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Idol Worship and the Trouble with ‘Normal’

A 3,500-year-old Canaanite clay tablet discovered by a six-year-old Israeli boy. Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority.

JNS.orgAre you into the TV show “American Idols?” Do you enjoy watching all that talent on television? What about other “idols?”

In this week’s Torah reading, Re’eh, Moses warns the Jewish people not to follow the pagan ways of the Canaanite nations when they inherit the Land of Israel. There is to be zero tolerance for idolatry and paganism. Those nations practiced the most outrageous forms of idolatry, including child sacrifice and other depravities. The great Torah scholar Rashi quotes Rabbi Akiva as saying he’d witnessed a pagan man tie up his own father and then unleash a pack of wild dogs who killed the father. Such was the norm in that ancient pagan society. The Israelites were taught repeatedly not to learn from them in any way.

The Torah offers three examples of how people may be swayed and seduced into idolatry.

The first is by listening to a false prophet. Such a charismatic individual may lure people away from Jewish values, charming them and tempting them to embrace an idolatrous path.

The second is when a family member or friend incites, instigates or persuades others to practice idolatry.

The third example is when an entire city is overcome by temptation and swept up into practicing idolatry. This is called a “wayward city,” when a whole town has gone astray and engages in paganism.

The whole thing sounds rather ancient and archaic. People today are not into idolatry. I don’t know of anyone who is tempted to go out and buy a statue and get on his or her knees to bow down to it. But there are still lots of “idols” out there that we may be tempted to worship.

For instance, even today we have false prophets—powerful and charismatic spiritual leaders who command the obedience of many followers. We’ve even read or heard about the tragic outcomes of some of these strange cults where a magnetic personality led his people to disaster or mass suicide.

We’ve seen family members and the wrong kind of friends mislead individuals and drag them down to the depths of despair and desperation.

And today we’ve even seen entire communities, cities, and sometimes even whole countries, being swept up in a strange ideology that is different and dangerous.

So, I was wondering, of these three examples, which do you think is the hardest to resist?

For people who lack self-esteem and are easily influenced by others, perhaps the first two situations may be the most difficult to resist. Yet I imagine that for most of us, it is the third scenario, where an entire city is caught up in paganism, that may be the most difficult of all to resist.

Why?

Because it’s one thing to resist a powerful, charismatic individual or a few friends who want to tempt you into doing something you know is wrong, but to reject what your whole town is doing takes unusual strength of character.

When everyone else is doing something, most people just follow the herd. If everyone else says “Yes,” who am I to say “No?” I don’t want to be different. People don’t enjoy standing out in a crowd and being looked at as funny or peculiar. Who wants to stick out like a sore thumb? No one!

A person may think, “Well, if everyone else is bowing down to those idols it must be OK. So, why shouldn’t I?”

What about worshipping idols of stage and screen? Are you a “Swifty?” Who do you “follow?” Today, we are blessed with a host of self-appointed celebrities who have absolutely nothing of significance to offer other than an attractive face. And yet they have millions of followers!

To me, the biggest “idolatry” of all is to follow the norm.

What is the “norm?”

Is getting divorced “normal?” If so many others are doing it, then why shouldn’t I? Why should I work at my marriage? It’s too hard. I’ll just get divorced. After all, it’s “normal.”

If the standard business practice in my industry is to bribe your way to get that big order, then why shouldn’t I do it as well?

And if the norm in my school is to cheat on exams, then why shouldn’t I? Everyone else is.

And if the norm in my community is that Shabbat ends on Friday night and Saturday is for golf or the hairdresser, then why must I be a religious fanatic?

Or if the norm in my community is to keep a kosher home but to eat out at non-kosher restaurants, then who am I to be “holier than thou?”

So the story of the wayward city gone astray reminds us that the “norm” is not necessarily “normal.” In fact, normal may just be another word for average or mediocre. Why be normal? Swim upstream, go against the current and be a mensch. Celebrate your individuality! Why be average? Be exceptional! Be special!

When ungodly, immoral or any other unwise behavior is “normalized,” then we mustn’t be normal. We must stand out with pride and principle. Who knows? Others may follow our lead.

The post Idol Worship and the Trouble with ‘Normal’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters

Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) filed a lawsuit challenging as unconstitutional the Trump administration’s actions to deport international students and scholars who protest or express support for Palestinian rights.

The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York, seeks a nationwide temporary restraining order to block enforcement of two executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump in the first month of his term.

The lawsuit comes after the detention of a Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent, whose arrest sparked protests this month.

Justice Department lawyers have argued that the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Rubio on Friday said the United States will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days.

Trump vowed to deport activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian terrorists.

The ADC lawsuit was filed on behalf of two graduate students and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who say their activism and support of the Palestinian people “has put them at serious risk of political persecution.”

“This lawsuit is a necessary step to preserve our most fundamental constitutional protections. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech and expression to all persons within the United States, without exception,” said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the ADC.

Chris Godshall-Bennett, the group’s legal director, said the litigation seeks immediate and long-term relief “to protect international students from any unconstitutional overreach that stifles free expression and deters them from fully engaging in academic and public discourse.”

The lawsuit centers on three Cornell University plaintiffs: a British-Gambian national and PhD student with a student visa; a US citizen PhD student working on plant science; and a US citizen novelist, poet, and professor in the Department of Literatures in English.

The post Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week

Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar speaks at Reichman University in Herzliya on Sunday, September 11, 2022. Photo: Screenshot

i24 NewsPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency, that he will bring a vote before his government to dismiss him next week.

The post Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes

Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

i24 NewsThe Houthis claimed on Sunday that they targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and other vessels in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone. Military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the US-led attacks against the Houthis on Saturday comprised of more than 47 airstrikes on seven governorates, with the death toll expected to rise.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country,” Saree said, vowing the Houthis “will continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and ban its ships in the declared zone of ​​operations until aid and basic needs are delivered to the Gaza Strip.”

The post Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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