[If] one finds fragments of images, these are permitted. [If] he found the figure of a hand or the figure of a foot, these are prohibited, because such [objects] are worshiped.

[If] one finds utensils upon which there is a figure of the sun, [or] a figure of the moon, [or] a figure of a dragon, he should cast them into the Dead Sea. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: Those which are on prominent [utensils] are prohibited; those which are on common [utensils] are permitted. R’ Yose says: He may grind [it] and scatter it to the wind, or cast it into the sea. They said to him: Even so it becomes fertilizer, [which is prohibited,] as it says: Nothing of that which is banned shall cleave to your hand.

Proclos the son of Pilosphos asked of Rabban Gamliel in Acco, while he (lit., who was) was bathing in the bathhouse of Aph-rodite. He said to him, “It is written in your Torah: Nothing of that which is banned shall cleave to your hand. Why then do you bathe in the bathhouse of Aphrodite?” He replied, “One may not answer in the bathhouse.” And when he went out he said to him, “I did not come into her domain; she came into my domain. We do not say: The bathhouse is made as an adornment to Aphrodite, but we say: Aphrodite is made as an adornment to the bathhouse. Another reason: [Even] if they would pay you a large sum of money, you would [still] not enter before your idol naked, or with a seminal emission, or uri-nate before it. Yet this one stands by the opening of the sewer pipe, and all the people urinate in front of her! It is stated on-ly their gods —- that which is treated as a god is prohibited, but that which is not treated as a god is permitted.”

[If] gentiles worship mountains and hills —-they are permitted, but what is upon them is prohibited; as it says: You shall not covet the silver and gold that is upon them and take [it]. R’ Yose HaGlili says: Their gods upon the mountains, but not that the mountains are their gods; their gods upon the hills, but not that the hills are their gods. Then why is an asherah prohibited? Because it has been affected by human involvement, and anything which has been affected by human involvement becomes prohibited. Said R’ Akiva: I will expound and deliberate before you. Every place that you find a high mountain or a raised hill or a green tree, know that an idolatrous object is there.