What is the meaning of the (otherwise superfluous) word "Vayeilech Vaya'avod Elohim Acherim"?
Which Avodos are subject to the death penalty?
Refer to Sh'mos, 17:10:2:1*.
Having writen "Vaya'avod Elohim Acherim", why does the Torah need to add "Vayishtachu lahem?
Sanhedrin, 60b: To teach us that prostrating oneself before an Avodah Zarah is subject to Sekilah 1 just like worshipping it.
Why does the Torah list the sun, the moon and stars independently - after "Elohim Acherim"?
Seforno: Because, as opposed to "Elohim Acherim", which refers to the spiritual angels, they are physical beings.
What is the meaning of "Asher Lo Tzivisi"?
Rashi and Rashbam: It means 'Which I did not command you to worship'. 1
Seforno: It means that they are purely physical and Hashem did not grant them the ability 2 to act of their own accord. 3
Rabeinu Bachye: It is as if the Torah had written 'asher Tzivisi be'Lo' - that Hashem commanded us with a Lo Sa'aseh not to worship.
QUESTIONS ON RASHI
Rashi writes 'which I did not command you to worship.' Is it not obvious that Hashem did not command us to serve Avodah-Zarah?
Rabeinu Bachye #1: We might otherwise have thought that it is comparable to someone who pays homage to the servant of the king, which is akin to paying homage to the king himself. 1
Rabeinu Bachye #2 (according to Kabalah): Although Hashem commanded us to bring the Korban Tamid "One lamb in the morning and a second lamb in the afternoon" 2 corresponding to the Midas ha'Yom and the Midas ha'Laylah, respectively, He did not command us to worship the sun and the moon.
