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Siman 139 — The idol, its appurtenances, its ornaments, its offering

דיני אלילים וביטולם ומשמשיהם וכליהם

Fifteen seifim. Four objects carry the prohibition — the idol, what serves it, what adorns it, what is offered to it — and two owners fix its moment. Then a single question runs through them all: which of them can still be annulled
Structured revision, psak tables, rapid memorization

Source: Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah קל״ט — 15 seifim
Nossei kelim: ש״ך (י״א ס״ק) · ט״ז (ח׳ ס״ק) · באר היטב (י״ב ס״ק) · נקודות הכסף · בית יוסף · טור
Compilation: הרב יוסף חיים סממה · DAAT
For students who have mastered Levels 1 and 2
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📑 Plan of the synthesis

The axiom: four objects, two owners, one single question
The 3 reflex questions
Master table — the fifteen seifim clause by clause
What makes a תקרובת: the act, and the place
חייב and נאסר — the stick, the locust, and why the two answers differ
ביטול in practice: candles, vessels, garments
The 5 golden rules
Mnemonic — the memory aid “אליל”
The 4 classic pitfalls
Recap of the seifim and closing flash card

1. The axiom: four objects, two owners, one single question

The starting point:

The siman does not ask what an idol is — it asks what the idol communicates to what surrounds it. Four things carry the prohibition of benefit: אליל (the idol), תשמישיה (what serves it), נויה (what adorns it), תקרובתה (what is offered to it). Two owners fix the moment at which the prohibition falls upon the first of the four: the non-Jew, at once; the Jew, once it has been served.

Whence the axiom: the more an object owes its value to its wholeness, the more it is annullable. The idol and its ornaments hang on their entirety and are annulled; the offering never owed anything to its value — it is never annulled.

Seif 1 states the four objects and the two moments:

« אליל אסורה בהנאה היא ותשמישה ונויה ותקרובתה בין של עובד כוכבים בין של ישראל אלא דשל עובד כוכבים אסורה מיד ושל ישראל אינה אסורה עד שתיעבד » (שו״ע יו״ד קל״ט:א)

« ותשמישיה ונויה בין של עובד כוכבים בין של ישראל אינם אסורים עד שישתמשו בהם ותקרובתה משהביאו לפניה ועשה ממנו תקרובת נאסר » (שו״ע יו״ד קל״ט:א)

And seif 2 poses the question that runs through the whole siman:

« אליל של ישראל אין לה ביטול אבל של עובד כוכבים ותשמישיה ונויה יש להם ביטול ותקרובתה אין לה ביטול » (שו״ע יו״ד קל״ט:ב)

The Taz gives the reason for the last clause, and it is he who governs the whole practice:

« ונרא׳ לי הטעם דתקרובת גרע (מאליל) [דאליל] עצמו ונויו תלוין בשלימותו דכל זמן שהוא שלם הוא פלח ליה וכן מחזיק אותה לנוי אבל אם נפסל בטל ממנו מחשבה זו מה שאין כן בתקרובת דאפילו דבר מועט שאינו חשוב מקריב לפניו נמצא דלא פקע איסור אם נפסל » (ט״ז יו״ד קל״ט ס״ק ד)

The object	Forbidden from when?	Annullable?	Seif
The idol of a non-Jew	As soon as it is made — מיד	Yes	1 · 2
The idol of a Jew	Once it has been served — עד שתיעבד	Never	1 · 2
Its appurtenances (תשמישיה)	Once used	Yes	1 · 2 · 12
Its ornaments (נויה)	Once used	Yes	1 · 2 · 9 · 11
Its offering (תקרובתה)	As soon as it is brought and offered	Never	1 · 2 · 3 · 5

💡 The marker: the four objects share neither the same threshold nor the same fate. Remember the pair that never moves — אליל של ישראל and תקרובת : neither of them has annulment, and for two opposite reasons. The idol of a Jew, because a verse likens it to the altar and requires גניזה ; the offering, because a verse likens it to a corpse.

2. The 3 reflex questions

1. Which of the four objects is before me? The idol itself, what serves it, what adorns it, or what has been offered to it. Everything else follows from that answer — and seif 3 is precisely the rule that distinguishes נוי from תקרובת.

