Комментарий к Шмот 20:20

לא תעשון אתי YE SHALL NOT MAKE WITH ME — Ye shall not make an image of My ministers that minister before Me in the heights (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:20:1).

לר תעשון אתי אלוהי כסף, seeing that you have experienced with your own senses that you do not need to resort to intermediaries in order to communicate with G’d do not construct for yourselves such intermediaries even for communicating with Me.

לא חעשון אתי אלוהי כסף, "Do not make with Me silver deities, etc." Why did the Torah have to add the word אתי, "with Me?" Our sages in the Mechilta understood this word as referring to the cherubs on the Holy Ark, seeing the voice of the Lord was supposed to speak to Moses from between these cherubs. The meaning of ואלוהי זהב is that you should not elevate the importance of such silver deities to the level of something made of gold. The repetition of "do not make" entitles us to understand the verse thus: "Do not make silver deities; if you did so at least do not consider them as something valuable such as gold." Even if the item you have constructed does not have a face, or likeness of anything in heaven or on earth that one could bow down to, do not make it for yourselves. The Torah stresses לכם, i.e. it is not only forbidden to make something like that אתי "with Me," but even if it has meaning only for yourself.

אלוהי כסף ואלוהי זהב, even in order to remind you of the G’d in heaven.

לא תעשון אתי, “Do not make (images) of what is with Me;” our sages understand this to mean that we must not reproduce images of phenomena we see in the skies, i.e G’d’s primary domicile.

V. 20. לא תעשון אתי, ihr sollt nichts gestalten bei mir! Was ihr, die Menschen, aus euch gestaltet, um euch Übersinnliches zu vergegenwärtigen, das werden immer אלהי כסף וגו׳, das werden immer Göttergestalten. Die Menschen vergegenwärtigen sich Göttliches in Sinnbildern, — das sollt ihr nicht: לא תעשון כדמות שמשי המשמשין לפני במרום כגון אופנים ושרפים וחיות הקדש ומלאכי השרת — (מכילתא, ר׳ נתן) שלא תאמר עושה אני כמין דמות ואשתחוה לו; ja selbst bildliche Darstellungen, die ihr dir geboten, musst du auf die Ausführung dieses Gebotes beschränken, nur in meinem Auftrage und nach meinem Auftrage sollst du und darfst du daher Cherubim gestalten, Ich lasse dich dir Menschliches vergegenwärtigen, willkürlich würdest du dir Göttliches vergegenwärtigen, und dein Symbol würde ein Götze שלא תאמר הואיל ונתנה תורה רשות לעשות בבית המקדש הריני עושה בבתי כנסיות ובבתי מדרשות ת׳׳ל לא תעשו לכם oder: לפי שהוא אומר ועשית שנים כרובים זהב אמר הריני עושה ארבעה מכילתא ת׳׳ל אלחי כסף וגו׳ אם הוספת על שנים הרי הם כאלהי זהב was ihr euch machet, wird immer אלקי כסף, immer ein Gottessymbol sein! Selbst die Tempelräume in ihren architektonischen Dimensionen, die Tempelgeräte in ihren numerischen Konstruktionsverhältnissen dürfen nicht nachgebildet werden: לא יעשה אדם בית תבנית היכל וכו׳ שולחן כנגד שולחן מנורה כנגד מנורה וכו׳ (Rosch Hasch. 24. a. b)

לא תעשון אתי, “you are not to make in addition to Me.” (some kind of symbol out of either silver or gold)” in verse 4 the pronoun לך, “for yourself,” had followed this commandment, whereas here the pronoun אתי is used. If you were to ask how you could possibly serve Me in practice when all these restrictions apply, the answer is that I require only a simple earthen altar upon which you can present your offerings to Me. Slaughtering the appropriate animals on such a structure is all that is required.

אלהי כסף GODS OF SILVER — This statement is intended to lay down a prohibition regarding the Cherubim which you will make to stand with Me — that they shall not be made of silver, for if you make any alteration in them by making them of silver and not of gold they will be before me (regarded by Me) as idols.

