json/Mishnah/Rishonim on Mishnah/Rambam/Seder Nezikin/Rambam on Mishnah Avodah Zarah/English/merged.json

{
    "title": "Rambam on Mishnah Avodah Zarah",
    "language": "en",
    "versionTitle": "merged",
    "versionSource": "https://www.sefaria.org/Rambam_on_Mishnah_Avodah_Zarah",
    "text": [
        [],
        [],
        [],
        [
            [],
            [],
            [],
            [],
            [],
            [],
            [
                "They asked of [Jewish] sages in Rome, etc. - Amongst that which you should know is that the perfected philosophers do not believe in tzelamim, by which I mean talismanery, but scoff at them and at those who think that they possess efficacy and I will extend on this to say this because I know that most people are seduced by this with great folly, and with similar things, and think that they are real — which is not so, even though the best of the pious in our religion think that they are true, just being forbidden by the Torah, and they do not understand that those things are completely empty lies. We are commanded in the Torah not to do them just as we are commanded against lying. And these are things that have received great publicity amongst the pagans, especially amongst the nation which is called the Sabians, this is a nation that came from Abraham our father, peace be upon him, from his sons, and they follow [those sons'] errors and rotten thinking ... and they promoted and gave honor to the stars, connecting to them deeds that have no connection to them; wrote works dealings with the stars, and witchcraft, and adjurations, and spiritual astrology, and things about stars , and demons, and old tales, and magic, and soothsaying, and asking the dead, and many other such issues. which the true Torah fights and cuts off, being the essence of idolatry and its branches."
            ]
        ]
    ],
    "versions": [
        [
            "Sefaria Community Translation",
            "https://www.sefaria.org"
        ]
    ],
    "heTitle": "רמב\"ם משנה עבודה זרה",
    "categories": [
        "Mishnah",
        "Rishonim on Mishnah",
        "Rambam",
        "Seder Nezikin"
    ],
    "sectionNames": [
        "Chapter",
        "Mishnah",
        "Comment"
    ]
}