What Makes Something Jewish or Not Jewish?

 Parshat Nitzavim 

by Rabbi Avi Billet

In the early 2000s, a rabbi went to India and reported to certain rabbis in Israel that there is a ritual exercised by certain Hindus called Tonsure which is essentially an offering of one’s hair to the Temple. This became a big scandal as many human hair sheitels (wigs) contain hair from India, and if the practice is an idolatrous practice, then the hair would be forbidden for a Jew to benefit from. 

The question is if this is a personal sacrifice that a person makes (such as if a person commits to be a vegan), or if this is an actual required idolatrous practice. If it’s the former, then it is not clearly idolatry. If the latter, it likely is idolatry, which would render the hair forbidden for Jews to derive any benefit from it. 

There are people who fall on both sides of the spectrum in terms of understanding how to define the dedication of one’s hair (I read an article that claims the hair is sold to reap hundreds of millions of dollars annually for Hindu Temples – which could easily be seen more as a donation than a devotion from that angle alone. It would still depend if the hair is actually used for some idolatrous practice or if it’s simply a form of commerce. People can feel whatever they like when they are donating, but if the hair isn’t actually used for some religious ritual, but is merely weighed, bundled, and sold, the religiosity of the whole thing can certainly be called into question.) 

Much trust goes into the sheitel business, so for those who support the human-hair sheitel industry, beware that if the issue is indeed idolatry, the concern remains. If one wants to be careful in either case, then one must ascertain that the hair is coming from other sources. 

With all that being said, we can look at the statement in our parsha that reminds us of our having come across idols in our travels through Egypt and other lands – “of wood and stone, of silver and gold.” While the parallel to the Indian hair is not exactly the same, the question that we can ask is are these materials, which are all used for idolatrous purposes, things we should avoid? There are certain practices that are considered in Jewish law to be “Darkei HaEmori” (ways of the Amorites – forms of idolatry) and are to be avoided. Some examples include thorns in a window to protect a pregnant woman or tying an iron to one's bed. There is even a debate about certain medical practices that are or seem irrational, whether they are included in the category of “Darkei HaEmori” (see more of these in Tosefta Shabbos chapters 7&8) 

The Talmud in Avodah Zara (51b) compares our verse to the pasuk in Devarim 7:25 which prohibits the use of silver and gold on the idol. Since the pasuk there doesn’t mention wood and stone, it is clear that the gold and silver mentioned refers to that which is specifically used to decorate the idol. We learn from there that the only wood and stone which is forbidden for our use, as noted in the verse here, is the actual wood or stone used to decorate the idol. 

Wood or stone not used to decorate an idol is certainly permitted for other uses. 

We can all breathe a sigh of relief that certain stone facades and countertops, wood panels and flooring may all remain in our homes and we need not redecorate with materials never used for idolatry. 

But what is used for idolatry? Is this something we need to concern ourselves with? 

Thankfully, we live in a nation which a. does not have an official state-run-church, b. separates church and state, c. sees the most worshiped item as being the dollar. It is far less likely to be challenged with the worry that something we are looking to purchase or use, made in a USA factory, ever had an idolatrous use attached to it. We still toivel pots and silverware, even though they are made by machines, and no human uses them before they are brought to market. Whether this is absolutely necessary is a good question – there is certainly merit in doing it in that it reminds us of the law, which may be applicable in different ways in different times and places 

While the halakhot remain in place, and I only advocate purchasing Kosher wine and grape juice, it is interesting to note that some streams of Conservative Judaism view all wine as kosher as they do not believe any wine is used for idolatrous purposes anymore. Even if this were to seem to be observably true, it doesn’t take away from the precautions we must take, because the truth is that for something like wine, which religions have always viewed as a sacrament of some kind, we honestly don’t know its true status without a hechsher. 

Since there isn’t a statute of limitations on what was used for idolatry – it is forbidden forever – it is always good to exercise caution when caution is advised. 

While we may not be enticed or enamored by actual idolatry today, we ought to take pause and consider that one of the goals of idolatry was to turn people away from God. As Rosh Hashana is only a few days away, it is a good time to take stock of how we use our time. How much of our time is dedicated to God-pursuits, how to better serve Him? And how much of our time is – were we to actually look back at the end of the day – wasted on pursuits that only take us away from getting closer to our ultimate goals. 

The first place to start is media and screens. If we’d all limit our screen usage to the websites dedicated to learning, and realize that the media creates a trap that has us glued to screens throughout the day, we’d see that even if it’s not actually idolatry, it is the biggest distraction we face in our lives today. 

As we commit to Teshuva – literally to return to God – let us commit to give ourselves the greatest chance of actually getting closer to Him, through eliminating the distractions that take us away from what should be our life goals. 

To answer the question in the title – what makes something Jewish?- it depends on how it is used. We are not forbidding sheitels, irrational medical practices, gold or silver, or stone or wood. We must use everything we can as a means to get closer to Hashem. That is the ultimate goal of a Jew, to use our world and all the resources available to us as a means to enhance our relationship with our Creator.