For the source text click/tap here: Sanhedrin 64
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Steinsaltz "We are well aware that the longing for avoda zara that we find in the stories of the first Temple period in Tanakh, does not affect our community today.
What happened to this yearning for idol worship? In today’s world it is difficult to understand the attraction that biblical idol worship held for the Jewish people. The Gemara on our daf attempts to answer this question by means of a metaphor.
In doing so the rabbis claimed the yetzer ha-ra of avoda zara – the lust and desire for idol worship – still remained.
We review the sin of baal Peor from its sitz im leben in the ancient near east.