Lo-ta'asu
lachem elilim ufesel umatsevah lo-takimu lachem
ve'even maskit lo titnu be'artsechem lehishtachavot aleyha ki
ani YHVH Eloheychem.
You shall make for yourselves no idols, neither shall you raise up
an engraved image or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone
in your land, to bow down to it: for I am YHVH your
Elohim.
We are commanded not to use even maskit (engraved stone) in
worship. Literally, this means a stone with a picture on it. Rashi describes
this as a stone pavement. Rashbam and Saadia say it is a decorated stone. Other
sources say that it is for kneeling on (Avodat
Kokhavim 6:6). The Septuagint translates it lithon skopon. Skopos
comes from the root skeptomai, which means to peer about. It is a mark
that is looked at. If we put this all together, we see that the even
maskit may be a flat stone on which the worshipper kneels on and uses the
decorations upon it as a focus of meditation, The Torah prohibits its
use, even if we use it in our worship of YHVH