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2. To whom does the idol belong, and has it been served? A non-Jew: forbidden as soon as it is made. A Jew: only once served — and the Rama adds that a non-Jew who bows to what the Jew set up serves on his behalf.

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3. Does an annulment remain possible? Idol of a Jew: never. Offering: never. Idol of a non-Jew, appurtenances and ornaments: yes — and seifim 9 and 12 say how.

3. Master table — the fifteen seifim clause by clause

Seif	What the text lays down	What follows from it
1	The four objects are forbidden in benefit; the non-Jew’s idol as soon as it is made, the Jew’s once served; appurtenances and ornaments once used; the offering as soon as it is brought and made an offering	The moment of the prohibition depends on the object and on the owner
1 (Rama)	A Jew set a brick upright and a non-Jew bowed to it: it is forbidden	The non-Jew’s worship counts, by agency, as the Jew’s own
2	The idol of a Jew has no annulment; that of a non-Jew, its appurtenances and its ornaments have one; the offering has none	The key to the whole siman
3	Definition of נוי (candles lit, cloths and fine vessels spread out) and of תקרובת ; then the cases of the stick	What is of the kind offered in the Temple is forbidden from the moment it is set down; the rest requires an act resembling the Temple
4	He slaughtered a locust before it: forbidden, even if that is not at all its manner	Slaughtering is כעין פנים in itself
5	What is found before the idol or within the curtain, of the kind offered in the Temple, is forbidden — even water and salt; outside, only what is honourable; Peor and Markulis have no curtain	The place stands in place of proof of the act
6	What is seen being brought to the idol and has not yet entered is permitted	Not yet an offering
7	Found on its head money, a garment, vessels: honourably, forbidden; contemptuously (a purse hung on its neck, a garment folded on its shoulder, a vessel upended on its head), permitted	An ornament is judged by the manner
8	The loaves given to the priests are permitted: not an offering but a due	A rite does not become an offering by its solemnity alone
9	Wax candles lit before it are its ornament and forbidden; if he pledged or sold them to a Jew, permitted, since he extinguished them for his own need	The extinguishing annuls; the sale proves it
10	Pieces of wax set before it are permitted: neither ornament nor offering	Setting down is not adorning
11	The priests’ garments are their own ornament and do not even require annulment; one opinion requires it. Rama: what is put upon the idol itself is an ornament and requires annulment	An ornament is defined by whom it adorns
12	The vessels he holds in his hand and the censer are its appurtenances and require annulment; sale or pledge to a Jew is that annulment — and one opinion denies it	The ma’hloket on the annulling force of a sale
13	Candles, wax and the priests’ finery shall not serve for a light of mitzva nor for any object of mitzva, משום דמאיסי	A prohibition of another order: repugnance, not benefit
14	One does not write upon the books of another’s worship without erasing them; and one opinion forbids writing prayers upon them even then, דאין קטיגור נעשה סניגור	The material can be erased, the memory cannot
15	One opinion permits selling them. Rama: three opinions on the sale, והמחמיר תבא עליו ברכה ; the parchment and the ink; the loan for building, והמונע מצליח ; and the binding, except registers of judges and scribes, with the way out of enmity	What the hand of the Jew brings to another’s worship

4. What makes a תקרובת: the act, and the place

Seif 3 separates two regimes. What is of the kind offered in the Temple is forbidden from the moment it is set down ; what is not requires an act resembling those of the Temple:

« ותקרובת כל שכיוצא בו קרב על גבי מזבח כמו כל מיני מאכל כגון בשר שמנים וסלתות מים ומלח אם הניחו לפניה לשם תקרובת נאסר מיד » (שו״ע יו״ד קל״ט:ג)

« אבל דבר שאין מקריבין ממנו בפנים אינו נאסר אלא א״כ עשה ממנו כעין זביחה או כעין זריקה המשתברת והוא דרך לעובדה באותו דבר » (שו״ע יו״ד קל״ט:ג)

Rashi, reported by the Taz, says what a זריקה המשתברת :

« פרש״י כעין זריקת דם שלפנים שאינה מחוברת אלא משתברת ונופל טיפין טיפין לאפוקי זרק מקל. אבל שיבר מקל הוה כעין זביחה ששובר צוואר בהמה » (ט״ז יו״ד קל״ט ס״ק ו)

