[Avodah] The Two Faces of Alien Worship

[rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com]

I am drafting a blog post that is about Nadav and Avihu.

It is tangentially related to thread on "Where bread comes from"

Issue: when is innovation in practice kosher and when is it out of bounds

The following is more parshanus than psaq

Good Shabbos
RRW

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Some phrases can be quite ambiguous
EG
Slow Children at School
Does this refer to children who attend a school for the intellectually
challenged?
Most likely it means
X go SLOWly! - CHILDREN are attending or leaving SCHOOL

When in English we say "alien worship"

We may imply two different points

Worshipping Aliens (I.E. alien gods) which makes the Alien the Object
of worship

Or

Worshipping in an Alien-manner which means alien is an Adverb describing
HOW we worship.

Both aspects are discussed in the Torah

In the Ten Commandments we are admonished not to worship anyone but GOD
alone. "Thou shalt have no other gods before ME." Thus the proscription
for alien worship known in rabbinical literature as Avadah Zarah. AKA
avodat ellillim / gellilim / koachavim flows from basic Torah principles.
And as we see zara means alien.

OTOH alien worship in terms of a "HOW" to worship is not directly or
so obviously prohibited. Yet the torah unambiguously condemns such
a practice.

The first condemnation is in the passage describing the terrifying and
tragic Deaths of Nadav and Avihu (Lev. Ch. 10). They were burned in
front of THE LORD by bringing in an "eish Zara" an alien fire

Now there is no question they were worshipping the ONE TRUE GOD. This is
confirmed and reconfirmed 3 more times in the Torah itself!

The point was the how, the nature or the technique of their worship was
"alien". This alien worship is termed "eish zara" worshipping GOD by
the same means As idol worshippers.

In Deut. 12:30 we are admonished not to investigate and pursue the
techniques of the surrounding pagans. It can mean not worshipping idols.
I prefer to read this as admonishing us to not use idolotrous techniques
to worship GOD. The very next verse actually describes their TECHNIQUES
as abominations.

How does this map out in reality?

Worshipping hare krishna would be avodah zara.
Worshipping GOD using hare krishna chants would be "eish zara"

Worshipping Buddha with Tibetan Chimes - Avodah Zara

Worshipping GOD with Tibetan chimes -Eish zara

Christians worshipping J. of nazareth using an organ - avodah zara

Jews worshipping GOD with an organ (and thereby emulating Chrisitans) -
(you fill in the blank)

WHOM we worship is prime.

But the ends don't justify all means. HOW we worship the TRUE GOD has
also halachic (and possibly aggadic) boundaries.

The issue is when is innovation an "eish zara" and when is it kosher -
such as "Tashlich"