 Kings 23:13; Jeremiah 48:7,13. It is said to be a natural formation of black rock in the form of a woman (Faneach Razah, quoting Sekhel Tov). Its worship included shaving the head (Midrash HaGadol on Exodus 20:5; Sefer HaMitzvot, Negative Commandment 6; cf Jeremiah 9:25).

— Your. Literally, “his.”

From Bamidbar / Numbers 23:17 it appears that the Moabites also believed in Hashem. Nevertheless, their additional belief in Kemosh seems to be a reason for destruction, for being refugees and for captivity as quoted above. Clearly implying it is not okay for Gentiles to believe in Hashem with partner deities.

See the article: Did Rabbi Moshe Isserles Permit Gentiles Who Are Obligated by the Noahide Laws to Believe in the Creator of the Universe in Partnership With Foreign Gods?  for more information about this prohibition.

There are some modern rabbis who are willing to admit, that serving Hashem together with partner deities is prohibited but believe it is not a violation by Gentiles of Avoda Zara, to do the rituals of Kemosh, Markolis (pronounced by Soncino’s commentary as Merkolis) and Peor, if they only have in mind the Creator of the Universe.

The assumption of these rabbis might be disputed from the story of a man named R. Menashe (pronounced by Soncino, Manasseh) mentioned by the Talmud in tractate Sanhedrin 64a.

TALMUD SANHDRIN 64A as Translated and Transliterated by Soncino

https://halakhah.com/pdf/nezikin/Sanhedrin.pdf
R. Manasseh was going to Be Toratha. On the way he was told, ‘An idol stands here.’ He took up a stone and threw it at the idol’s statue. Thereupon they said to him: ‘It is Merculis’. He said to them, ‘But we have learned, HE WHO CASTS A STONE FOR MERCULIS THEREBY SERVES IT.’ So he went and inquired at the Beth Hamidrash [whether he had done wrong, since his action was a gesture of contempt]. They informed him, We have learned, HE WHO CASTS A STONE AT MERCULIS [thereby serves it] — that is to say even if it is merely to bruise it. He said to them, ‘Then I will go and remove it.’ But they replied, ‘Whether one casts a stone or removes it, he incurs guilt, because every stone thus removed leaves room for another.’

Rashbatz – Rabbi Simeon ben Tzemach Duran, Chief Rabbi and Head of the Rabbinical Court of Algiers (Born ~157 Years After the Death of Rambam)

Rashbatz (in his book Keshet Umagen) wrote: “Against the Yishmaelites (Muslims) I haven’t seen anyone make claims against them with the exception of a brief mention by the Kuzari which I have recalled and in our iniquities we have been sold into their hands”. Rashbatz in his book makes it clear that it was more dangerous to be critical of Muslims than to be critical of Christians and that was why there was less polemical material available. Indeed after Rashbatz published his work against Islam, his work was put into Geniza for hundreds of years, while the Kuzari’s criticism of Muslim rock-throwing rituals was censored out of our editions of Kuzari.
Rashbatz informs us that the Idolatry stone throwing ritual in Islam and the wooden cross of Christianity are hinted at in the Torah Deut. 4:28 “And you shall serve there other gods of wood and stone and the Targum brings the accepted traditional explanation “and you shall serve there nations that worship the error of wood and stone”.
The purpose of the Mecca Pilgrimage according to Rashbatz was to support the religion of Markolis (alt. pronunciation, Merculis) that involved throwing stones at Markolis and to support Pe’or worship where they would bow their heads to the ground and lift up their rear end and to support Kemosh whose service involved standing by it in a garment that was not sewn and a revealed head.
One might ask how a so-called monotheistic religion could continue to do idol rituals? Ibn Ezra (commentary to Daniel, chapter 11) and additional rabbis explained that the founder of Islam made a deal with the Idol worshipers of Mecca, that they could continue their old practices of the idol religions (such as the Markolis stone ritual) in Mecca if they would accept his authority and give new Muslim meanings to their customs. They agreed and the worship of the Mecca rituals at Mecca became a commandment of the Islamic religion. See also Yad Rama to Sanhedrin 60b, where he claims that they practice in Mecca, Markolis (Merculis) worship. And see Yad Rama to Sanhedrin 58b where he classifies Friday (the Arabs’ day of rest) as an idol worshiping day.

