[Avodah] [Areivim] abayudaya

[Joshua Meisner]

On Jan 15, 2008 6:08 AM, Michael Makovi <mikewinddale at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I haven't studied this, but I always assumed that meant davka when reading
> the Tanach. I.e., while reading the Tanach, when the pasuk mentions a deity,
> you can say it as written.

Sanhedrin 63a as gives an example of this heter the permissibility of
mentioning the towns of Kalnevo and Gadyon, which are named after
Babylonian deities.

>  Because if any deity mentioned in the Tanach, you can say it whenever you
> want, at any time, then of what use was the assur during Biblical times?
> That assur only came into effect much much later (when we first,
> post-Biblically, encountered non-Canaanite/Babylonian deities), if you say
> that b'klal it is mutar to say any deity mentioned in the Tanach.

Who says that every avodah zarah worshipped by the goyim asher
s'vivoseinu is mentioned in Tanach?

> Alternatively, it creates a difference in the mitzvah before and after the
> Tanach was written. Was it d'oraita assur to say the name, but as soon as
> the Tanach was written, it suddenly became d'oraita mutar? That seems
> difficult, to say that Yehoshua or Yechezkel or Yishayahua or Ezra could not
> say a given name, but we can.

When the nevi'im mentioned the names, perhaps it can be considered
hora'as sha'ah - or for that matter, a direct Divine heter - for them
to be oveir the issur.  Alternatively, perhaps the issur is only to
*say* the name (lo yishama al picha), but for the nevi'im to write the
name is OK?

Joshua Meisner