הלכות יום חול.Practices for life in a secular age.2

(4) The idol of an idolater is prohibited immediately; but if it belonged to a Jew it is not prohibited until it is worshipped.

An idolater can annul an idol belonging to himself or to another idolater, but a Jew cannot annul the idol of an idolater.

He who annuls an idol annuls the things that pertain to it. If he only annulled the things that pertain to it these are permitted but the idol itself is prohibited.

(5) How does he annul it?

If he cut off the tip of its ear, the tip of its nose, or the tip of its finger; or if he defaced it, although there was no reduction in the mass of the material, he has annulled it.

If he spat before it, urinated before it, dragged it [in the dust] or hurled excrement at it, behold it is not annulled.

If he sold or gave it as a pledge -

Rabbi says that he has annulled it,

but the sages say that he has not annulled it.

Paraklos b. Plaslos asked Rabban Gamaliel in Akko, as he was bathing in the bath of Aphrodite.

He said, “It is written in your Torah, ‘none of the herem shall cling to your hands (Deut. 13:18)’; why then do you bathe in the bath of Aphrodite?"

He said, "Answers are not given in the bath."

And when he left, he told him, "I did not come into her precinct, she came into my precinct. They do not say, let us make a bath a decoration for Aphrodite; but Aphrodite is made a decoration for the bath.

Another thing: were they to give you much money, would you come to your idol naked and impure of seminal emission, and urinate in front of her? This one stands on the sewer and all the people urinate in front of her.

It says their gods (Deut. 12.2). That which is treated like a god is forbidden, and that which is not treated like a god is permitted.

They asked the elders in Rome, “If He does not will idolatry to exist, why does he not annul it?"

They said:"If they worshipped something the world does not need, he would have annulled it. But behold, they worship the sun, and the moon, and the stars. Would he destroy his world on account of the mindless?"

They said: "If so, he can destroy what the world does not need, and keep what the world needs."

They said: "Then we too strengthen the hands of the worshippers of the latter, for they will say, know that they are gods, for they have not been annulled."

What is Hanukkah?

The Sages taught in Megillat Ta’anit: On the twenty-fifth of Kislev, the days of Hanukkah are eight. One may not eulogize on them and one may not fast on them. When the Greeks entered the Sanctuary they defiled all the oils that were in the Sanctuary by touching them. And when the Hasmonean monarchy overcame them and emerged victorious over them, they searched and found only one cruse of oil that was placed with the seal of the High Priest. And there was sufficient oil there to light the candelabrum for only one day. A miracle occurred and they lit the candelabrum from it eight days. The next year the Sages instituted those days and made them holidays with recitation of hallel and special thanksgiving.

The Sages taught in a baraita:

It is a mitzva to place the Hanukkah lamp at the entrance to one’s house on the outside, so that all can see it.

If he lived upstairs, he places it at the window adjacent to the public domain.

And in a time of danger, when the gentiles issued decrees to prohibit kindling lights, he places it on the table and that is sufficient to fulfill his obligation.

Rav was asked: What is the ruling with regard to moving a Hanukkah candle from before the ḥabarei, Persian Zoroastrian fire priests, on Shabbat? Those priests prohibited lighting fires on certain days. In order to prevent them from discovering that he lit Hanukkah candles it was necessary to quickly move them.

And he said to them: One may well do so.

If a poor person must choose between Sabbath lights or Hanukkah lights, Sabbath lights or wine for Kiddush - Sabbath lights take priority, so as to make peace in his home.

After all, even the prohibition of erasing the Name of God written on a document may be transgressed, for the sake of bringing peace between a man and his wife!

Great is peace, since the entire Torah was given to make peace in the world, as it is written about the Torah:

Her ways are pleasant ways,

And all her paths - peaceful.

(Proverbs 3:17)

Faith, too, has a song and a melody particular to faith. We find this even with regard to the misguided beliefs of idolaters; each idolatrous faith has its particular melody, which they play and perform in their houses of prayer. The same is true of its opposite, of holiness. Each faith has its song and melody.,The song that is particular to the aforementioned faith, the faith that is more exalted than all the types of wisdom and faith in the world—i.e., faith in the Infinite Light itself, which encircles all worlds, as explained above—that song, too, is higher than all the melodies and songs in the world that pertain to every wisdom and faith. And all the songs and melodies of all the wisdoms are drawn from this song and melody, which is more exalted than all the songs and melodies of all the wisdoms because it is the song that pertains to faith in the Infinite Light itself, which is higher than everything.