Benefiting From Idolatry | Parashat Eikev

we cannot benefit from idolatry in any way shape or form we have here from where he commands us to Simply follow his laws once again once again he tells us to follow his laws uh where he tells us it shall be because you will listen to these judgments and you will observe perform them that Hashem your God will safeguard for you uh the Covenant and the kindness that he swore to your forefathers he will love you he will bless you he will multiply you and he will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land your grain your wines and your oil The Offspring of your cattle your herds or your flocks upon the land that he swore to your forefathers to give to you lots and lots of blessings says if you just simply only listen to the Torah if you just listen to the Torah and you follow the laws you get all these blessings now of course a person says oh follow blessings what to say I could do that what to say I could do that to say I can do that to put on the fing I could do that I could do a lot of things but then when he sees that in chapter 7 verse number 25 it says says that the uh carvings of their gods idolatry uh you shall burn in fire you shall not covet silver and gold upon them and take for yourself lest you being snared because of it for it is an Abomination to hasem your God so here tells us that one of those Commandments that's not that's not that's not necessarily so easy is not only to uh destroy idolatry when it's possible uh you know such as the that yesu had to destroy as soon as they enter or all types of other idolatry but to despise idolatry to mock idolatry so much so that we have a clear understanding that we cannot benefit from idolatry in any way shape or form so if let's say for example somebody sacrifices their hair uh to their false god in India and then they turn that hair into to the wig we cannot buy that wig we cannot wear that wig we cannot sell that wig because that would be benefiting from idolatry and this unfortunately is the majority of the wigs in the world today they're coming from idolatry it's a clear Torah violation that Shalom fought against the today is fighting against it saying that it's clear to him that not only are wigs forbidden because of the modesty issues but they're forbidden because they're coming from idolatry and many other have joined the battle uh to fight against the idolatry of wigs uh you know over the last several years uh since we've brought a lot of the uh research out there and proofs that it's simply impossible to find a kosher real hair wig out there that's not you know that's not coming from idolatry so one of the things that a person needs to do is to understand that he has to fight idolatry tooth and nail he has to marck it he cannot benefit from it where if it's a uh uh a product or if it's even missionaries that are going door too or making videos online a person needs to warn people about them if it's anything to do with uh things that are against theem that hem finds is an Abomination a person has to be aware that he has a obligation to not only stay away from it but uh if the opportunity uh is is given to such a person they have to fight it so this is not such necessarily such an easy mitvah especially for people that uh are falling for the the uh the Trap of the Satan which is money uh where it says don't fall for the uh the uh um gold and silver uh even if there's gold and silver on this idolatry don't take it because you're not have to benefit from it so theot is that if let's say they found a uh Idol and the idol has all types of diamonds on it that are worth a lot of money you're not allowed to take those diamonds and sell them in the market why because that would be benefiting from idolatry you have to destroy them with the idol even though if even if that Idol could build 50 you cannot benefit from it needless to say the same thing goes where a lot of people are taking money from the idol worship of Christianity Today where they're taking donations from them in order to build all types of places uh that are connected to Judaism but in reality we see that not only is this a trap from Christianity in order to keep an open door policy for them to missionized the Jews but also we see that there's a lot of problems in those institutions that are taking Christian money so K told us that we have to uh you know follow the Torah and not necessarily just the easy things things that perhaps are not politically correct and so on so how could a person get himself to such a point so in the par we see there's a couple of times where commands us to for to to be glued to him cleave onto him where it says um say your God shall you fear he shall him shall you serve to him shall you clink and his name shall you swear so it says that we have to fear him we have to serve him we have to cling to him later on in the end of the par this was in chapter 10 uh verse number 20 then later on in chapter 11 um verse number 22 it says that uh for if you will carefully observe this entire Commandment that I command you to do it to love hem your God uh to go in all his ways and to cling to him Hashem will drive out all these nations from before you and you will take possessions of the Nations greater and mightier than yourselves so again we're commanded to uh to cleave to a in addition to loving him to fearing him and a lot of good things will come out of it question is what's cleaving to hem so say how can you cleave to hem is a all consuming fire so it says really to cleave to it's not possible but you have to cleave to cleaving to is not only just learning the Torah but looking for opportunities to help help them financially help them in in socially help them in any way you possibly can and uh to to really be as close as possible to and try to help them in all the possible ways so much says a person that is a learned T but does not uh cleave to the to do to help these cannot be why is something that is keeps you close to uh where you're able to learn certain things that you can't learn from the you can't learn from the books uh and you can't learn just uh for no reason hasm literally has to gift it to you as a result of your behavior one of the great things that uh We've merited to have in is to be closer to our own dear and to be able to do more and more that things that of course we've tried to do everything we can from afar but things you there certain things you can't do from afar uh and uh it's a uh if a person understands what it is he truly gets a A literally a spiritual pleasure out of going to get a coffee or breakfast for his Rabbi to that extent but a person doesn't understand that thinks all way that what is that idolatry what is this what is that so such people unfortunately are still far away the question is is that all means to just for by offering our hairs because offering hair itself is most important one we are offering the beauty itself to the God we cannot benefit from idolatry in any way shape or form