Email 30

Hi,
I was wondering if it is wrong (Not to make any figures for ornament, even if they are not worshipped –Ex. 20:20) to have a Menorah pendent. A friend had given it to me a long time ago, because I couldn’t have a real menorah, because my mom wasn’t into having anything Jewish.

Thanks, Ashley

Ashley,

It is not wrong to have a Menorah pendant or such unless you make it an idol.
The commandment is not to make for yourself a likeness of anything and bow down to it and worship it.

Exo 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

In today’s world most people are materialist and that to is idolatry. They are putting some material possession before G-d or even putting another person before G-d.

Shalom v’brachas, Rabbi Davis (R. Milchamah b. David)