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B''H
Sh'lom dear Director Dr. Schulman and revered Academy Rabbis,
if a BN gets in his/her posession (in a legal way) a book of a particular idolatrous religion, which believes in a false messiah and is based on the Torah therefore occasionally mentioning G-d's Name(s) and he/she wishes to destroy it in order to keep others from reading it, what is the proper way to do so?
Best regards, thank you for your time
and happy Shavuot!
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05-31-2009, 03:40 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-31-2009, 03:41 PM by Director Michael.)
With such a book, there is no concern whatsoever about any need for a "proper" way to destroy it. Any method that is convenient and effective is OK. (This could be shredding, burning, etc. etc.)
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08-13-2009, 12:17 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-18-2009, 01:59 PM by Director Michael.)
Recently I have found flyers in newspaper stands that glorify idolatrous beliefs. Would it be OK to take these and destroy them in anyway I see fit, since it appears that they are no longer in possession of the person who put them there? Would it still be OK to throw them out if there are verses on it from any of the 24 books of the Tanach (Hebrew Bible) or have G-d spelled out all the way?
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08-18-2009, 02:08 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-02-2010, 04:20 PM by Director Michael.)
The answer to all of your questions is "Yes," on the assumption that the flyers don't include any of the 7 special Names of G-d written out in Hebrew (which are forbidden to be desecrated, and instead would need to be put into a bag or box and buried). Otherwise, the verses and the translated names of G-d on the flyers don't have any sanctity, since they are being used for an idolatrous purpose, and the flyers can be destroyed or disposed of in any manner.
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01-29-2010, 11:29 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-02-2010, 04:21 PM by Director Michael.)
I recently discovered a fictional novel in my possession that has idolatrous heresy and even has a reference to an idolatrous website. Would just disposing the book be good enough, or would it be obligatory to destroy the book first in some way to make it unfit to read and then dispose it? For example, if I just throw it in a garbage dumpster, there could be some chance that someone could somehow get a hold of it, and if they read it, they could be influenced by it, which wouldn't have happened had I damaged it first before throwing it out. It would be very unlikely that this would happen after throwing it in the garbage, but not impossible. Basically, I guess the question could also apply to an idol or forbidden image or other accesories to idol worship. If one gains possession of it and just wants to get rid of it if, would it be obligatory to nullify or destroy it first, if it isn't already, and then dispose it, or would it be ok to dispose it in its complete form without nullifying it or destroying it? Also, if a book like the one I found contains any other information related to Judaism and the Torah, regardless of what it is, it is still ok to destroy it, as long as it doesn't have any of the names of G-d written in Hebrew letters, is this correct? What if it has any of the names of G-d in Hebrew transliterated in English or any other language, for example, Elokim spelled correctly or YK + VK written the right way or any other incorrectly transliterated versions of the Tetragrammaton?
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01-31-2010, 09:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-06-2019, 03:26 AM by Director Michael.)
Daniel2 Wrote:I recently discovered a fictional novel in my possession that has  idolatrous heresy and even has a reference to an idolatrous website. Would just disposing the book be good enough, or would it be obligatory to destroy the book first in some way to make it unfit to read and then dispose it?...
Throwing away the book in a sealed garbage bag along with other garbage would be sufficient, since it's very unlikely that anyone would retrieve it and read it.
Daniel2 Wrote:Basically, I guess the question could also apply to an idol or forbidden image or other accessories to idol worship. If one gains possession of it and just wants to get rid of it if, would it be obligatory to nullify or destroy it first, if it isn't already, and then dispose it, or would it be OK to dispose it in its complete form without nullifying it or destroying it?
It's permitted for a Gentile to dispose of such objects in a similar manner as described above. If a Gentile wants to keep an idol or a decoration of an idol for some other use, it first has to be "nullified" (by a Gentile).
For more Q & A posts on this subject, see our forum thread titled "destroy idols and their accessories?" at
https://asknoah.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=182
Daniel2 Wrote:Also, if a book like the one I found contains any other information related to Judaism and the Torah, regardless of what it is, it is still OK to destroy it, as long as it doesn't have any of the names of G-d written in Hebrew letters, is this correct? What if it has any of the names of G-d in Hebrew,
transliterated in English or any other language,
for example, E-lokim spelled correctly or YK + VK written the right way or any other incorrectly transliterated versions of the Tetragrammaton?
From "The Divine Code," Volume 1, p. 274:
"It is forbidden to destroy holy Names ... as this is a disgrace to G-d’s honor and profanes His Name. ... It is even forbidden to erase (for no justified need) or disgrace one of the seven holy Names ... when they are translated in other languages [not Hebrew].
Holy names [of G-d] in languages other than Hebrew may be erased; this applies if a justified need arises to do so, but just to disgrace them is forbidden."
So if a question arises about the occurrence of a transliterated holy Name of G-d in such a book, you can always cut it out and put it aside, before you dispose of the book.
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02-02-2010, 07:54 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-02-2010, 04:22 PM by Director Michael.)
So for any book or source containing or promoting idolatrous beliefs that contains translated, non-transliterated names like G-d or L-rd, if I understand correctly from post #6, there would be no sanctity to the translated names and the book could be destroyed as is, if I am not mistaken? I know that the idolatrous book I destroyed and disposed had "G-d" written a lot. Is there anything I did wrong that would need to be repented for?
If there were any names in Hebrew letters, I surely would not have destroyed it. I don't think there were any transliterated versions of any of the seven holy Names, but I did not check every single page to be sure. Since I'm not sure if there were any transliterated names in the book I destroyed, or even if I was sure, did I do anything wrong that would need to be repented for? My only intention for destroying the book was to destroy a book containg idolatrous beliefs and so that there wouldn't be any chance that anyone else would read it, since the book was in my possession and I thought it would be my responsibility.
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02-02-2010, 04:09 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-02-2010, 04:22 PM by Director Michael.)
Daniel2 Wrote:So for any book or source containing or promoting idolatrous beliefs that contains translated, non-transliterated names like "G-d" or "L-rd," if I understand correctly from post #6, there would be no sanctity to the translated names and the book could be destroyed as is, if I am not mistaken?
Correct.
Daniel2 Wrote:I know that the idolatrous book I destroyed and disposed had "G-d" written a lot. Is there anything I did wrong that would need to be repented for?
No.
Daniel2 Wrote:If there were any names in Hebrew letters, I surely would not have destroyed it. I don't think there were any transliterated versions of any of the seven holy Names, but I did not check every single page to be sure. Since I'm not sure if there were any transliterated names in the book I destroyed, or even if I was sure, did I do anything wrong that would need to be repented for? My only intention for destroying the book was to destroy a book containg idolatrous beliefs and so that there wouldn't be any chance that anyone else would read it, since the book was in my possession and I thought it would be my responsibility.
There's nothing you described that would need to be repented for. Since you looked over many of the pages and didn't see any transliterated holy Divine Names that shouldn't be destroyed for no good reason, or any holy Divine Names written in Hebrew letters that shouldn't be destroyed at all, you can fully rely on the strong presumption that none of those were printed there. Probably a use of that class of Names wasn't consistent with the style of the book.
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