Avodah Zarah, Chapter 3, Mishnah 7. The subject of the Mishnah is deriving benefit from something that has become forbidden because it is idolatry, or because it serves and accompanies idolatry. The Mishnah divides into three parts, and each one contains three sub-cases: the first part deals with a building, the second with a stone, and the third with a tree.
The three sub-cases that recur in each part are:
The item itself was made from the outset for the sake of idolatry.
Only part of it was made for the sake of idolatry.
Nothing at all was done to it; it merely serves temporarily to enable idolatry.
The principles that precede our explanation of the Mishnah:
The principles that determine when an object of idolatry becomes forbidden to derive benefit from are somewhat involved, and they need to be split into two separate topics: the law regarding a non-Jew and the law regarding a Jew.
Regarding a non-Jew:
If a non-Jew made something with the explicit intention that it be an object of idolatry, it becomes forbidden to derive benefit from it the moment it is made.
If he made the object without any such intention, and did not designate it for idolatry at the time of manufacture, and only afterward chose to use it for idolatry, the designation and preparation alone do not render it forbidden; it becomes forbidden to derive benefit from it only once it has actually been worshiped.
Once the object has become forbidden, the non-Jew has the power to nullify it: to do something to it that shows he no longer relates to it as an independent power, whether by breaking it or by treating it in a degrading manner, as we saw earlier with the statue of Aphrodite that stood above the drainage pipes. This is nullification, and once the non-Jew has nullified it, the idolatry reverts to being permitted for benefit.
Regarding a Jew:
A Jew who makes something so that it should be an object of idolatry does not thereby render it forbidden for benefit, and all the more so designation alone does not render it forbidden. The object becomes forbidden only once it has actually been worshiped, and from that moment it is forbidden forever. There is no concept of nullification or of revoking the designation in the hands of a Jew: once he has made them into idolatry, they are idolatry forever and are forbidden for benefit. These are the principles, and in their light we will go through the cases of the Mishnah.
First case - a house:
"Sheloshah batim hen" - there are three houses: three different levels of the prohibition of benefit, and three different ways to permit it:
"Bayis shebanah mitechilah la'avodah zarah - harei zeh assur" - a house that one built from the outset for idolatry is forbidden: a building that a non-Jew built from the very beginning to serve as an object of idolatry, so that the building itself would be worshiped. A person comes to the place in order to connect to the idol, and bows, as it were, to the walls of the building, and the place itself is holy in his eyes. In this case the building becomes forbidden for benefit immediately, even if there is nothing inside it, by virtue of the fact that it was built for the purpose of being a temple that would be worshiped.
"Sido vekiyaro la'avodah zarah vechidesh - notel mah shechidesh" - if he plastered it or decorated it for idolatry and thereby renewed it, he removes what he renewed: a building that was built as an ordinary residence, and the non-Jew wishes to turn it into a temple. "Sido" - he coated the surface of the walls with plaster in order to set the place up for worship, and this coating is considered a new creation and becomes forbidden for benefit immediately, even before it has been worshiped. "Kiyaro" - he did stonework on the walls: decorations, niches and the like, for the sake of the temple. "Vechidesh" - any other renovation that prepares the place, such as new flooring befitting a temple. All of these now render the entire dwelling forbidden for benefit, since whoever lives in it benefits from the decorations or from the new flooring. However, if a Jew removes everything that was added in order to turn the place into a temple - he strips the plaster from the walls, or removes the decorations or the new flooring - the house returns to its former state and is permitted for benefit.
"Hichnis letochah avodah zarah vehotzi'ah - harei zu muteres" - if he brought idolatry into it and then took it out, it is permitted: a function room in a hotel, whose law is the same as that of the residence in the previous case. Idolatrous pilgrims lodging at the hotel bring their statue in to conduct their worship there in the evening, and in the morning they take the statue and continue on their way, leaving the room exactly as it was. As long as the statue was there, the room was forbidden as an accessory, as something subordinate to the idolatry and supporting it; once the statue was removed, the room went back to being an ordinary function room that was never worshiped, and a Jew is permitted to derive benefit from it.
