The second commandment orders: “You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image” (Exod 20:7*). Does this mean that images are forbidden in our homes and synagogues? The earliest opinion is found in the appendix to the Decalogue, which prohibits gold or silver images of the Lord, who should be worshiped on imageless altars of wood or unhewn stone (Exod 20:19–23*). Other interpretations are found in the Torah: this prohibition includes imageless pillars (Lev 26:1*; Deut 16:22*). Yet the absence
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