Seif 5 adds the place : within the curtain one need not see the act — one presumes it:

« כל דבר שכיוצא בו קרב לפנים אם מוצא אותו בפני אלילים או שמוצא אותו לפנים מהמחיצה הפרוסה לפניה אסור שאנו תולים שהכניסה שם לשם תקרובת ואפילו מים ומלח שאינו דרך כבוד » (שו״ע יו״ד קל״ט:ה)

And the Beit Yossef makes precise that this is not a presumption of fact but a definition:

« אע״פ שברור לנו שלא נסכו מהיין ולא הקטירו מהסלת והשמן אסור משום דאמרינן הכניסו לפנים מן הקילקלין זו היא הקרבתו » (בית יוסף יו״ד קל״ט)

The Rambam goes further: inside, everything is forbidden, whether offered in the Temple or not. The Beit Yossef draws a practical consequence from it, which the Ba’h, in the Shakh, turns into a stringency:

« וא״כ הני נרות נמי אם הכניסום במקום עבודתם תקרובת נינהו ולית להו ביטול » (בית יוסף יו״ד קל״ט)

« ודבריו נכונים וכל בעל נפש יש לו להחמיר ול״ד נרות אלא בכל הדברים שהיו בבית תרפותם איכא משום תקרובת עבודת כוכבים דשמא נכנסו במקום עבודתם ואין להם ביטול כלל להרמב״ם עכ״ל ב״ח » (ש״ך יו״ד קל״ט ס״ק ג)

Where the object is found	Tur and Shulḥan Arukh	Rambam, as the Beit Yossef reads him
Within the curtain, of the kind offered in the Temple (water and salt included)	Forbidden — an offering	Forbidden — an offering
Within the curtain, outside that kind, or set down contemptuously	Permitted	Forbidden — everything that is inside
Outside the curtain, with honour	Forbidden — ornament	Forbidden — ornament
Outside the curtain, with contempt	Permitted	Permitted
Peor and Markulis, even outside	Forbidden	Forbidden
On the way, not yet entered (seif 6)	Permitted	Permitted

⚠ Do not confuse seif 5 with seif 7. Seif 5 judges what is found within the curtain and speaks of anoffering — hence without annulment. Seif 7 judges what is found upon the head of the idol and speaks of anornament — hence annullable, and permitted at once if the manner is contemptuous. It is the same question of fact — where, and how — but two categories, and two opposite fates.

5. חייב and נאסר — the stick, the locust, and why the two answers differ

Seif 3 mingles two questions: is the man liable, is the object forbidden? The Ran separates them, and the Taz reports him:

« כתב הר״ן לענין חיובא חדא מתרתי מחייב או כעין פנים ונפקא לן מזובח לאלהים יחרם או כדרך עבודתה ונפקא לן מאיכה יעבדו אבל לגבי איסור תקרובת לעולם אינו חייב אלא כעין פנים דנפקא מאשר חלב זבחימו » (ט״ז יו״ד קל״ט ס״ק ז)

The case	The man	The object	Why
Idol served with a stick — he breaks a stick before it	חייב	נאסר	Breaking is כעין זביחה
Idol served with a stick — he shakes it, its manner	חייב	לא נאסר	כדרך עבודתה, but not as in the Temple
Idol never served with a stick — he breaks a stick	אינו חייב	לא נאסר	The Mehaber; the Shakh (ס״ק ד) holds the man liable
Idol served with a stick — he throws the stick	אינו חייב	לא נאסר	No זריקה משתברת
Idol served by throwing — he throws the stick	חייב	לא נאסר	Shakh ס״ק ה, following the Ran
He slaughters a locust before it	—	נאסר	Seif 4; the Shakh (ס״ק ו) restricts it

The Mehaber, at seif 4, lays down no condition:

« שחט לפניה חגב נאסר אפי׳ אין דרך לעובדה בחגב כלל » (שו״ע יו״ד קל״ט:ד)

The Shakh restricts it, and the Baer Hetev records the divergence:

« והש״ך חולק ע״ז ופוסק כדעת הרמב״ם ותוספות ושאר פוסקים דהיכא דאין דרך לעובדה בחגב כלל לכ״ע פטור ואינו נאסר » (באר היטב יו״ד קל״ט ס״ק ח)

💡 The marker: two verses make the man liable — כעין פנים or כדרך עבודתה — and only one forbids the object: כעין פנים. That is why חייב ולא נאסר is not a contradiction, but the rule itself.

