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Avoiding Park with Sculptures

May one visit an artistic sculpture park with many lifelike sculptures of humans or is there a problem of idol worship.

Answer:

It is fine to visit the park.

There is a prohibition of making the sculptures, and even a prohibition of keeping them at home, but there is no prohibition against seeing them.

For actual idols (that are worshipped as idolatry), there is a rabbinic prohibition against enjoying their sight (according to Torah law, enjoyment by means of sight alone is not prohibited).

This, too, would not be sufficient to prohibit a person from going to the park, but it would be a good reason to keep one’s distance.

In this case, however, the sculptures are not idols; nobody worships them, and their purpose is only aesthetic. Therefore, there is no problem at all in going to the park.

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