The Rambam in Hilchot Avodat Kochavim describes the, he reconstructs for us the emergence and development of Avodah Zarah. I have just to excerpt a few lines and then to reflect on on one point. בימי אנוש טעו בני האדם טעות גדולה ונבערה עצת חכמי אותו הדור ואנוש עצמו מן הטועים וזו הייתה טעותם אמרו הואיל והאל ברא כוכבים אלו וגלגלים להנהיג את העולם ונתנם במרום וחלק להם כבוד והם שמשים המשמשים לפניו ראויים הם לשבחם ולפארם ולחלוק להם כבוד וזה רצון האל ברוך הוא לגדל ולכבד מי שגדלו וכבדו.
So the first stage of Avodah Zarah didn't ascribe any any powers to the kochavim. In that sense they remained pure monotheists on that level. All all power was concentrated in the in the hand of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. They weren't really deifying the kochavim, the galgalim, but they thought beda'atam hara'ah as the Rambam says that it was רצון האל ברוך הוא to direct acts of worship towards the kochavim towards the galgalim. In halacha bet the Rambam says achar she'archu hayamim and it became established, it became entrenched to have acts of worship directed towards the kochavim. עמדו בפני האדם נביאי השקר ואמרו שהאל צוה להם ואמר להם עבדו כוכב פלוני או כל הכוכבים והקריבו לו ונסכו לו כך וכך ובנו לו היכל ועשו צורתו כדי להשתחוות לו כל העם הנשים והקטנים ושאר עם הארץ ומודיע להם צורה שבדה מלבו ואומר זו היא צורת הכוכב הפלוני שהודיעו בנבואתו.
Nevi'ei hasheker came and they created a whole a whole ritual and for the first time they introduced actual idolatry, actual idols, actual pesalim. When that began to proliferate then the next stage is hitchilu chozim acherim, other charlatans came la'amod to appear ולומר שהכוכב עצמו או הגלגל או המלאך דבר עמהם. So this stage of nevi'ei hasheker didn't attribute the nevuah to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they attributed the the communication to the kochav, to the galgal, to the malach, that the kochav or the galgal the malach said ואמר להם עבדוני בכך וכך והודיע להם דרך עבודתו ועשו כך ואל תעשו כך.
They made a whole a whole religion out of it. וכיון שארכו הימים נשתקח השם הנכבד והנורא מפי כל היקום ומדעתם ולא הכירוהו.
So what began as a a distorted form of monotheism ended up with polytheism. Hakadosh Baruch Hu rachmana litzlan was forgotten and what's more ונמצאו כל עם הארץ והנשים והקטנים אינם יודעים אלא הצורה של עץ ואבן וההיכל של בנין שנתחנכו מקטנותם להשתחוות להם ולעבדם ולהישבע בשמם.
Their religious belief didn't go any further than the physical images, than the idols and the the temples which they had been trained to worship. אבל צור העולמים לא היה שם מכירו ולא יודעו אלא יחידים בעולם כגון חנוך ומתושלח ונח ושם ועבר ועל דרך זו היה העולם מתגלגל והולך
and the world was going downhill, was deteriorating further and further into into crude polytheism עד שנולד עמוד של עולם שהוא אברהם אבינו. So it's the Rambam's presentation. The Rambam's presentation is remarkable on many levels, but there's something extraordinary when one chazzes this Erev Parshas Noach, something extraordinary. The process of Avodas Kochavim began bimei Enosh and the Rambam describes it on its downward trajectory until Avraham Avinu appears on the scene. If all you had was the רמב"ם פרק א הלכות עבודת כוכבים, you wouldn't have known there was a mabul. There's something just so at first glance so staggering. One would have expected that chotch the mabul would have pressed a reset button and then, okay, so then maybe the process would have chozer al atzmo. Maybe it would have repeated itself. Maybe humanity would have fallen into the same errors again. But the Rambam says Noach and Shem were amongst the yechidim who knew Hakadosh Baruch Hu, knew Tzur Ha'olam. Not Yefes, not Cham. Tahaga atzmecha, tahaga atzmecha. Noach received a nevuah that he shared. Cham and Yefes were aware of the nevuah for one hundred and twenty years, received the nevuah that the world is going to be destroyed, Hakadosh Baruch Hu's going to destroy the world, and then the nevuah materializes. And Yefes and Cham come out of the teivah the same as they went in. The description of the downward trajectory to Avodas Kochavim is unaffected by the mabul. There's no allusion to the mabul here in the Rambam's description. At first glance it seems staggering and extraordinary, almost beyond belief. But then when one thinks about it, obviously in modern times there hasn't been a mabul, but how much of a hisorerus did the world have after World War One? How much of a hisorerus did the world have after World War Two? How much of a hisorerus? One could, it's possible to become so entrenched, so locked into one's own world with its assumptions, with its axioms, that one becomes oblivious to the hisorerus of a cosmic cataclysm. To become just totally insulate oneself that one doesn't. react, respond, feel the world literally, literally being destroyed. The Ohr HaChayim HaKadosh, ke-midumei, has a comment by Ben Sorer U'Moreh. The Torah describes כי יהיה לאיש בן סורר ומורה איננו שומע בקול אביו ובקול אמו.