6. ביטול in practice: candles, vessels, garments

Seif 9 deals with the candles, and its closing clause holds the whole difficulty of the siman:

« נרות של שעוה שמדליקין לפניה נויה הם ואסורים ואם משכנם או מכרן לישראל מותרים דכיון שכיבן לצורך עצמו זהו ביטולן » (שו״ע יו״ד קל״ט:ט)

Seif 12 says something else, and the Shakh leaves the tension open:

« כלים שאוחז בידו והמחתה שמקטיר בה משמשיה הם וצריכים ביטול ואם מכרן העובד כוכבים או משכנן לישראל זהו ביטולם ויש אומרים שאין זה ביטולם » (שו״ע יו״ד קל״ט:יב)

« משמע הא אם כיבו ממילא אע״פ שמכרן או משכנן אסורים וכדעת ר״י שהביאו הטור והפוסקים דכי היכי דעבודת כוכבים גופה לא בטלה במכרה או משכנה ה״ה נויה ותשמישה » (ש״ך יו״ד קל״ט ס״ק ז)

The Taz resolves it: at seif 9 the sale does not annul — it proves the extinguishing was final.

« ואפי׳ מאן דס״ל בסעיף י״ב דהמכירה ומשכון לא הוי ביטול כאן מודה דמהני כיון דהמכירה אינה אלא ראייה שכיבה על מנת שלא לחזור ולהדליקה » (ט״ז יו״ד קל״ט ס״ק ח)

The priests’ garments, for their part, are not the idol’s ornament — except what is put upon the idol itself:

« מלבושים שלובשים הכהנים כשנכנסים לבית אלילים נוי שלהם הן ולא נוי של אלילים ואפילו ביטול אינם צריכים ויש מי שמצריך ביטול » (שו״ע יו״ד קל״ט:יא)

« אבל מה שלובשין לעבודת כוכבים עצמה מיקרי נוי וצריך ביטול » (רמ״א יו״ד קל״ט:יא)

Object	Status	What annuls it	Seif
Candles lit before it	Ornament — forbidden	Extinguishing for one’s own need; the sale or pledge to a Jew proves it	9
Pieces of wax set before it	Neither ornament nor offering — permitted	Nothing to annul	10
Garments of the priests	Their own ornament — permitted	No annulment needed; one opinion requires it	11
What is put upon the idol itself	Ornament of the idol	Annulment required (Rama)	11
Vessels held in the hand, censer	Appurtenances — annulment required	Sale or pledge — and one opinion denies it	12
What has entered the place of worship	Perhaps an offering	Nothing — a בעל נפש abstains from it (Ba’h in the Shakh)	5 · 9

⚠ Permitted in benefit is not permitted for a mitzva. Seif 13 forbids using candles, wax and the priests’ finery for a light of Shabbat, of Hanukkah or of the synagogue, and making tallitot of them — משום דמאיסי. The Shakh adds even studying by their light.

« וכן אפילו ללמוד בהן אסור. הר״ף בהג״ה תשב״ץ סימן תי״ז » (ש״ך יו״ד קל״ט ס״ק ח)

7. The 5 golden rules

Four objects, not one. The idol, its appurtenances, its ornaments, its offering — each has its own threshold and its own fate (seif 1).
The owner fixes the moment, for the idol alone. Non-Jew: as soon as it is made. Jew: once served. Appurtenances and ornaments: once used, with the one as with the other.
Two things are never annulled: the idol of a Jew and the offering (seif 2). All the rest is annulled.
The object is forbidden only by an act resembling the Temple. What makes the man liable does not necessarily make the object forbidden — חייב ולא נאסר (seif 3, the Ran in the Taz).
The place counts as proof. Within the curtain one presumes an offering; outside, only the honourable manner forbids, and Peor and Markulis have no outside (seif 5).

8. Mnemonic — the memory aid “אליל”

א אֲסוּרָה מִיָּד — שֶׁל עוֹבֵד כּוֹכָבִים — the idol of a non-Jew is forbidden as soon as it is made; that of a Jew, once served.

