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Confronting the Challenge of Idolatry: Response to Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Same God, Other god

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Abstract

A critical analysis of some important issues raised by Goshen-Gottstein's book. The author argues that the most fruitful avenue for a Jewish approach to Hinduism is by using the concept of shituf. This means that for Jews, all use of statues, images, and speaking about “gods” is forbidden. However, for non-Jews, this would remain a permitted form of worship as long as the various gods are seen as manifestations of the one true God.

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Change history

  • 21 May 2022

    The word "Idolatory" in the title is corrected

Notes

  1. This essay preserves the oral form in which it was delivered.

  2. The controversy revolved around sheitls produced from the hair that people cut off before visiting a Hindu temple in Tirupati, India. Was this hair to be regarded as an idolatrous offering and thus forbidden to be used for sheitls?

  3. Klein, 2015, no. 115, pp. 203ff. For numerous other responsa dealing with the sheitl controversy, see

    http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~spotter/sheitel/

  4. See also Meiri, 1966, 67, where he refers to idolaters who are not bound by any religion.

  5. I accept the view of Jacob Katz, Louis Jacobs, and David Berger that it is a mistake to attribute to the tosafists the notion that shituf is a permissible theological outlook for non-Jews. See Katz, 1961, 163; Jacobs, 2000, 82 n. 12; Berger, 2015, 135 n. 31.

  6. He refers to the Trinity at the beginning of his Letter on Resurrection and in Guide 1:50. R. Saadiah Gaon earlier discussed the Trinity in Emunot ve-deot 2:5.

  7. This point was earlier stated by the sixteenth-century R. Solomon Modena. See Ruderman, 1979, 264, 270. As pointed out to me by Dr. David Berger, Joseph S. Bloch also cites this passage in Rabad to argue that Christianity is not avodah zarah. See Bloch, 1927, 44–45.

  8. I thank Dr. David Berger for enlightening me in this matter.

References

  • Berger, David. 2015. How, when, and to what degree was the Jewish-Christian debate transformed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries? In Jews and Christians in thirteenth-century France, ed. Elisheva Baumgarten and Judah D. Galinsky, 123–137. New York: Palgrave.

  • Bloch, Joseph S. Israel and the nations. 1927. Berlin-Vienna: B. Harz.

  • Goshen-Gottstein, Alon. 2016a. The Jewish encounter with Hinduism: Wisdom spirituality, identity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

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  • Goshen-Gottstein, Alon. 2016b. Same god, other god: Judaism, Hinduism, and the problem of idolatry. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

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  • Jacobs, Louis. 2000. A tree of life. London: Littman Library.

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  • Katz, Jacob. 1961. Exclusiveness and tolerance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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  • Klein, Menasheh. Mishneh halakhot, vol. 19. 2015. Brooklyn: Machon Mishneh Halachos.

  • Meiri, Menahem. Beit ha-Behirah: pesahim, ed. Yosef Klein. 1966. Jerusalem: Machon ha-Talmud ha-Yisraeli ha-Shalem.

  • Meiri, Menahem. Beit ha-behirah: bava kamma, ed. Kalman Schlesinger. 1971. Jerusalem, n.p.

  • Ruderman, David. 1979. A Jewish apologetic treatise from sixteenth century Bologna. Hebrew Union College Annual 50: 253–276.

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  1. University of Scranton, Scranton, USA

    Marc B. Shapiro

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  1. Marc B. Shapiro
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Shapiro, M.B. Confronting the Challenge of Idolatry: Response to Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Same God, Other god. Cont Jewry 41, 631–637 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-021-09384-0

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