Commentaire de citation sur L’Exode 34:14

לא יהיה לך אלוהים אחרים על פני, “You are not to have any other deities in My presence.” We are not to accept any of G’d’s agents, forces, known as Elohim as deities for ourselves, nor any of the horoscopes as guiding our fates. The word אחרים “others,” [which might suggest that there are such. Ed.] is explained in Sifri Eikev section 43 as justified by the fact that they are “different, false” to those who serve them.
Another explanation of the meaning of the word אחרים: the deities whom people serve differ from day to day or from year to year. One day they worship gold, another day they worship silver, a third day they worship wood. The principal reason they are called אחרים is that they derive whatever power they are presumed to possess from אחרים, from “other” sources, they have absolutely no power of their own. This is spelled out in Exodus 34,14, לא תשתחוה לאל אחר, “do not worship a deity which derives its power from another (alien) source!” You are to bow down, i.e. worship only the true source of power, the G’d of Israel who does not derive His power from an external source. This is also the way our sages (Shir Hashirim Rabbah 1,45) interpret Isaiah 44,6 ומבלעדי אין אלו-הים, “there is no god that exists independently of Me.”

Bows down [to an idol] he is exempt - They state that bowing down means stretching out arms and legs and is forbidden, as it is written (Exodus 34) “you shall bow down to no other god” but if the bowing is without stretching out arms and legs it is permitted. The rule of the matter is, not beit din is obligated until it rules on a matter on which the Sadducees do not concur. But if it rules on a matter on which the Sadducees concur, the beit din is exempt from a communal sacrifice, and the majority that acts according to the beit din’s ruling, each one must bring a sacrifice for his erroneous transgression. What is the reason? Go read it in the school house [i.e. every school child understands].

Es ist אחד mit großem ד geschrieben, wohl um es vor Verwechselung mit welches אחר lauten würde, zu schützen, ebenso wie dem gegenüber כי לא תשתחוה לאל אחר (Schmot 34, 14) mit großem ר geschrieben ist, um es nicht mit אחד zu verwechseln. Das ר des polytheistischen Gedankens ist gefügig rund. Das ד der jüdischen Wahrheit zurückweisend eckig. Mit Verlust dieser kleinen Schärfe wird das אחר :אחד. Das Motiv zu dem großen ע in שמע ist nicht so ersichtlich. Vielleicht soll es in der Aussprache deutlich hervortreten, damit es nicht dem שמא, vielleicht, der Partikel des Zweifels im Chaldäischen ähnlich laute. Zusammen bildet es den Begriff עד, Zeugnis und Zeuge. Der Inhalt von שמע ישראל ist ein von Israel an Israel bezeugtes Zeugnis, und jeder, der es ausspricht, tritt damit als Gotteszeuge an sich und an die Welt heran. Vielleicht ist es nicht allzu gewagt, zu meinen: עין, das Auge, war עד, war Zeuge dessen, was שמע ישראל aussagt. שמע tradiert: אתה הראת לדעת.