Today’s daf continues the Gemara’s ongoing discussion of when certain idolatry-related (or idolatry-adjacent) items are permitted for Jews to benefit from. On deck for today: abandoned objects of worship, platforms and altars.
Let’s start with the mishnah:
An object of idol worship that was abandoned by its worshippers in peacetime is permitted. In wartime, it is prohibited. Stone platforms of kings — these are permitted, due to the fact that (the idol) is placed only at the time that the kings pass by.
The first part of the mishnah distinguishes between objects abandoned in peacetime and those abandoned during war. Why? If something was abandoned during a time of peace, we can assume some degree of choice was involved and that the abandonment was intentional. And if the abandonment was intentional, that negates the object’s connection to idolatry.
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In contrast, if someone abandons their object of worship during war, it could have been a chaotic decision made in haste without any intention to surrender idolatrous practices or the object itself. As a result, the idolatrous nature of the object sticks with it and it remains prohibited to Jews.
The second part of the mishnah concerns stone platforms that idols would appear on. These are permitted because the idols are only there temporarily, when kings pass by. Most of the time, they’re absent, so the platforms themselves don’t become objects of idol worship.
The Gemara then jumps to a very specific example of abandonment:
Rabbi Yirmeya bar Abba says that Rav says: The temple of Nimrod is considered a place of idol worship whose worshippers abandoned it in peacetime, and it is permitted despite the fact that when the Merciful One scattered (the builders of the tower), it resembled wartime. If they had desired to return, they could have returned. Since they did not return, its status is revoked.
To decode this text, we need to know that the Temple of Nimrod is actually the remains of the Tower of Babel and Nimrod was the king of Babel. At the time that God scattered the builders of the tower, it resembled a war zone, which should — per the mishnah — should render it forbidden. But even after they were scattered from the tower, the builders did not return. The Ritva deduces from this that if a person or community has the opportunity to return to a place of idolatry and chooses not to, it is considered stripped of its idolatrous nature as if it were peacetime, a perspective cemented in the Shulchan Aruch.
How about platforms? Should they really be permitted simply because the idols are only placed there occasionally? You might think that alone would be enough to put them off limits, and the Gemara expresses some incredulity as it continues:
But should the platforms be permitted because idols are placed on them at the time that the kings pass by? Rabba bar bar Hana said that Rabbi Yohanan said: This is what the mishnah is saying: Because it is placed on them at the time the kings pass by, and kings abandon this path and walk on a different path.
Rabba bar bar Hana’s statement doesn’t add a lot to what we already knew from the mishnah: While the platforms may have idols placed on them when kings go by, they themselves aren’t directly connected to idol worship, and the idols can be removed — and evidently routinely are, as kings change the paths on which they walk. The Gemara here seems to be emphasizing how temporary and easily removed the idols are and the transience of the platforms’ idolatrous nature.
In the post-talmudic period, platforms become declassé, and the conversation turns primarily to idolatrous altars, which the early rabbis and later commentators are more strict about. But this proves a broader point: While the rabbis verge on merciless in their rejection of items and benefits associated with idolatry, certain items — like these platforms — are excluded from prohibitions because their connection to idolatry is too tenuous. If we consider today’s passage in this light, we can see that it’s not that the rabbis are being more lenient, but that platforms aren’t considered intertwined with idolatry, so none of the rules apply.
Read all of Avodah Zarah 53 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on August 10, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
