{"id":145,"date":"2006-10-09T10:49:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-09T10:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/10\/slippery-slope-to-idolatry.html"},"modified":"2006-10-09T10:49:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-09T10:49:00","slug":"slippery-slope-to-idolatry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/10\/slippery-slope-to-idolatry.html","title":{"rendered":"A Slippery Slope to Idolatry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Torah scroll is taken out of the ark.  The rabbi walks in a procession around the synagogue holding the Torah as congregants reach out with their <em>tallises<\/em> (prayer shawls) or <em>siddurim<\/em> (prayer books) to touch the scroll and then put the <span style=\"font-style: italic\">tallis <\/span>or the <span style=\"font-style: italic\">siddur <\/span>to their lips, thus giving the Torah a kiss.  It\u2019s the way I\u2019ve always seen it done, and I never gave it much thought.<\/p>\n<p>Until, that is, a couple of years ago when a non-Jewish congregant expressed confusion and distaste about the tradition.  An avid student of Judaism who was committed to raising her children Jewish, she explained that she had always appreciated Judaism\u2019s absolute refusal to worship objects, a check against idolatry.<\/p>\n<p>But wasn\u2019t kissing the Torah just that, an idolatrous act?  I gave an answer about how kissing the Torah was simply a way of showing respect, but I wasn\u2019t entirely convinced\u2013and I still am not.<\/p>\n<p>The fact is, kissing the Torah as it is carried through the congregation does look a lot like practices in other religions that seem idolatrous to Jewish eyes, such as placing food before statues or venerating icons.  When do you cross the line from respect to honor to veneration to worship?<\/p>\n<p>The fact is, many traditions have entered Judaism as folk practices, discouraged or denounced by rabbinic authorities\u2013from lighting Hanukkah candles to the Kol Nidrei prayer.  Perhaps kissing the Torah found its way into our practice as a folk tradition\u2013a tradition of the people. It&#8217;s a physical way of showing reverence and awe, but one not necessarily based on the bedrock Jewish principle of rejecting idolatry. Interestingly, many traditional authorities are troubled by the same concerns and proscribe kissing the Torah, or wish to see the practice limited to young children.<\/p>\n<p>Of course we want to honor the Torah for the sacred texts it contains, including God\u2019s name.  At the same time, it is vital to remember that the holiness we cherish lies in the content\u2013the wisdom, the stories, the laws\u2013and not in the vessel.<\/p>\n<p>I still reach out my <span style=\"font-style: italic\">tallis <\/span>to touch the Torah and kiss it but, thanks to my congregant, it is now accompanied by a conscious reminder to myself of just how easy it could be to slip into idolatry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Torah scroll is taken out of the ark. The rabbi walks in a procession around the synagogue holding the Torah as congregants reach out with their tallises (prayer shawls) or siddurim (prayer books) to touch the scroll and then put the tallis or the siddur to their lips, thus giving the Torah a kiss.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Slippery Slope to Idolatry - Virtual Talmud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/10\/slippery-slope-to-idolatry.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Slippery Slope to Idolatry - Virtual Talmud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Torah scroll is taken out of the ark. The rabbi walks in a procession around the synagogue holding the Torah as congregants reach out with their tallises (prayer shawls) or siddurim (prayer books) to touch the scroll and then put the tallis or the siddur to their lips, thus giving the Torah a kiss.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/10\/slippery-slope-to-idolatry.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Virtual Talmud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-10-09T10:49:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rabbi Joshua Waxman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Slippery Slope to Idolatry - Virtual Talmud","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/10\/slippery-slope-to-idolatry.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Slippery Slope to Idolatry - Virtual Talmud","og_description":"The Torah scroll is taken out of the ark. 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