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When the Sefer Torah is brought out of the ark, everyone stands up and kisses it. On occasions such as simchat torah and hoshana rabbah people dance around the Torah.

To an outsider these actions can seem like plain idol worship. Why is there no concern with idol worship when it comes to dealing with the Sefer Torah?

Ani Yodea
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    I'm not sure how these behaviors seem like idol worship. We stand for the aged, we dance for a kallah, we kiss our tzitzis. What definition of behaviors which point to idol worship are you using? – rosends Dec 11 '14 at 17:20
  • TTBOMK I have never seen everyone in Shul kiss the Torah on it's way out. – Double AA Dec 11 '14 at 17:21
  • Why do you think we need to be concerned that outsiders may think this is idol worship? – Double AA Dec 11 '14 at 17:21
  • Various Native American and African tribes dance around fire as a way of worshipping of nature... – Ani Yodea Dec 11 '14 at 17:25
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    Are you asking why this is not considered idol worship or why this is not considered to resemble idol worship? – Daniel Dec 11 '14 at 17:27
  • @DoubleAA, what sort of shuls do you frequent? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aajmgZwxAmE – Ani Yodea Dec 11 '14 at 17:39
  • @AniYodeya Pretty ordinary ones. In that video, for instance, only two people kissed the Torah. – Double AA Dec 11 '14 at 18:11
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    I don't know what the point of those images is. None depicts kissing for instance. They all just show people looking at the Torah. Would you say Kim Jong Il was the biggest idol worshiper of all time? – Double AA Dec 11 '14 at 18:14
  • BTW, "people dance around the Torah" people dance while holding the Torah. They don't put it somewhere and dance around it. – Yishai Dec 11 '14 at 18:16
  • @Yishai well....on the women's side.... – rosends Dec 11 '14 at 18:32
  • @Yishai, hoshana rabbah... – Ani Yodea Dec 11 '14 at 18:38
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    Why the down votes? I would happen to agree that on the face of it, dancing around an object as such seems like idol worship. – andrewmh20 Dec 11 '14 at 19:05
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    Very related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/10495/472 – Monica Cellio Dec 11 '14 at 19:07
  • The Rama says to bow toward the sefer Torah during hagbahah. – Isaac Moses Dec 11 '14 at 20:13
  • @Danno, what on the women's side? Dancing in front of, you mean? Then the question should reflect that. AniYodeya - so change the question to speak about Hoshanot, not Simchat Torah (and that isn't really dancing, rather circling, IME). – Yishai Dec 11 '14 at 20:56
  • @IsaacMoses Masechet Sofrim said it first a few centuries earlier. – Double AA Dec 12 '14 at 04:50
  • This could've been a more interesting question by juxtaposing the mistake of dor enosh of showing respect to the sun and the like, vs showing respect to the Torah. Arguably both presents come Hashem for the good of mankind, so why is respecting one avoda zara and respecting the other a mitzvah. – user6591 Dec 12 '14 at 04:58
  • giving respect isn't idol worship. worship an idol is idol worship. So kissing the Torah and dancing with it out of respect is not idol worship. Does it really make sense to you to categorize interaction with something that prohibits idol worship as idol worship as making sense or are you just asking for the sake of asking a question? – Dude Feb 16 '17 at 13:21

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As the Rambam codifies in Hilchos Avoda Zara 3:5, only four activities are "objectively" idolatry when done in honor of something other than G-d, and forbidden to do to any idol. 1) Prostration, 2) Animal Sacrifice, 3) Incense burning, 4) Libations.

Outside of those four things, it is only idolatry if done as part of the normal service of the idol. So an idol who's practice is to dance around it, or kiss it, or whatever, it would be idolatrous. However to do that to something else, even an idol would (at least) not be a capital crime, unless it is part of the way in which the idolatry is set up to be worshiped.

So just like there is an idol where the practice was to defecate in front of it (or on it), this doesn't prohibit going to the bathroom on a toilet.

There is probably no human function that hasn't been done in the service of an idol at some point in history, but that in and of itself doesn't affect what constitutes appropriate Jewish practice.

Yishai
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    This isn't entirely correct. While it's true that kissing the idol (if not a normal form of worship) isn't a capital crime, it is still prohibited as a לא תעשה. See Sanhedrin 60b (the source for the Rambam you quoted) – הנער הזה Feb 03 '15 at 18:26
  • @Matt, I think I covered that in my answer "to do that to something else, even an idol would (at least) not be a capital crime", but that halacha is also in that very chapter of Rambam halacha 12. – Yishai Feb 03 '15 at 18:35
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    I see, but then it still doesn't answer the question: even if it isn't a capital crime, it's still prohibited as a form of idolatry. Furthermore, your answer implies (though I'm sure you don't mean to) that if I prostrated (let's not get into sacrifice/incense/libate) to the Sefer Torah, that would be avodah zarah – הנער הזה Feb 05 '15 at 04:41
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There is a difference between respect and worship. Respect means that you are honoring something because it is important to you, and worship is when you perform a service to something that has power so that you will receive something in return.

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I was taught (Conservative) that the Torah has several of the attributes of a person, and is only one step below God in authority. I tend to provide the same respect to the Torah as I would a flag officer.

eternalsquire
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