Avodah Zarah 43B

Study Avodah Zarah folio 43B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.

Text Excerpt

This does not include the sun and the moon, as the Torah prohibits the fashioning only of a figure of all 4 faces of the creatures of the Divine Chariot together (see Ezekiel 1:10). All other figures, which are not in the likeness of the ministering angels, are permitted.

The Talmud raises a difficulty: If that is so, let the fashioning of a figure of a human face alone be permitted. Why then is it taught in a baraita: Figures of all faces are permitted, except for the human face?

Rav Yehuda, son of Rav Yehoshua, said: I heard in a lecture of R' Yehoshua that there is a different reason why one may not fashion a figure of a human face; the verse states: “You shall not make with Me [iti]” (Exodus 20:20). This can be read as: You shall not make Me [oti]. Since the human being

The Talmud asks: And is it permitted to fashion figures of other attendants of God? But isn’t it taught in another baraita that the verse: “You shall not make with Me gods of silver” (Exodus 20:20), is interpreted to mean that you shall not make figures of My attendants who serve before Me on high,

Abaye said: The Torah prohibits fashioning figures of only those attendants that are in the upper heaven, i.e., the supreme angels in the highest firmament, but it does not prohibit fashioning the celestial bodies, e.g., the sun and the moon, despite the fact that they too are located in heaven.