Shituf: Difference between revisions
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The idea of ''shituf'' is only found in the Northern European school of Jewish law of Tosafot. In other countries it is unknown. |
The idea of ''shituf'' is only found in the Northern European school of Jewish law of Tosafot. In other countries it is unknown. |
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==Eighteenth Century== |
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[[Moses Mendelssohn]], the Jewish enlightenment thinker used the concept of ''shituf'' as cited in Tosafot to justify any form of association of God with another entity. |
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[However,] the nations of the world though they recognize the entity of God … they nevertheless worship another entity besides Him. A few worship the angels above believing that God apportioned to each one of them a nation or country … to rule, and they have the power to do good or bad as they please. |
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And these are called "other gods" in the Torah.… And a few [of the nations of the world] worship the stars in the sky … or people … and bow down to them, as is known. And the judgment of the intellect does not require to forbid such worship to a Son of Noah if he does not intend to remove himself from the realm of God because by what [obligation] must he offer service and prayer to God alone? And if he hopes for good and fears bad from an entity besides Him and acknowledges that also that entity is subject to God, it is not beyond the intellect for him to offer sacrifices, incense, and libation and to pray to this entity be it an angel, demon, or person.… And who would say to us [Jews] that such offerings are appropriate for God only had He not warned us against [offering to other gods] in His Torah. |
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<ref>MENDELSSOHN'S RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE OF NON-JEWS. Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Summer/Fall2004, Vol. 41, Issue 3/4</ref> |
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==Twentieth Century== |
==Twentieth Century== |
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Revision as of 14:49, 4 July 2008
Shituf or shittuf is a Hebrew term which describes the worship or belief of other gods or divine aspects in addition to the God of Israel.
Source of the concept
Deuteronomy 4:19 reads:
And lest you lift your eyes towards the heavens, and you will see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, all the heavenly hosts, and you will stray, and you will bow to them, and worship those [sun, moon, etc.] that God apportioned to the nations below the heavens.
The rabbis inferred from this verse and others that non-monotheistic worship might be permissible for non-Jews, provided that they worship God as well. This "association" of other powers with God was termed shituf, or "association".
This exemption from the absolute monotheism espoused in Judaism was made only for non-Jews. For Jews, any deviation, however small, from absolute monotheism is considered avodah zarah, or Idolatry. The view that it is permissible even for non-Jews is a minority one.
Talmudic sources
It is permissible to [cause a gentile's oath through litigation with one's non-Jewish partner because] today all swear in the name of the saints to whom no divinity is ascribed. Even though they also mention God's name and have in mind, in any event no idolatrous name is actually said, and they also have the Creator of the world in mind. Even though they associate (shituf) God's name with "something else", we do not find that it is forbidden to cause others to associate (shituf), and there is no issue of placing a stumbling block before the blind [by entering into litigation with the non-Jewish business partner, thereby causing him to take an oath] because the Sons of Noah were not warned about it (Tosafot Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 63b).
In the 16th Century, the terse comment is explained as follows:
The idea of shituf is only found in the Northern European school of Jewish law of Tosafot. In other countries it is unknown.
Twentieth Century
One twentieth century explanation of the above passage is as follows: In Judaism there is allowance for Gentile belief that there are other gods besides the Creator, but forbidding actual worship of them:
So long as ascribing power to a deity other than the Creator remains conceptual, it is permissible to the Children of Noah according to many authorities. But worship of this independent being is clearly idolatry.[1]
According to Louis Jacobs: