The Blogs: How Desire Becomes Doctrine and Don’t Be A Fool Sanhedrin 63-65

How Desire Becomes Doctrine

Our Gemara on Amud Beis offers an insight into what truly motivated the Jews to engage in idolatry—an insight that remains relevant in our times as well. Even though explicit idolatry is much less prevalent today, heretical beliefs that deny or subvert the Torah certainly persist as a challenge. The Talmud’s psychological analysis of idolatry can similarly be applied to many forms of modern heresy. The Gemara states:

Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: The Jewish people knew that idol worship was of no substance; they did not actually believe in it. They worshipped idols only in order to permit themselves to engage in forbidden sexual relations in public.

Many idolatrous rituals, such as those of Baal, involved engaging in various forms of sexual activity with Temple harlots. These rituals, centered on human reproduction, were intended to magically draw channels of fertility, ensuring rain and agricultural prosperity.

Rav Mesharshiyya raises an objection to this statement from the following verse: “Like the memory of their sons are their altars, and their Asherim are by the leafy trees, upon the high hills” (Jeremiah 17:2). Rabbi Elazar interprets this to mean that the Jewish people would recall their idol worship as one who longs for his child—indicating a deep emotional attachment to it.

The Gemara answers: This was only the case after the Jewish people became attached to idol worship, at which point they began to actually believe in it. Initially, they were drawn to it only due to their lust.

This reveals two psychological stages. First, the rituals were adopted to rationalize and normalize inappropriate and excessive sexual gratification. These rituals placed a veneer of morality over destructive and unfaithful behaviors—after all, participants could tell themselves they were performing a civic duty to ensure a good growing season.

Yet, deep down, they didn’t truly believe in it. However, with time, the idolatry metastasized into a second stage: the rituals became deep-rooted traditions, and an attachment to them developed, ultimately leading to actual belief—despite their irrational origins.

Rav Elchanan Wasserman (Kovetz Ma’amarim, Ma’amar al Emunah) describes a similar psychological process. He asks: How can belief or disbelief be considered a mitzvah or an aveirah? The Torah can command us to take certain actions and refrain from others, but how can it mandate what a person should believe? Furthermore, if belief comes naturally, why should it be considered a mitzvah at all?

Rav Elchanan intensifies the question by citing the Rambam, who considered Aristotle one of the wisest men of all time, possessing wisdom just short of prophecy. Yet, many of Aristotle’s philosophical beliefs were theologically incorrect. How can we expect a mere child of bar mitzvah age to arrive at the correct faith when even one of the greatest minds in history failed to do so?

Furthermore, the Gemara (Brachos 12b) interprets the command in Shema (Bamidbar 15:39), “Do not turn away following the lust of your heart,” as referring to heresy. Rav Elchanan asks: Why is heresy dependent on the heart? Isn’t it primarily an intellectual issue?

He answers by pointing out that even the wisest individuals can lose intellectual objectivity when they are bribed. The Torah and Talmud (Kesuvos 105b) warn that even the smallest favor can unwittingly bias a judge’s opinion. As the Torah states (Shemos 23:8):

“Do not take bribes, for bribes blind the clear-sighted and pervert the words of the just.”

Rav Elchanan argues that personal desires act as an internal bribe, distorting one’s ability to see the truth and leading one to rationalize all kinds of behaviors. This is why heresy is a violation of the command “Do not turn after your heart”—because the heart’s lust distorts one’s beliefs.

We are fortunate to live in a free society where individuals can privately act according to their conscience. But why is that not sufficient? Why must extreme and promiscuous behaviors not only be tolerated but celebrated? Even if some individuals, for various reasons, cannot follow all the Torah’s moral laws, why must these behaviors be turned into an ideology, proselytized, and even projected onto children?

Much of modern “woke” sensibilities, particularly their urge to moralize and proselytize, seem to be driven not by intellectual conviction but by the need to justify other sins and infidelities. Celebrating unconventional and promiscuous relationships—elevating them to the status of a moral crusade—allows the garden-variety sinner to feel less guilty about cheating in marriage, avoiding commitment, or shirking the responsibility of raising children.

Our Gemara teaches that so-called ideological arguments are often rooted in a biased need to rationalize the forbidden and indulge in moral laziness. What begins as blindness caused by desire eventually evolves into a fully developed belief system.

Does the Torah Command You to Not Be a Fool?

Our daf discusses the various prohibitions against divining omens and portents. The relevant verses are found in Devarim (18:10-18):

Let no one be found among you who consigns a son or daughter to the fire, or who is an augur, a soothsayer, a diviner, a sorcerer, one who casts spells, or one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or one who inquires of the dead.

For anyone who does such things is abhorrent to Hashem, and it is on account of these abominations that Hashem your God dispossessed those nations from before you.

You shall be tamim with Hashem your God.

Those nations that you are about to dispossess do indeed resort to soothsayers and augurs; to you, however, your God has not assigned the like.

From among your own people, your God will raise up for you a prophet like myself; that is whom you shall heed.

