Selling Items of Worship: The Prohibition of ‘Lifnei Iver’
מכירת תשמישי פולחן, איסור 'לפני עיוור'
It is forbidden to cause a person to stumble into a transgression, whether a Jew or a gentile, as it is stated: “You shall not place a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God, I am the Lord” (Vayikra 19:14). That is, just as it is forbidden to place before a blind person an obstacle that will injure his body, so too it is forbidden to place before a person a stumbling block that will cause him to stumble into a transgression that will harm his soul (Avoda Zara 6a; Ran there). Therefore, it is forbidden to sell a gentile items needed for idolatry, such as implements for worship or a white rooster, which it was customary to offer to idols. Even when the gentile does not say that he intends to offer the rooster to an idol, as long as it is likely that this is his intention – for example, he insists that it be white – it is forbidden to sell it to him (Avoda Zara 13b; SA 151:1).
Some say that even when the gentile can buy the items needed for his worship from others, it is rabbinically forbidden to sell them to him, because the seller thereby assists him in committing a transgression. Others say that the prohibition of ‘lifnei iver’ applies only when without the Jew he would not be able to commit the transgression, but if he can buy the items needed for his worship from another gentile, there is no prohibition for the Jew to sell them to him, since in any case the gentile will commit the transgression. In practice, in time of need the custom has been to be lenient, and the meticulous (mehadrin) try to avoid it (Rema 151:1).¹
Notes (1)
- The source of the prohibition of causing a gentile to stumble because of ‘lifnei iver’ is in tractate Avoda Zara 6a-b: “It was taught: R. Natan said: From where do we know that a person should not hand a cup of wine to a nazir, or a limb from a living animal to the descendants of Noaḥ? The verse says: ‘You shall not place a stumbling block before the blind’ (Vayikra 19:14).” It is explained there in the Gemara that the prohibition of ‘lifnei iver’ applies when without him the transgression would not have been committed – for example, the nazir is on one side of the river and the wine on the other side, and only by handing it to the nazir will he be able to drink it; then the one who hands it is considered ‘one who causes stumbling.’ Similarly, it is explained there in the Gemara that because of the prohibition of ‘lifnei iver’ it is forbidden to sell a gentile an animal for the purpose of offering it to an idol. Likewise, the Mishna (Avoda Zara 13b) ruled that it is forbidden to sell a gentile things that are known to be used for idolatry, such as a white rooster, which they used to offer. Plainly, the prohibition of ‘lifnei iver’ regarding the descendants of Noaḥ is from the Torah, since the baraita equated it with the prohibition of ‘lifnei iver’ regarding a Jew. So wrote Ritva, Avoda Zara 6a; Sedei Ḥemed (letter vav 26:16). So too is explained in Rashi (Avoda Zara 6a, s.v. “ve-lifnei”) and in Bekhor Shor, Pesaḥim 22b. However, in the responsa Penei Yehoshua YD 3, he advanced the novel view that ‘lifnei iver’ regarding the descendants of Noaḥ is rabbinically forbidden, for the Sages said (Avoda Zara 2b) that since the gentiles did not keep the seven Noahide mitzvot, the Holy One, blessed be He, arose and released them [from those commandments], except that Jews are rabbinically forbidden to cause them to stumble in this. This is cited in Yad Efrayim 151:1. However, many Aḥaronim rejected his words and wrote that the prohibition of ‘lifnei iver’ regarding a gentile is from the Torah (Ḥatam Sofer vol. 5, 185; Imrei Bina vol. 1, YD Tereifot 7; Beit Yehuda YD 17; Beit She’arim YD 227). Taz 151:1 wrote that when there is a doubt whether the gentile is buying the item for idolatry, one is lenient. End quote. As we learned (Mishna Shevi’it 5:8-9; Gemara Avoda Zara 15b), it is permitted to lend agricultural tools to one suspected of [violating] Shevi’it when one can assume that he will use them for a permitted purpose. Similarly, in Nedarim 62b, Rav Ashi was permitted to sell to fire worshipers wood from his grove, even though in all likelihood they would use it for their worship. As Ran wrote: “Wherever one can attribute [a permitted purpose], we attribute it,” and so wrote Rosh. Some say that the prohibition of selling a gentile idolatrous objects applies only when the gentile has no possibility of buying them elsewhere, but if he can buy them elsewhere, even if it is clear that the gentile is buying them for idolatry, there is no prohibition (Mordekhai, Avoda Zara 795, based on Ra’avya in the name of his father R. Yoel Ha-Levi; Tosafot, Avoda Zara 6b, s.v. “minayin”; Semag, negative commandments 168; Rabbeinu Yeruḥam, Toledot Adam ve-Ḥava 17:6; the students of Rabbeinu Yona, Avoda Zara 6b). Others say that it is rabbinically forbidden even when he can buy them elsewhere, because of assisting transgressors (Tosafot, Shabbat 3a, s.v. “baba”; Rosh there 1:1; Hagahot Mordekhai, Shabbat 450; Ran, Avoda Zara 1b in the pages of the Rif, s.v. “minayin”). Rema in Darkhei Moshe summarized the dispute and wrote that the custom is to be lenient, and a scrupulous person (ba’al nefesh) should be stringent with himself. Shakh 151:6 was lenient, and explained that all the Rishonim hold that there is no prohibition in selling idolatrous objects to a gentile or to a Jewish apostate when he can buy them from others, because a Jew has no mitzva to separate them from a prohibition. And whatever they wrote forbidding refers to selling in such a manner to a Jew, for since there is a mitzva to rebuke him and separate him from a prohibition, it is also forbidden to assist him in committing a transgression. End quote.