There are no other gods in existence; it is impossible for us to have other gods. There is only one God, as we repeatedly declare, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.” The commandment is nevertheless not superfluous. There have been whole nations, and there are still people, who, in their ignorance and folly, attribute Divine power to things that have no Divine power, and who give the name of god to things that are not gods. Such people are called heathens, idolaters, or idol-worshippers. The second commandment forbids us to do any such thing. It was the custom in some countries to worship the king, either during his lifetime or after his death, as a Divine being; it is still the custom in some countries to pray to departed saints. All this our holy religion forbids us to do. We must respect our king, we must honour the memory and the name of good men, but only as human beings, not as gods; we may not deify them. As to our prophets, our great men, the Patriarchs, the kings, their names are a pride unto us, their memory a blessing, ‏זכרונם לברכה‎—they are honoured by us as human, mortal beings: they are not worshipped. When we visit the graves of those near and dear to us, and honour their memory by reflecting on their virtues, when we revere those holy men who have devoted their lives to the service of God, or the martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for the sanctification of the Name of God (‏קדוש השם‎), we do not endow them with Divine attributes, and do not offer up any prayer to them. The second commandment, in forbidding all kinds of idolatry, includes the following prohibitions:— (1.) The worship of sun, moon, stars, animals, human beings, or any part of Nature, as endowed with Divine power. (2.) The worship of images representing things that exist in reality or in man’s imagination. (3.) The worship of angels as Divine beings. They are only messengers of God, and we must not pray to them. (4.) The belief in evil spirits, demons, devils, and the like, and the fear of them. (5.) The belief in charms, witchcraft, fortune-telling, and similar superstitions. The words, “For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God,” are to be understood in a figurative sense; we cannot say of God that He is jealous, in the literal sense of the word. It is only because we call a person jealous who is anxious that no one else shall enjoy the same right or privilege as he enjoys, that we apply the term “jealous” figuratively to God, because He does not concede Divine worship and service to any other being. He demands of His worshippers that they serve Him alone and none besides.