Yesterday I got to thinking what could possibly be a common denominator between the favorite TV show American Idol and figures of Jewish history?
Young people, particularly today, look for role models in ways that I, as a child of the 70’s, didn’t need to look for. Today, there seems to be this criteria going around for successful role models whether you are Jewish or not. Worst off, is the public’s reaction when a role model looses that one effervescent quality that made him or her famous. Oh and one more thing, you’ve got to fill in the shoes of success … and fast!
Jewish minds in Jewish history have entered the mainstream society as contributors in their own right. For me, they are my own personal Jewish idols, I guess you would say American Jewish or Israeli idols and a few reasons why.
Idolatry, in the context of bibilical Jewish history contains references to worshipping a monotheistic god. I am not suggesting that the American idol is a “god” but the modern and biblical context for its representation are surprisingly similar. Here, take a look:
“At first the gods and their images were conceived of as identical; but in later times a distinction was drawn between the god and the image” (Wikipedia).
Modern and biblical idols should ideally serve their purpose of bringing good into the world, but the minute we call question their ability to be the most effective even under the toughest (inhuman) conditions, we can run into problems; we may be unable to distinguish between their acts from their own identity.
For many people around the world, the late Yitzhak Rabin was a political idol and held the key to peace but for one person who held the trigger back in 1995, – he made that distinction between Yitzhak and his image. One god needed to die.