Rabbinic Acceptance of Celestial Imagery
And is it permitted [to create these types of forms]? Isn’t it written: You shall not make with Me [gods of silver, or gods of gold (Exodus 20:20), which is interpreted as teaching]: You shall not make images of My attendants, [i.e., those celestial bodies that were created to serve God, including the sun and the moon]?
Abaye said: The Torah prohibited only [the images of those] attendants [with regard to] which it is possible to reproduce [an item in] their likeness. [Since it is impossible for anyone to reproduce the sun and the moon, the prohibition does not apply to these objects.]
Translation adapted from the Noé Edition of the Koren Talmud Bavli.
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Notes
Words in brackets appear in the original translation.
Credits
From Koren Talmud Bavli, Noé Edition, trans. Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2019). Accessed via the William Davidson digital edition, sefaria.org. Adapted with permission of Koren Publishers Ltd.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
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