What About Gods Who Are Secondary?

Question

The first commandment is “You shall have no other gods before Me”. It’s not just “you shall have no other gods”, they specifically included the “before Me” part. What about other gods after Elohim? That is to say, what if someone believes in multiple gods, and they worship Elohim the most, but they also have other gods they believe are less important or less relevant to themselves? I heard that early Judaism was polytheistic. Is this part of the quote from that time, specifying that followers of Judaism had to worship Elohim the most, but they didn’t have to go around calling other gods fake? Can a Jewish person worship Elohim, and believe in other gods without worshipping them?

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Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    No. No idolatry is ever okay.

    Our Sages explain the verse you refer to in Exodus 20:3 as follows:

    “In My presence” (the Hebrew is עַל-פָּנָּי – “before Me would be “lifanai”) This means “as long as I (God) exist,” which signifies forever. God states this so that you should not say that only that specific generation at the time of the giving of the Torah was commanded and prohibited concerning idolatry. [Based on the commentary of Rashi, which is based on the Mechilta]

    By the way, this is not the first commandment. The first command is to know and believe in God. “Ani Hashem…”

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team