Rabbi Nachshon Gaon ספר האשכול (אלבק) הלכות יין נסך דף קנ עמוד ב says the Arabs continue today to worship Avoda Zara without realizing it, in Mecca. Presumably, their Avoda Zara is their continuing the ritual of Kemosh, Markolis, and Peor.

Rambam Had a More Complicated View about Islam Which We Present Here

Even When Gentiles Are Idol Worshipers, Jews Are Subject to the Ways of Peace Laws of the Talmud, tractate Gittin 61a

Translation by https://www.sefaria.org.il/Gittin.61a.5?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en

The mishna teaches: One does not protest against poor gentiles who come to take gleanings, forgotten sheaves, and the produce in the corner of the field, which is given to the poor [pe’a], although they are meant exclusively for the Jewish poor, on account of the ways of peace. Similarly, the Sages taught in a baraita (Tosefta 5:4): One sustains poor gentiles along with poor Jews, and one visits sick gentiles along with sick Jews, and one buries dead gentiles along with dead Jews. All this is done on account of the ways of peace, to foster peaceful relations between Jews and gentiles.

And furthermore see, Sefer Hamitzvot Hakatzar of the Chafetz Chaim, negative commandment 20.

The Chafetz Chaim also informs us in Mishna Brura, chapter 304 and in Beu’r Halacha to chapter 330 that trinity believers and Muslims do not have the more honorable status of Gair Toashav.

Appendix: According to Daniel Pipes Gil Tamary—a Jewish Israeli television journalist who holds a U.S. passport—broadcast himself on Israeli television cruising around Mecca, the most sacred city of Islam, which is forbidden to non-Muslims. The 10-minute program featured Mr. Tamary’s driving by the Great Mosque, passing through Mina, a site on the annual pilgrimage, and climbing Mount Arafat.
Pipes further adds:

Mr. Tamary joined the small group of non-Muslims who, since Islam’s founding 1,400 years ago, have defied the exclusion of infidels from its holy precincts. In 1951 the Lebanese-American historian Philip Hitti wrote that “no more than fifteen Christian-born Europeans have thus far succeeded in seeing the two holy cities”—Mecca and Medina—”and escaping with their lives.”

In the 70-plus years since Hitti wrote, we know of only three cases of non-Muslims surreptitiously entering Mecca. In 2007 Nirosh Kamanda, a Christian truck driver from Sri Lanka, slipped into the city to sell goods near the Great Mosque. In 2015 the pseudonymous Hajji Mustafa, a British Christian Arabist, published an account of his undercover journey on the annual pilgrimage, which he found to be “a remarkable spiritual and social journey.” Mr. Tamary now joins their ranks, after he boldly challenged an archaic status quo that the world unthinkingly accepts.

Daniel Pipes wants Jews and Non-Jews to go to Mecca. We strongly disagree.
We brought up the facts mentioned by Mr. Pipes, because Rambam in his letter to Ovadia the convert used the assumption that 100 percent of those that participate in the Mecca rituals have monotheistic intentions. Since Rambam held that Catholics and similar Christian sects are not monotheists it appears that Rambam’s assumption is no longer valid.

Furthermore, I found in a non-Jewish web site that someone raised the question, “Has any Hindu visited Mecca or Medina”?

A Gentile named Syeda Shaista Juwairia from Magadh University answered:

What to bother. Declare religion for 3 months Islam. Go to Mecca and Medinah openly for your curiosity. Many have gone like this since centuries.

Another Gentile named Deedat Nawfer on the same web site claimed:

There are numerous stories of non Muslims visiting Mecca in the past, including the Kaaba, such as Sri Guru Nanak. Another famous incident of a non-Muslim visiting Mecca was the visit by the British explorer Sir Richard Burton in 1853.

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