יום ה Date: 8 Iyar, 5774 (5/8/14) – Beitzah#39 {Tani}

Necessary REPULSION

[39a bottom] Gemarah: A flame of an idol is not outrightly prohibited, while it is specifically prohibited to benefit from a Hekdesh (Holy) flame. The reason is because people distance themselves from (and are repulsed by) idolatry, but the same is not true of Hekdesh.

T’s lesson: If only this concept was completely true nowadays… Although we may be repulsed by actual stone and wooden idols, what about what we DO worship? Worshipping oneself, money, and power are all things that control people in our generations. The Gemarah teaches that just as one naturally should be repulsed by real idols of physical form, they should be repulsed by nowadays by idolatrous concepts as well.