Log on to social media or turn on a cable news network, and one can easily find Americans—of many political persuasions—speaking of their partisan rivals as not only wrongheaded, but even as evil. Leon Morris and Zvi Hirschfield find in the Talmud a model for a more constructive approach:
In the Bible, the worst thing a person can be is an idolater. . . . The Bible also sees idolatry as an assault on truth, the foundation upon which a good society is built. In its day, idolatry was the sin of monumental proportions that was always threatening the vitality of the Israelite community. . . . The Bible’s punishment for the sin of idolatry is utter destruction.
The rabbis of the 2nd century CE changed this conversation in a clear way. Their approach was decidedly different from the literal approach of the Bible they studied. Many of them lived in mixed cities alongside populations that worshiped idols. They understood that they would not have the power to conquer Rome. The talmudic tractate of Avodah Zarah, [literally, “foreign worship”], is replete with attempts to draw boundaries that enable faithful Jews to avoid inadvertently supporting the idolatrous practices they disagreed with, while simultaneously embracing a shared public square.
America, it seems, is rediscovering the Bible’s approach to idolatry—but it is the rabbinic approach that is most desperately needed in our time. We simply cannot afford to see our diverse society with its very significant political and ideological differences in biblical terms. The rabbinic tradition helps us to understand that we cannot remove or wipe out difference. We do have to draw lines, of course, as they did. Yet, we need to learn to live with difference.
Read more on Jewish News of Northern California: https://www.jweekly.com/2020/09/29/your-political-opponent-is-not-an-idol-worshipper/