Kaisipang Hudyo sa Jeremias 10:7: Duties, Derashot HaRan & Guide for the Perplexed

The reason for "that the Name of the L-ord is called upon you" (Devarim 28:10), is that we were called "the nation of G-d", "the nation of the Almighty", "the priests of G-d", "the servants of G-d", "the slaves of G-d", "the sons of G-d", and other titles similar to these of words depicting special treasured status and special choice. But "they will fear from you", is for the honor of the Creator and awe of Him, as written "Who would not fear you, O King of nations?" (Yirmiya 10:7), and like the verse says of what in the future we will attain of closeness to the Creator, and being singled out for His service "One shall say: 'I am of the L-ord'" (Yeshaya 44:5), and therefore the importance of a person to the Creator is according to the person's closeness to Him and serving of Him.

Add to this the fact that (in my view) the peoples regarded idol worship as appropriate and necessary, and as dictated by reason itself! This, contrary to what the Rambam of blessed memory has written in the first chapter of the laws of idol worship (Mishneh Torah) to the effect that the essential error behind idol worship from the beginning was people's saying that the Blessed One had created stars and constellations and accorded them honor in their roles of servants serving Him on high, and that they, therefore, deserved praise, glory, and honor, the King desiring that His servants be honored. Accordingly, they became idolators to gain the Creator's favor, according to their perverse theories. This is the opinion of the Rambam, which he may have been led to by having found a similar idea in one of the Midrashim or in one of the early books of idolatry that may have come to his hands. It is my view, however, that reason itself led them to this conclusion, their being of the school of those philosophers who thought that the Blessed One exercised no will or providence over the creation and that everything in the universe proceeds mechanically. All who subscribe to this view see the opposite view as absolute rebellion against the Blessed One and as the attribution of defect to Him, thinking, as they do, that He is extremely exalted above all this [direct governance of this "lowly" universe]. Reasoning thus perversely, and knowing for a fact that the stars and constellations act upon and influence the terrestrial world, so much so that each nation had a star of its own, as it is written (Deuteronomy 4:19): "And lest you lift your eyes to the heavens, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, and you go astray and bow down to them, and worship them, the L-rd your G-d having set them aside for all the peoples under the whole heaven" — knowing this and reasoning in their perverse wisdom that through their worship they would obtain bounty and success from the stars, they became entirely stepped in this perverse conviction — to the point that the accursed women said (Jeremiah 44:18): "And from the day we left off burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked all things." Such thinking would have confounded intellect completely if the Torah had not enlightened us, as it is written (Psalms 119:105): "Your word is a lamp to my feet." For there is no question that all who were of those convictions would not look upon idol worship as rebellion and perversity, being more likely to see as rebellious one who served the Blessed One than we, today, of the true conviction, see one who serves idols! And it is not that they denied His existence, for all peoples acknowledge this, as it is written (Jeremiah 10:7): "Who will not fear You, O King of nations; for to You it is fitting. For among all the sages of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like You." Our sages explained (Menachoth 110a): "They called Him the 'G-d of gods.'" That is, they admitted that He was the cause of all causes and that everything emanated from Him — but by way of mechanics, not by way of will. It followed from this that all who served Him, thinking that the Blessed One could show favor to them or protect them, were imputing a defect to Him [preoccupation with the "lowly" world]. And it followed, likewise, that one should serve the stars and the constellations in order to draw down their intrinsic effluence (according to their perverse views). There is no doubt that reasoning itself would have brought one to this pass if the Torah had not enlightened us to the contrary. Therefore, unaided reason causing one to think that idol worship constitutes exaltation of the Blessed One, and the opposite, denigration, the Torah had to repeatedly exhort us otherwise, to impress it upon us that this was not so, that idol worship did not exalt the Blessed One, but, to the contrary, angered Him.

You must know that idolaters when worshipping idols do not believe that there is no God besides them: and no idolater ever did assume that any image made of metal, stone, or wood has created the heavens and the earth, and still governs them. Idolatry is founded on the idea that a particular form represents the agent between God and His creatures. This is plainly said in passages like the following: “Who would not fear thee, O king of nations?” (Jer. 10:7); “And in every place incense is offered unto my name” (Mal. 1:11); by “my name” allusion is made to the Being which is called by them [i.e., the idolaters] “the First Cause.” We have already explained this in our larger work (Mishneh Torah, I. On Idolatry, chap. i.), and none of our co-religionists can doubt it.