Avodah Zarah, Daf Nun Gimmel, Part 5

 

Introduction

Todays section opens with a mishnah that discusses whether idolaters who abandoned their idols intended to annul them.

 

מתני׳ עבודת כוכבים שהניחוה עובדיה בשעת שלום מותרת בשעת מלחמה אסורה

 

An idol which its worshippers abandoned in time of peace is permitted; in time of war it is prohibited.

 

If an idolater abandoned his idol in time of peace the idol is permitted since we can assume that the idolater has no intention of returning to worship the idol. For instance if Maximus the idolater decides to move from Jaffa to Caesarea and he leaves his idols behind, he has shown that he doesn t intend to worship them anymore. However, if Maximus the idolater flees his home during a war and in distress leaves his idols behind, he may intend to return and worship them when the war is over. Therefore they are not considered to be annulled.

בימוסיאות של מלכים הרי אלו מותרות מפני שמעמידין אותה בשעה שהמלכים עוברים:

 

Pedestals of kings are permitted because they set them up at the time the kings pass by.

 

Pedestals which were set up on the sides of roads to place upon them idols when kings pass by are not forbidden to Jews, since they are only temporarily used by the kings. During other times, when normal people pass them by, they do not worship these pedestals.

 

גמ׳ אמר רבי ירמיה בר אבא אמר רב בית נמרוד הרי היא כעבודת כוכבים שהניחוה עובדיה בשעת שלום ומותר אע"ג דכי בדרינהו רחמנא כשעת מלחמה דמי אי בעיא למיהדר הדור מדלא הדור בטולי בטלה:

 

GEMARA. R. Yirmiyah b. Abba said in the name of Rav: The Temple of Nimrod is to be regarded the same as an idol which its worshippers abandoned in time of peace and is permitted. Even though when God dispersed them, it was like a time of war, if they had wished to return [and claim the idols] they could have returned; but since they did not, they must have annulled them.

 

The Temple of Nimrod, is, at least according to Rashi, the Temple built to Nimrod, led the rebellion against God before the flood. Theoretically when God dispersed them, they were leaving in a time of war and therefore the idols in this Temple should remain prohibited, as we learned in the Mishnah. But since they have had time (thousands of years) to return and reclaim the idols, and yet have not done so, it is as if they have annulled them.

I m not sure what this Temple of Nimrod actually was did it exist in the time of the rabbis? Perhaps it was some sort of idolatrous Temple that lay in ruins that looked really old. The rabbis might have assumed that it came from the time of Nimrod.