Avodah Zarah 11:1-10

Number one, chapter 11.

We can't follow the statutes.

That means the arbitrary laws.

This isn't saying don't follow the law.

This is meaning we don't follow the religious statutes that are specific to idolaters, nor do we resemble them.

It's a very interesting word, to make ourselves like them.

We don't make ourselves like them.

Not in clothing and not in hair and not in anything like that.

So we're talking about external appearance.

I love, by the way, the English translation has the very underutilized word coiffure, which obviously is in the wrong language as well.

So we can't style our hair or dress in the way that the idolaters do.

So one place this comes up, for instance, and again, this relies on seeing Christianity as idolatry, is tonsure.

Tonsure was the particular haircut that was unique to Christian monks.

And there are Jewish sources that say explicitly Jews can't tonsure their hair.

And it's because it's obviously an imitation of Christian practice.

This even extends, it's slightly different, it's slightly more diffuse, but this extends all the way to the basis of how we use the concept of chukat goyim, the arbitrary laws of non-Jews, and how we apply that can be very wide.

I think the best example I think we've referenced before is the fact that for most of Israel's history, it was not normal and still not normal in religious communities for men to wear a tie.

And if you ask rabbis why, the explanation is almost always because they see it as chukat goyim.

They wear ties, so we don't wear ties, which is kind of ridiculous because wearing a tie has no religious orientation, although it does originate in religious dress, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, that's kind of where the conversation manifests often is in dress code type things like that.

Some more obvious than others.

The source is pretty clear.

Don't follow in the ways of the nation.

That is the nation I'm driving out before you.

This is in Vayikra.