Hello, this will be my last question for you today (thanks for the patience). That is, regarding items made with the assistance of items used in idol worship one is not allowed to derive benefit, this seems obvious by what is written in this section. However what if one were to smell such an item anyway, does this item become prohibited as well? And as in section 54 what of transactions down the line. If one baked bread in an oven with wood from an asherah and then sold that bread and bought something with that money does the prohibition carry on with it?
Joseph, United states
1) The Mishnah (Avodah Zarah 12b) states that one may not derive benefit from the decorated stores of a city of Avodah Zarah. Rebbi Shimon ben Lakish in the Gemara (12b) says that this applies only to stores decorated with rose and myrtle, because it is forbidden to enjoy their good scent.
2) Tosfos there (Ela) asks a contradiction to the above from the Gemara later (66b) which discusses "Bas Tiha," a hole perforated in a barrel of wine to enable the wine to be smelled. Rava maintains that even if the wine was of Avodah Zarah, one is allowed to smell it. Rava says that the reason is that "Reicha Lav Milta" -- smelling is not considered a significant benefit from Avodah Zarah. The Halachah follows Rava, so the question is how can the prohibition on rose and myrtle be reconciled with the rule that smelling is not significant pleasure?
3) The first answer of Tosfos is that rose and myrtle are worse because their chief use is for scent. If this is the chief purpose, one cannot say that it is insignificant. Tosfos writes later on that Bas Tiha is different because one does not enjoy the smell at all, since it is so strong that it is actually damaging to the nostrils.
4) Regarding bread baked in an Asherah oven:
The Mishnah (49b) states that if one used wood from an Asherah tree as fuel for an oven and then baked bread in the oven, one may not derive benefit from the bread. What is the Halachah if one sold the bread (which one is not allowed to do l'Chatchilah, because this represents benefiting from the bread) -- is one allowed, b'Di'eved, to use this money?
It appears to me that the money also carries the prohibition with it. My support for saying this is from the Gemara below, 54b, which cites the verse, "And you shall become accursed like it" (Devarim 7:26), and explains, "Anything that you 'Mehayeh' will be like it." This teaches that whatever one passes on from the Avodah Zarah becomes like the Avodah Zarah itself. The Gemara (54b) continues to say that with the fruit of the seventh Shemitah year in Eretz Yisrael the same idea applies: that in whatever way one attempts to pass on the Kedushah of the Shemitah produce, it always retains its holiness of Shemitah. If one bartered an apple of Shemitah for meat, the meat now attains holiness of Shemitah. This chain of bartering can continue indefinitely, and the rule is that the last item always retains the holiness of the Shemitah year. The same thing also applies to Avodah Zarah. So when one sells the bread that was baked in the oven heated up with the Asherah wood, the money at the end of the chain is also forbidden like Avodah Zarah.
Kol Tuv,
Dovid Bloom