Shabbat Shalom, beloved.
Israel loves idolatry. All twelve tribes. The whole nation. They just can't seem to get enough of it.
That is definitely one of the takeaways from this week's Torah and haftarah portions — the golden calf and Elijah battling the prophets of Baal.
What amazes me is how ineffective the massive, reality-breaking miracles were. Look at what Israel had witnessed before building the calf:
After all that, they build the golden calf.
Forty years later, their children — after being provided for by the hand of G-d, manna, water from the rock, the clouds of glory — are enticed by Moab and begin worshiping Baal Peor.
In the haftarah, Elijah confronts King Ahab and the 450 prophets of Baal. They have a contest. The false prophets fail. Elijah mocks them. G-d sends fire and consumes the sacrifice. The people are amazed and proclaim: Adonai hu ha-Elohim — Adonai, He is the Power, He is G-d.
But if we keep reading, nothing changes. The people continue with their idolatry. Except for a small remnant.
Massive, reality-breaking miracles don't end idolatry. Israel likes its simple idols with their easy-to-comprehend physical forms.
Before we look at the standard, Exodus 32 makes the sickness plain. Aaron forms the calf and then declares: "Tomorrow is a feast to Adonai." That is what makes the golden calf so dangerous. They were not necessarily saying "we hate Adonai now." They were mixing. They attached His name to an image He did not command. That is mixed worship — and it is far more subtle and far more common than outright rejection.
The Standard — Exodus 20
I am Adonai your E-lohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.
Exodus 20:2–3
The literal Hebrew: There shall not be to you other powers upon my face. You do not get to have any other deity in my presence.
You shall not make for yourself any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them — for I Adonai your E-lohim am a jealous G-d…
Exodus 20:4–5
"Serve them" in the Hebrew means: work for their gain. Two prohibitions in one verse — do not worship them, and do not labor in their interest.
What E-lohim Actually Means
I translated E-lohim as "powers." Let me explain that, because it is crucial to understanding idolatry.
El is the Hebrew word for power. The im suffix — like our English letter S — indicates plurality. To say son in Hebrew: ben. To say sons: benim. E-lohim can be read literally as "the plurality of powers."
In the beginning E-lohim created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
This opens a door. "In the beginning gods created…" "In the beginning the plurality of powers created…" "In the beginning a pantheon of deities created…" There are false teachers today teaching exactly that.
But the correct reading uses what I call the "singular plural" — a plural that comes from a singular source. When we use this in the context of E-lohim, the Creator, it means: the Source of all Powers.
In the beginning the Source of all Powers created the heavens and the earth.
We recognize that everything created comes from this one Source. When we see a power — the sun, the moon, the oceans, nature, life and death, even angels both good and bad — we recognize that it comes from E-lohim. The pagan societies recognized powers too. But they failed to recognize that all these powers have a single source. When they saw a power, they deified it and worshipped the power instead of the Source.
Most pagan pantheons include a sun deity — Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Celtic, Nordic, even Native American societies. They recognized the sun's role in sustaining life. They failed to recognize the Creator who made the sun. That is the root of idolatry: worshipping the power, not the Source.
A natural question: why leave room for confusion at all? Why not write "In the beginning YHVH created the heavens and the earth?" That is a good question. And the answer connects to the name E-lohim itself, which is also used in the Tanakh to refer to pagan gods, to powerful men, to judges, and to angels.
I said, "You are gods (E-lohim), and all of you are sons of the Most High."
Psalm 82:6
Judges are called E-lohim. That is not an accident. When you appoint yourself to sit as a judge, you are positioning yourself as G-d over someone. That authority is appointed — it is never self-declared. The name E-lohim is connected to the attribute of justice. The natural order — the laws that keep the sea level, the oceans from spilling, the sun moving through the sky — all of that comes from this Source.
Simple vs. Obscure
Genesis 1:26 causes difficulty for some:
And E-lohim said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Genesis 1:26
"And the plurality of powers said, Let us make man in our image." Could it be read that way? Yes, and there are those who do. But look at verse 27:
E-lohim created man in his image — in the image of E-lohim he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27
Three times in one verse: singular. One Creator acted alone. The simple meaning of verse 26 is that one Creator speaks using the royal "we." That simple meaning lines up perfectly with the rest of Torah.
The Simple
One Creator speaks using the royal "we." Consistent with Exodus 20:2–3: "I am Adonai your G-d… you shall have no other gods before me." One voice. One command. One Source.
The Obscure
If G-d is actually talking to something else, we don't know what. The text does not tell us. That ambiguity leaves room for eisegesis — reading into the text what we want to see.
There is nothing wrong with studying obscure things. But we must look at them in context and test them against the simple meanings. Pagan theologies rely on the obscure to reinterpret or redefine the simple. When we twist the text to make G-d conform to our image, that is idolatry. Eisegesis is not just bad hermeneutics. It is a form of idol-making.