לא תעשו, because there are people who err who would believe that there is some substance to such “deities.” Although G’d commanded the Jewish people when legislating the building of the Tabernacle, that two golden cherubs were to be part of lid of the Holy Ark, those were not constructed as deities, but as symbols of the cherubs surrounding the throne of G’d in the heaven. They were not made to be objects of worship.

אלוהי כסף ואלוהי זהב לא תעשון לכם, “gods of silver and gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.” Nachmanides writes that after the Israelites had seen that Hashem spoke to them from the heavens and that He is Overlord in the heavens, do not assign anything to Him as a partner, i.e. such as silver or gold. The message of our verse is that the Jewish people have no need for additional external help such as is provided by material wealth represented by silver and gold. The reason why the expression לא תעשון, “do not make, construct,” is repeated twice in the same verse, is because the first time it refers to the faith people have in such values, whereas the second time the warning is not to make visible symbols of such faith in material goods. The Torah also separately forbade the making of a hewn deity which represents an abstract belief. (Verse 4) Ibn Ezra explains that G’d uses the fact that He spoke to the people directly, without intermediary at Mount Sinai as proof that the people have no need to revert to intermediaries, neither astrology nor material goods in this terrestrial world to assure their well being and to deify such values as the source of their good fortune. Idolaters are foolish enough to expect such images representing what they perceive to be independent values to intercede on their behalf with the Creator.

The Torah refers to two different kinds of worship of another deity. One kind of worship is that by a person who really believes that such a deity is real and he yearns to worship it. Concerning such a person the Torah says: "do not make with Me אלוהי כסף, a deity you yearn to worship. Inasmuch as the soul of the Israelite is rooted in the celestial spheres and as such is part of G'd, if a person worships another deity also in his heart, he is so to speak attaching some of that deity to G'd Himself. The author bases all this on both Deut. 32,9 and on the mystical aspect of a statement in Eycha Rabbah 1,31 according to which the original serpent is holed up in a tower and the question is how to dislodge it without destroying the tower in the process. The answer suggested is that one calls on the services of a snake charmer so as to lure the snake out of its lair. When a person serves idols with all his heart he allows Satan to lodge within the very root of his being (like in the Tower in the story in the Midrash). This root of a person, i.e. his soul, is a sacred place, however. Solomon refers to such a tragic situation when he speaks of the slave turned master in Proverbs 30,22. When the Torah speaks of לא תעשון אתי אלוהי כסף, it refers to deities one serves because of a genuine conviction, longing.

ואלהי זהב AND GODS OF GOLD — This statement is intended to lay down a prohibition that one may not add to the number of two Cherubim which are prescribed: for if you make four they will be regarded by Me as gods of gold (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:20:2).

The second category of idol worshiper is the person who is well aware in his heart that such deities are worthless and ineffective but they perform such service in order to reap some immediate and indirect benefit therefrom for themselves. For instance, such a person may ask a third person to pay him a sum of money in order to go through the motions of consulting such deity on the third person's behalf. The person who performs such sham service says to himself that inasmuch as G'd wants to be served by the heart, and he himself believes in the One and only G'd with all his heart, he has not really done anything wrong seeing in his heart he despises any kind of idolatry. Concerning such form of pro forma idolatry the Torah writes ואלוהי זהב לא תעשו לכם, do not perform idolatrous rites even if your intention is merely to earn some gold pieces.

לא תעשו לכם YE SHALL NOT MAKE FOR YOURSELVES — Ye shall not say: Behold I will make Cherubim in the Synagogues and the Houses of Study of the same kind as I make in the House of Eternity (a term for the Temple at Jerusalem); on this account it states: “ye shall not make for yourselves” (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:20:2).

The Torah reveals that the sin of such a person is that he demeans himself in order to make money by having recourse to idolatry. This is why the Torah writes לכם when speaking of such a person, as opposed to the אתי which the Torah used to characterise a person who believes in the deity he worships. In the case of the person who pretends to believe in the idol, the effect on his personality is not as traumatic as the one described in the Midrash we have quoted where the serpent is portrayed as having found refuge in his very root.