Taken as a whole, this series of prohibitions and directives instructs the Jewish people to refrain from using unauthorized channels to discern or influence the future. Instead, they are to rely on prophets, who are sanctioned by Hashem to communicate His will. The underlying idea seems to be that magical and formulaic methods do not constitute dynamic communication with God. At best, such practices are performative and transactional; at worst, they veer into idolatry. In contrast, seeking out a prophet provides more than just a “horoscope”—it offers moral and spiritual instruction, whether or not it includes foresight into the future.

What Does Tamim Mean?

The Torah commands us to be tamim with Hashem. How should we understand this term? The root of tamim is similar to shalem (Tav and Shin often interchange), which can mean whole, unblemished, but also pure and without guile. This range of meaning is reflected in various verses:

Shemos 12:5 – “Tamim,” referring to an unblemished korban

Bereishis 6:9 – “Noach was a righteous man, tamim in his generations” (meaning upright or pure)

Bereishis 20:5 – Used to indicate sincerity and lack of deceit

Bereishis 25:27 – Describing Yaakov as a “ish tam”, implying innocence or simplicity

Ramban, Seforno, and Rav Yosef Bechor Shor all understand this verse in Devarim similarly: Do not engage in extreme efforts to predict or control the future. Rather, trust in Hashem with emunah peshutah—simple, wholehearted faith.

These authorities accept that certain magical omens and practices may have been effective (as was the general belief in the pre-scientific world), but they are nonetheless forbidden. However, the Rambam takes a radically different stance. For him, not only are these practices idolatrous, but they are also intellectually corrupt, leading to a loss of connection to Hashem. As we discussed in Psychology of the Daf, Sanhedrin 62, the Rambam sees intellectual development as encompassing both wisdom and character. This intellectual pursuit, in turn, facilitates a deeper attachment to God, since it represents the highest form of human resonance with the Divine.

In Hilchos Avodas Kochavim (11:16), the Rambam writes:

All the above matters are falsehood and lies, with which the original idolaters deceived the gentile nations in order to lead them astray. It is not fitting for the Jews—who are wise sages—to be drawn into such emptiness, nor to consider that they have any value, as it says (Bamidbar 23:23): “No black magic can be found among Jacob, or occult arts within Israel.” Similarly, (Devarim 18:14) states: “These nations which you are driving out listen to astrologers and diviners. This is not what Hashem has granted you.”

Whoever believes in such things and considers them to be true—just forbidden by the Torah—is foolish and feebleminded… The true masters of wisdom and perfect knowledge know with clear proof that all these crafts which the Torah forbade are not reflections of wisdom, but rather emptiness and vanity, which attract the feebleminded and cause them to abandon the paths of truth. For this reason, when the Torah warns against these false matters, it commands (Devarim 18:13): “Be tamim with Hashem your God.”

Notably, the Rambam uses tamim here in the sense of completeness without blemish. The Torah is not instructing us to be naïve or simpleminded; rather, it is commanding us to refine our intellect and beliefs to a state of wholeness, allowing us to properly connect to Hashem.

The Rambam did not just view superstition and idolatry as religiously problematic—he saw them as socially destructive as well. In a remarkable teshuvah (Ma’amar Chozim Be-Kochavim), the Rambam makes a stunning assertion:

The real reason the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed is because the Jews started to believe in astrology. This led them to rely on foolish, baseless predictions instead of studying the tactics of war.

Historically, the Romans were renowned for their advanced military strategy. The Jews, despite their zeal, lost to a tactically superior foe. According to the Rambam, this was not merely a matter of bad luck or divine decree—it was the direct result of misplaced faith in superstitions, which led them to neglect rational defensive planning.

The Rambam delineates three valid reasons a person might believe something:

It is logically proven
It is perceived through the five senses
It comes from a reliable tradition, either sacred texts or teachings from a righteous sage

Beyond this, he stresses the need for intellectual clarity: one must differentiate how and why they know something. This emphasis on critical thinking is crucial—not only in religious matters but in all aspects of life.

According to the Rambam, the Midrashic teachings about the moral failings that led to the Temple’s destruction (Bava Metzia 85b, Yoma 9b, Eichah Rabbah Pesikta 2) were only the final manifestations of a deeper rot. The true downfall began long before the Roman invasion, and even evil deeds. When the Jewish people abandoned intellectual clarity and rational thinking, the country imploded from within before it was conquered from without.

This message is profoundly relevant today. While modern society is less superstitious, we are still plagued by intellectually and morally undeveloped worldviews that hinder true wisdom. We live in remarkable times—on the brink of technological breakthroughs in AI, biotechnology, and sustainable energy. The coming decades hold unprecedented opportunities. If we do not destroy ourselves first, we may enter an era of abundance, where material needs are no longer a concern.

But excess can lead to corruption—either out of boredom, or from a fear of confronting deeper truths. The challenge before us is clear: will we squander our potential, descend into foolish dogmas of arbitrary and rigid beliefs, religious or socially, or will we embrace intellectual and spiritual enlightenment?