A Word About the Tension in the Room
There is already some tension in the room. Some of that is just from my zeal. Some is from the Ephraim-Judah dynamic. There may be concern that sincerely held beliefs are about to be challenged.
Before we continue, I want to address that tension directly — and make myself vulnerable in the process.
When I turned 30 and entered my time of service, I began to take up my calling. I was completely unprepared for the intensity of what came with it. There were times when the Levitical zeal and righteous indignation would become so intense that normal rational thought was gone. All that was left was how wrong the situation was. I got at least a small taste of what Phineas felt when he grabbed his spear. What Moses felt when he shattered the tablets. Ki anoki Adonai E-loheka El kana — for I Adonai your E-lohim am a jealous G-d.
I was ready to break down every idol, tear down every high place, attack any and all doctrines and dogmas with little concern for who was damaged along the way. It took months to get it under control.
I had to learn from Aaron. I kept on my library wall the quote: "Be the student of Aaron — love peace and pursue peace, love your fellows and bring them close to the Torah." And Malachi 2:6: "The Torah of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips; he walked with me in peace and uprightness, and did turn many away from iniquity."
Aaron is remarkable in this portion. He tried hard to delay the people from their idolatry so that Moses could return. And after I began pursuing love for my fellow, more and more the zeal came under control. Then I got to experience the Father's love flowing through me. That was the other kind of intense. But with that I had perspective. And then I was truly able to begin serving.
So understand: I am not here as a judge looking down on you. I am a brother coming alongside you. I am here to walk hand in hand with you into the arms of the Most High. Yes, some things may hit close to home. That is true love. If I don't push you to be better, how can I claim that I love you?
We are not called to rebuke a brother because we hate him. We are called to rebuke a brother so that we don't end up hating him. Leviticus 19:17: "You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you shall rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him."
How Serious Is This?
Imagine every person in the room is an entire family. Then imagine more families. Two hundred distinct families. 800 to 1,000 individuals. Now imagine one of those families — just one — engaged in the sin of the golden calf.
Because of that one family, G-d was ready to wipe out everyone except Moses. Three thousand out of 600,000. Half of a percentage point. That is how seriously the Creator regards this.
If we are in relationship with Him, we should take the things He takes seriously. And He takes idolatry with absolute seriousness. 51 of the 613 commandments address idolatry directly. That number alone tells you the weight of the subject.
We would not only study the literal laws. We would study every account of Israel falling into idolatry and learn to recognize it — learn the heart behind it, the enticement that drew our forefathers. Our idols aren't little statues. We have moved our idols into our hearts.
It does not matter if it is an idol of wood we create with our hands, or an idea of G-d we invent with our mind. If we create it, control it, and make it conform to us, it is still an idol.
This is why understanding E-lohim as the Source of all Powers matters so much. The moment we strip Him of an attribute we find inconvenient, or add an attribute He never claimed, or reshape His character to fit our preference — we have stopped worshipping E-lohim and started worshipping our own invention. The name on the altar doesn't change what the altar is.
Not trusting that G-d had her best interest in mind. "Eat this and you will have the knowledge to know if G-d's plan for you is good or evil."
Wanting G-d on his own terms. Expecting G-d to conform to him rather than conforming to G-d.
Making himself into a G-d. Self-deification through power and empire.
Trying to take G-d's glory for themselves. Using unity for self-aggrandizement rather than service.
Idolatry is enticing because it creates a god that conforms to us. We become the creator. We can create a god that agrees with everything we already believe, that accepts everything we already do, that requires nothing we are not already willing to give. Things can be hidden from an idol, or it can be manipulated into seeing things our way.
Those are powerful enticements. The same is not true with E-lohim. We are expected to conform to Him. He outlines how we live. This is not a negotiation.
A Time Is Coming
Take this seriously. Do not wait for someone else to do this work for you. Do not outsource discernment. Study the prophets. Read Hosea. Pray Daniel 9. Learn the laws and stories of idolatry until your heart can recognize the temptation before your hands ever touch it.
A time is coming when the idolatry in Israel will be confronted directly. The false prophet will perform miracles. The lawless one will show obscure things proving his theology is right. The sources are Deuteronomy 13, Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2, and Revelation 13. But the root of all of them is Deuteronomy 13:
If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass… saying, "Let us go after other E-lohim which you have not known, and let us serve them" — you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For Adonai your E-lohim is testing you, to know whether you love Adonai your E-lohim with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after Adonai your E-lohim and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and cleave to Him.
Deuteronomy 13:1–4
"Cleave to Him." That is the same word used when a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife. Same word. Same concept. The antidote to idolatry is not simply refusing false gods. It is cleaving to the true one.
You must understand idolatry for yourself — so that you yourself can resist the temptation when it comes. Because it will come. And it will come with miracles.
Shabbat Shalom. Kol Tuv — Matti Kahana