ל לֹא נֶאֱסָר אֶלָּא כְּעֵין פְּנִים — the object is forbidden only by an act resembling the Temple; the rest makes one liable without forbidding.

י יֵשׁ בִּטּוּל לְשֶׁל עוֹבֵד כּוֹכָבִים — the idol of a non-Jew, its appurtenances and its ornaments are annulled; that of a Jew, never.

ל לְתִקְרֹבֶת אֵין בִּטּוּל לְעוֹלָם — the offering is never annulled, because it never owed anything to its value.

9. The 4 classic pitfalls

Thinking that the idol of a Jew is less grave. It is forbidden later — but once served it is more grave: it never has annulment, where that of a non-Jew has one (seif 2).
Treating everything placed before the idol as an offering. No: the pieces of wax of seif 10 are neither ornament nor offering, and the priests’ loaves of seif 8 are a due, not an offering.
Reading חייב as נאסר. Seif 3 says three times חייב ולא נאסר : the man’s liability and the object’s prohibition do not go together.
Thinking that seif 9 and seif 12 say the same thing about the sale. At seif 12 the sale is the annulment itself, and one opinion denies it; at seif 9 it is only a proof of the extinguishing — and there, says the Taz, even he who denies it concedes.

10. Recap of the seifim and closing flash card

Seif	In one line
1	The idol, its appurtenances, its ornaments and its offering are forbidden in benefit; the non-Jew’s as soon as it is made, the Jew’s once served; appurtenances and ornaments once used; the offering as soon as it is brought. Rama: the brick set upright by a Jew before which a non-Jew bowed is forbidden.
2	The idol of a Jew has no annulment; that of a non-Jew, its appurtenances and its ornaments have one; its offering has none.
3	Ornament and offering defined; what is of the kind offered in the Temple is forbidden from the moment it is set down; the rest requires an act resembling the Temple and the manner of the worship — whence the stick broken, shaken, thrown.
4	He slaughtered a locust before it: forbidden, even if it is not at all its manner to be served with a locust.
5	What is found before it or within the curtain, of the kind offered in the Temple, is forbidden, even water and salt; outside, only the honourable; Peor and Markulis have no curtain.
6	What is seen being brought to a non-Jew’s idol and has not yet entered is permitted.
7	Found on its head money, a garment or vessels: honourably, forbidden; contemptuously, permitted.
8	The loaves given to the priests are permitted: a due for the priests, not an offering.
9	The wax candles lit before it are its ornament and forbidden; pledged or sold to a Jew, permitted, since he extinguished them for his own need.
10	The pieces of wax set before it are permitted: neither its ornament nor its offering.
11	The garments the priests wear on entering are their own ornament and require no annulment; one opinion requires it. Rama: what is put upon the idol itself is an ornament and requires annulment.
12	The vessels he holds in his hand and the censer are its appurtenances and require annulment; sale or pledge to a Jew is that annulment — and one opinion denies it.
13	Candles and wax of idols are forbidden for a light of mitzva — Shabbat, Hanukkah, synagogue — and the priests’ finery shall serve neither for tallitot nor for anything of mitzva, משום דמאיסי.
14	One does not write upon the books of another’s worship without having erased them; and one opinion forbids writing prayers and supplications upon them even then.
15	One opinion permits selling them; the Rama reports three positions and blesses the stringent, discusses the parchment and the ink, forbids lending for the building of a place of worship, and refuses the binding except for the registers of judges and scribes — with the way out of enmity.

Flash card. של עובד כוכבים → אסורה מיד · של ישראל → עד שתיעבד → and then אין לה ביטול · תשמישיה ונויה → עד שישתמשו בהם, and יש להם ביטול · תקרובתה → משהביאו לפניה, and אין לה ביטול — never. Between the two, the measure of the act: כעין פנים forbids the object, כדרך עבודתה only makes one liable.

🎓 Recap of the study path

Level 1 — Base : the text, its translation, the concepts
Level 2 — Lamdan : the ḥakira, the ma’hlokot, the nafka minot
Level 4 — Halakha lema‘asse : the practical psak and contemporary cases

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
DAAT · הרב יוסף חיים סממה
תלמיד חכם · מעביר שיעורים בהלכה ובחסידות
סימן קל״ט · Level 3 — Synthesis / Revision · דיני אלילים וביטולם ומשמשיהם וכליהם
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