{"collection":"Judaism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/jud/tsa/tsa21.htm","path":"jud/tsa/tsa21.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/jud/tsa/tsa21.htm","text":"Tractate Sanhedrin, Herbert Danby tr. [1919]\n6. In a case of idolatry it is all one whether a man worship, sacrifice, offer incense, or pour out\nM.libations; or whether he bow himself down, accept it as a god, or say to it \"Thou art my God.\" But he who puts his arm round it, kisses, sweeps, 1 besprinkles, washes, anoints, clothes, or shoes it breaks a negative commandment. 2 He who makes a vow in its name, and keeps it in its name, breaks a negative commandment; so also does he who excretes 3 to Ba\u2019al Pe\u2019or--for such is his cult, and he who tosses a stone on a merkolis 4--for such is its cult.\nT.\n99:1 C reads \"sifts (?), embraces.\"\n99:2 Cf. Exod. 20.; 23. 24; Deut. 5. 9.\n99:3 Word-play on Pe\u2019or. Cf. Isa. 5. 14; Psalm 119. 131, for meaning of root.\n99:4 Mercurius, Hermes. A merkolis was a representation of the head of Hermes on the top of a square-shaped pillar, placed in prominent positions at cross-roads or boundaries. Passers-by signalized their homage to Hermes Enodios, the patron deity of the wayfarer, by throwing stones at it, gradually forming a cairn. Cf. Vulgate of Prov. 26. 8 and Aboda Zara, III. 7.\n99:5 1 Kings 19. 18.","title":"Tractate Sanhedrin: IV. Offenders Liable to Capital Punishment: 8. The Idolater","type":"page"}