Second case - a stone:
"Shalosh avanim hen" - there are three levels of prohibition in a rock or stone quarried from the ground:
"Even shechatzvah mitechilah lebimos - harei zo asurah" - a stone quarried from the mountain which, at the time of its quarrying, was designated to serve as a base and platform for avodah zarah, as an inseparable part of it, so that those who bow to the avodah zarah bow to that base as well. Since already at the time of its quarrying the gentile identified it as an object of worship, it became forbidden immediately and forever, unless he nullified it, for example by smashing it.
"Sidah vekiyrah leshem avodah zarah - notel mah shesiyed vekiyer" - an ordinary stone, a piece of marble taken from the ground, for which there were several possibilities: a decorated fountain, flooring for his house, or avodah zarah. The gentile chose to designate it for avodah zarah and prepared it by means of an addition: "sidah" - he spread plaster on it in preparation for making it into avodah zarah or a platform for avodah zarah; "kiyrah" - he did stonework on it, inlaid ornamentation or decoration on its surface, to make it fit to be avodah zarah or a base for it. The stone itself is permitted, since it was never worshipped, but the addition forbids it until everything that was added for the sake of avodah zarah is completely removed. The removal must be done specifically by a Jew, because if a gentile begins to scrape off the forms, the very scraping is a nullification, since by doing so he announces that it will no longer serve for avodah zarah. For a gentile a small amount of scraping suffices, whereas the Jew must remove in full everything that was added.
"He'emid aleha avodah zarah vesilkah - harei zo muteres" - an ordinary stone or brick upon which he placed an idol temporarily; once he removed the idol, the stone returns to its permitted status.
Third case - an asherah:
"Shalosh asheros hen" - there are three levels regarding a tree of avodah zarah:
"Ilan shenata'o mitechilah leshem avodah zarah - harei zeh asur" - a tree planted specifically in order to be worshipped. From the moment it was planted in the ground, everything that grows from it, even a small shoot, is an asherah, since all of it was made for the sake of avodah zarah. Even though we learned earlier that things which grow on their own are not an asherah, when a person has direct involvement - and this is the one who plants - the thing becomes an asherah from the outset. Every part of it is an asherah forever, unless the gentile nullifies it by cutting it down; but as long as it stands and has not been nullified, all of its growth is forbidden from its inception.
"Gid'o ufislo leshem avodah zarah vehechlif - notel mah shehechlif" - a tree that was not planted originally for the sake of avodah zarah, and the gentile wishes to turn it into a tree of avodah zarah. "Gid'o" - he cut the trunk through its middle and left a stump, so that it would grow back stronger, larger and straighter, and that new growth is what he intends to worship. "Pislo" - from the word pesoles (waste), meaning pruning: cutting off branches so that they will grow back and the new growth will be used for worship. In both cases, whatever grows from now on was made for the sake of avodah zarah and is forbidden from its inception, even before it was worshipped. And how can the tree become permitted for benefit? "Notel mah shehechlif" - a Jew cuts off all the new growths that replaced the old ones, and when he removes them the matter reverts to the old tree, which was not designated for avodah zarah, and it is therefore permitted.
"He'emid tachteha avodah zarah uvitlah - harei zeh mutar" - he placed an idol beneath the tree and afterwards removed it - this is permitted.
The last case is the subject of a dispute: when an idol is placed beneath the tree and the idol is worshipped there, does the tree too become an asherah, being the arena of the worship and like a temple of avodah zarah, or is it merely a place where the idol happened to be set down? To define it as an asherah means that it is not merely a location but an actual idolatrous tree. The Tanna Kamma and the Sages hold that both the idol and the tree become forbidden, whereas Rabbi Shimon holds that there is no asherah other than a tree that was itself worshipped; an idol resting beneath a tree is like the conference room in a hotel - merely a venue for conducting the worship, and once the idol is removed the tree returns to being an ordinary, permitted tree.
