Near the top of today’s daf, we read this curious exchange between Rabbi Yohanan and Rabbi Zakkai:
Rabbi Zakkai taught the following beraita before Rabbi Yohanan: If one sacrificed an animal to an idol, and burned incense as an offering to an idol, and poured a libation to an idol, and bowed to an idol, all in the course of one lapse of awareness, he is obligated to bring only one sin-offering. Rabbi Yohanan said to him: Go teach that outside.
If they are part of an episode of lapsed judgment, Rabbi Zakkai considers multiple discrete acts of idolatry, each of which is independently a sin, to be a single offense. Rabbi Yohanan finds this teaching so objectionable that he disrespectfully ejects his colleague from the study house.
Let’s back up for a moment: How is it even possible for a person to accidentally worship an idol? The Gemara explains:
If the transgressor thought that a certain building was a synagogue and bowed to it, and he then realized that it is a house of idol worship, he is certainly exempt, as his heart was directed toward Heaven.
Rabbi Yohanan’s yeshiva was in Tiberias, which in the rabbinic period was under Roman rule. Roman architecture — from the structure of buildings to the design of mosaics — influenced Jewish building projects, so it’s entirely plausible that a person might mistake a pagan temple for a synagogue. In this instance, if they bow toward the structure (or ruin), and only afterward realize it’s a place of idolatry, it matters that their intent was to worship God, not a foreign deity. The only penalty, if idolatry is done accidentally, is to bring a sacrifice.
There is a difference, however, between bowing to a building and bowing to a statue. Can the latter ever possibly be a mistake?
If he accepted that person (represented by the statue) upon himself as a god, he is an intentional transgressor and is liable to receive the death penalty, not to bring an offering. If he did not accept him upon himself as a god but rather bowed to the statue in order to honor the person, what he did is nothing.
A person bowing to a statue that they consider a god, or a representation of a god, is fully culpable. But a person who bows to a statue of, say, the emperor as a sign of respect rather than worship is exempt from capital punishment, and even from bringing a sacrifice, which is the penalty for accidental idolatry, as the Gemara succinctly explains:
Rather, it is clearly a case where one worshiped a statue due to love or due to fear of someone, and he was unaware that this is prohibited.
If someone bows to an idol out of “love or fear” — perhaps because they have great reverence for the person represented, or perhaps because of social pressure to do so — they are exempt from punishment. Idolatry in the ancient world was so ubiquitous that it could, in certain social situations, be almost impossible to avoid. If a person’s heart is towards Heaven, they are not considered as having intentionally committed one of Judaism’s three cardinal sins.
Back to our original dilemma: What do we make of Rabbi Yohanan’s seemingly outsized reaction to Rabbi Zakkai’s teaching? The Gemara posits various reasons for his harsh response, including a disagreement about a different rendition of the beraita, or the possibility that Rabbi Zakkai believes that two different teachings attributed to two different rabbis can be taught from the same beraita, while Rabbi Yohanan does not. Ultimately, Rabbi Yohanan walks back his reaction the tiniest bit, noting that in the unlikely event he’s mistaken:
I will carry his clothes after him (in the manner of a servant) to the bathhouse.
He better be careful, though, because Roman bathhouses were known to be decorated with statues of gods. But that’s a discussion for Tractate Avodah Zarah — coming in a few months’ time.
Read all of Sanhedrin 62 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on February 16, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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