Study Avodah Zarah folio 46A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
R' Akiva said to him: But isn’t it already stated: “You shall destroy” (Deuteronomy 12:2)? This obviously includes rooting out all traces of idols. If so, what is the meaning when the verse states: “And you shall destroy their name out of that place”? This means that it is a mitzva to give it a nic
One might have thought that one may give it a positive nickname. The Talmud interjects: Would it enter your mind that one may give a positive nickname to an idol? Rather, the baraita means that one might have thought that the reference is to a nickname that is neither positive nor negative. Theref
How so? To what type of nickname is this referring? If the idol worshippers would call their house of worship the house of elevation [beit galya], one should call it the house of digging [beit karya]. If they call it the all-seeing eye [ein kol], one should call it the eye of a thorn [ein kotz].
The tanna who recited mishnayot and baraitot in the study hall taught a baraita before Rav Sheshet: With regard to the halakha in the case of the non-Jews who worship the mountains and the hills, the mountains and hills are permitted, but their worshippers are punished with decapitation by the swo
Rav Sheshet said to him: Who is the tanna who said this to you? It must be R' Yosei, son of R' Yehuda, who says that a tree that one planted and subsequently worshipped is forbidden.