This is how the Rambam and the Tur explained it, that this case parallels exactly cases 1c and 2c: in the conference room, once the image was removed it reverted to being permitted; with the stone, once the image was taken down it may be used again; and so too with the tree, beneath which he placed an image temporarily, and once he removed it the tree reverted to being permitted.
It is worth noting here the comment of the Tiferes Yisrael: the wording used by the Mishnah is "uvitlah," a term of nullification and removal from use, and from this it would seem that the law of the tree is different - and the very name asherah supports this. In his view, it is not enough to remove the avodah zarah from beneath the tree, and the tree remains forbidden unless the gentile explicitly nullifies the tree as a place of avodah zarah. The halachah, however, is not so; rather, "uvitlah" in the third clause is the same as "vehotzi'ah" in the first clause and "vesilkah" in the second, and it means nothing more than removal of the avodah zarah: once the avodah zarah is no longer there, it is permitted.
What is an asherah?
The Mishnah defines what it is speaking about in the third case alone. According to the Tanna Kamma, "kol sheyesh tachteha avodah zarah" - even though only the statue is worshipped, since it was placed beneath the tree, the tree becomes a place of worship and it too takes on the status of an asherah. Rabbi Shimon disagrees and says: "kol she'ovdin osah" - the tree becomes an asherah only if the tree itself is worshipped, and when the avodah zarah rests beneath it, the tree is merely the place where it was set down. This is the basis of the dispute: for Rabbi Shimon there is no asherah unless the tree itself is worshipped, while according to the Sages - and this is the halachah - a tree that has a statue beneath it becomes like the statue.
The Mishnah brings an incident, and it comes only to prove that Rabbi Shimon truly meant what he said and ruled accordingly in an actual case, but it offers no proof as to whether the halachah follows him or not:
"Ma'aseh b'Tzidon b'ilan shehayu ovdin oso" - It happened in Tzidon with a tree that people worshipped. Tzidon sits on the coast of Lebanon, in the land of the Phoenicians, which is where the asheirah originally came from, as emerges from the story of Izevel and Achav. "U'matzu tachtav gal" - beneath the tree they found a heap of stones. Rabbi Shimon said to his students: "Bidku es hagal hazeh" - examine this heap, "u'vadkuhu u'matzu bo tzurah" - they examined it and found an image in it, that is, they found an idol beneath the stones.
He said to them: "Ho'il v'latzurah hen ovdin, nateer lahen es ha'ilan" - since it is the image that they worship, we may permit the tree for them. Since those idolaters worship the small statue beneath the stones and not the tree itself, one may derive benefit from the tree and even sit in its shade. Even though the group gathers there and performs idolatry there, they are not worshipping the tree itself, only the statue; therefore the statue is forbidden and the tree is not an asheirah.
According to the first Tanna, however, once the tree has become a place where idolatry is performed, it is not only the statue that becomes forbidden - the tree itself becomes an asheirah, an idolatrous tree. Therefore it is forbidden to derive benefit from the tree, such as sitting in its shade, as long as the idol sits beneath it, even though the tree itself was never worshipped; and once the idol has been removed from beneath it, sitting in its shade returns to being permitted.
In summary: In this Mishnah we learned three cases - a house, a stone and a tree - and in each of them three levels: something made for the sake of idolatry from the outset, which is forbidden forever; something to which an addition was made for the sake of idolatry, where removing the addition is enough to permit it; and something that served idolatry only temporarily, which returns to being permitted once the idolatry is removed. We also reviewed the principles that preceded this Mishnah - the difference between a non-Jew and a Jew regarding making, designating and nullifying - as well as the dispute between the first Tanna and Rabbi Shimon in defining an asheirah, and the incident in Tzidon, from which we learned Rabbi Shimon's approach in practice.