Re'eh: Tearing Down the High Places

(1) Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us to be involved with words of Torah.

(1) These are the laws and rules that you must carefully observe in the land that the LORD, God of your fathers, is giving you to possess, as long as you live on earth.(2) You must destroy all the sites at which the nations you are to dispossess worshiped their gods, whether on lofty mountains and on hills or under any luxuriant tree.(3) Tear down their altars, smash their pillars, put their sacred posts to the fire, and cut down the images of their gods, obliterating their name from that site.(4) Do not worship the LORD your God in like manner,(5) but look only to the site that the LORD your God will choose amidst all your tribes as His habitation, to establish His name there. There you are to go,(6) and there you are to bring your burnt offerings and other sacrifices, your tithes and contributions, your votive and freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.(7) Together with your households, you shall feast there before the LORD your God, happy in all the undertakings in which the LORD your God has blessed you.(8) You shall not act at all as we now act here, every man as he pleases,(9) because you have not yet come to the allotted haven that the LORD your God is giving you.

There are three types of shrines: A shrine originally built for idolatrous worship behold this is prohibited. If one plastered and tiled [an ordinary house] for idolatry and renovated it, one may remove the renovations. If he had only brought an idol into it and taken it out again, [the house] is permitted. There are three kinds of [idolatrous] stones: A stone which a man hewed originally to serve as a pedestal [for an idol] behold this is prohibited. If one plastered and tiled [a stone] for idolatry, one may remove the plaster and tile, and it is then permitted. If he set an idol upon it and took it off, behold [the stone] is permitted. There are three kinds of asherah: a tree which has originally been planted for idolatry behold this is prohibited. If he chopped and trimmed [a tree] for idolatry, and its sprouted afresh, he removes the new growth. If he only set [an idol] under it and took it away, behold the tree is permitted. What is an asherah? Any [tree] beneath which there is an idol. Rabbi Shimon says: any [tree] which is worshipped. It happened at Sidon that there was a tree which was worshipped and they found a heap of stones beneath it. Rabbi Shimon said to them, “examine this heap.” They examined it and discovered an image in it. He said to them, “since it is the image that they worship, we permit the tree for you.”

(Devarim 12:2) Whence is it derived that if an asheirah (a tree devoted to idolatry) were cut down and grew again it must be cut down again — even ten times? From "Destroy shall you destroy." "all the places where the nations worshipped, etc.": Scripture here apprises us that the Canaanites were even more steeped in licentiousness than the Babylonians. "which you inherit": Do not emulate their (evil) ways lest others come and disinherit you. R. Yossi Haglili says: I might think that even if they worshipped the mountains and the hills you were commanded to destroy them; it is, therefore, written "their gods on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every leafy tree — "their gods on the mountains," but the mountains (themselves) are not (considered) their gods. And, likewise, for the hills and for the leafy trees. R. Akiva said: Before you said this, I would expound it before you (as meaning that) wherever you find a high mountain or a hill or a leafy tree know that there is idolatry (i.e., idolatrous images) there (and seek them out to destroy them). This is the intent of "on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every leafy tree."

Rabbi Akiva said to him: But isn’t it already stated: “You shall destroy” (Deuteronomy 12:2)? This obviously includes rooting out all traces of idols. If so, what is the meaning when the verse states: “And you shall destroy their name out of that place”? This means that it is a mitzva to give it a nickname....

How so? If the idol worshippers would call their house of worship the house of elevation [beit galya], one should call it the house of digging [beit karya]. If they call it the all-seeing eye [ein kol], one should call it the eye of a thorn [ein kotz].

Wild beasts come to the world for swearing in vain, and for the profanation of the Name. Exile comes to the world for idolatry, for sexual sins and for bloodshed, and for [transgressing the commandment of] the [year of the] release of the land.

The מקומות in 12,2 which have to be destroyed are a reminder that there is only one מקום, "one place" i.e. G–d who is not confined by space but has created it.

The tree is a reference to the tree of the first Adam, "whether on lofty mountains and on hills or under any luxuriant tree" this is the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. And by their root they are touching and rooting to holiness. . . .

But you must not do as we are doing here After the death of Aaron — since they used to travel from one encampment to another — a man might offer, e.g., a burnt-offering, in whatever encampment he desired; or, one man might offer the firstborn of his flock, while another man did not so offer — because the obligation in each case is dependent on the land of Israel. I do not agree with this interpretation. Rather, Moshe’s meaning is that they were not all completely dedicated to God . The reason he can say we [thereby including even himself — Translator] is that there were many commandments concerning, e.g., burnt-offerings, which could not be fulfilled except in the land of Israel (for so it is written [Numbers 15: 2]). the rest Figuratively, a condition from which their descendants will not stray. The same interpretation can be given to the word “inheritance”. Actually, however, the word rest is to be understood in connection with the phrase He grants you tranquility; and the word “inheritance” denotes the time when you will dwell in safety .

GEMARA:Rabbi Yitzḥak said: I heard that one sacrifices offerings in the temple of Onias in Egypt at the present time. The Gemara cites the basis for the statement of Rabbi Yitzḥak. He maintains that the temple of Onias is not a house of idol worship but rather a temple devoted to the service of God, and he maintains that the initial consecration sanctified Jerusalem for its time and did not sanctify Jerusalem forever. Therefore, after the destruction of the Temple, the sanctity of Jerusalem lapsed and the sacrifice of offerings elsewhere was no longer prohibited. For these reasons it was permitted to sacrifice offerings in the temple of Onias after the Temple was destroyed. The Gemara cites the source of this halakha. It is as it is written: “For you are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance” (Deuteronomy 12:9), which is interpreted: “Rest,” this is Shiloh; “inheritance,” this is Jerusalem. The verse juxtaposes and likens inheritance to rest: Just as in the place of rest, Shiloh, after its destruction there is permission to sacrifice offerings on improvised altars, so too in the place of inheritance, Jerusalem, after its destruction there is permission to sacrifice offerings on improvised altars.