So the Ohr HaChayim HaKadosh says there's an extra letter there. L'chora, the Torah could have written אינו שומע בקול אביו ובקול אמו. The Torah didn't need to say einenno. The Torah could have said וכי יהיה לאיש בן סורר ומורה אינו שומע. We wouldn't have noticed anything amiss. וכי יהיה לאיש בן סורר ומורה אינו שומע. He's not listening, he's not hearkening, not paying attention. So einenno, ke-midumei, there's the Ohr HaChayim HaKadosh. So he says, no, there's a difference. Einenno means something additional, something beyond what eino. Eino is just simply a negative. Eino shome'ah means he's not listening. But einenno means more than that. Let's say we just had ויתהלך חנוך את האלוהים ואיננו כי לקח אותו אלוהים. So what does einenno mean? He's not there, right? It's not just a negative that you can that you can put in front of a verb, but einenno means if you're taking the roll, you're taking attendance, and and someone's not there, so someone else will pipe up and say einenno, he's not, he's not present. The reason the Ben Sorer U'Moreh is נידון על שם סופו is because the sofo appears inevitable. Because if a person is there, he's hearing but he's not listening. He's hearing but he's not mekabel. He's not yet able to overcome the yetzer hara. Why should he be נידון על שם סופו? But if he's einenno, he's not there, he's not there, it's not that, he's not there. This, the emes is, without the Rambam, one l'chora we should be alerted to this point just from the Chumash, from what happens with וירא חם אבי כנען וידע נח את אשר עשה לו בנו הקטן.
So you see that Cham was the was the same rasha when he left the teiva as he had been when he went into the teiva. It awakens at least two thoughts. It it it guides one's thinking in at least two two directions. First of all, it underscores just how vital and and pivotal when Chazal emphasize לעולם ידור אדם במקום רבו. So there's a strategy, but there's also a a mindset and an attitude which even if that particular strategy isn't literally applicable, but the mindset and the attitude is always, always feasible. לעולם ידור אדם במקום רבו, that that a person should be open to and receive tochacha. A person should always be looking, looking. that a person should be open to and receive tochacha. A person should always be looking, looking to be in a place amongst people who can correct him, who can call his attention to if he gets off course. ואל תאמין בעצמך עד יום מותך. In bizmaneinu, I'm not sure exactly when this development first appeared, but it's certainly quite well entrenched. We don't take too well to tochacha. And since we don't take too well to tochacha, very understandably, people are reticent about offering that tochacha. If you think that my response, either literally verbally or through body language, when you give me tochacha is going to be, who are you to tell me off and kshot atzmecha techila and mind your own business and who do you think you are? So understandably, you're not going to give me tochacha. The person doesn't, isn't constantly open to that, that's the first step in rachmana litzlan in enu. It's a long path. That's the first step. But even the first step one needs to avoid. Somehow we need to make known to our chaveira, family, members of the same community, that we welcome, we welcome when you show me what I'm doing wrong, you're doing me the biggest favor in the world. You're not being self-righteous, you're doing me the biggest favor in the world. That's one area of reflection, that one sees how far down that road one can go and become just locked into one's own world of one's own assumptions and one's own axioms. There's another train of thought which is also triggered by זה לעומת זה עשה אלקים. The koach of bechira chofshis. Whenever we're confronted with just how, what depths of evil, rachmana litzlan, a person can sink to, the intransigence in evil, the akshanus and azus in rishus. But זה לעומת זה עשה אלקים. A person has those same kochos, he has those same resources, he has those same abilities, he has those same capacities for tov. rachmana litzlan, the deck is not stacked against us, it's not that we have rachmana litzlan. more of a capacity for ra than for tov. If, if Cham and Yefes as well can go into the teiva, can, can, can for 120 years see Noach repeating a nevuah, predicting that the world's coming to an end, see the nevuah materialize and be impervious to that and unaffected by that, it means that we can be impervious and unaffected by all the negative societal influences that surround us. זה לעומת זה עשה אלקים. It's the same koach. You see the capacity, you see the capacity that a person has to be misgaber. They were misgaber. They were misgaber lera, but, but one sees the capacity that a person has to be misgaber against all odds. They weren't shaken from their commitments by the world being destroyed around them. That, that's the tenacity and that's the strength that a person has as part of his koach habechirah. But זה לעומת זה עשה אלקים. If they could exercise it in one direction, so it means that we can exercise it in the opposite direction as well.