Your ‘Blessed’ Emoji? Rabbi Brands It Idol Worship.
By Sam Kestenbaum August 31, 2017
Image by Wikicommons
Could adding an emoji to that text message make you idolatrous?
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, a France-born Israeli cleric, said that the popular praying hands digital emoji is not kosher — and that Jews should beware, as they may be committing avodah zarah, or “foreign worship,” one of the worst sins in Judaism.
“The source is the ancient idols of the Far East and of Christianity,” he told the Hebrew newspaper Yediot Aharonot, according to a Collive translation. He said Jews should have nothing to do with the gesture at all — whether in person or electronically.
The icon has a range of uses and meanings online — used to express simply “please” or “thanks.” It is often labeled as “folded hands” or “prayer hands.” Some argue that it actually depicts two people doing a celebratory high five. There are many different illustrated renderings of the emoji, depending on what operating system or application one is using.
Contact Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] or on Twitter, @skestenbaum
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
