The Laws of Idolatry | Rambam’s Mishneh Torah | Part Thirteen





It is forbidden to benefit from false deities, their accessories, offerings for them, and anything made for them, as [implied by Deuteronomy 7:26]: “Do not bring an abomination to your home.”

Anyone who derives benefit from any of the above receives two measures of lashes: one because of the prohibition, “Do not bring an abomination…,” and one because of the prohibition, “Let nothing which is condemned cling to your hand.”

It is forbidden to benefit from an animal which was sacrificed to false deities in its entirety – even its excrement, its bones, its horns, its hooves, and its hide. It is forbidden to benefit from it at all.

To cite an example, the hide of an animal which is marked by a sign that indicates that it was offered as a sacrifice to false deities – e.g., it has a round hole in the place of the heart through which the heart is extracted, which was a common practice [of idolaters] – It is forbidden to benefit from all of these hides and others of the like.

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