You shall tear down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their asherim with fire, cut down the graven images of their gods, and destroy their name from that place.
English: “And their asherim you shall burn” — But Eretz Yisrael is an inheritance to Israel from their fathers, and a person cannot forbid something that is not his! Rather, because Israel worshipped the calf they revealed their mind that idolatry is acceptable to them; therefore when the nations later worshipped, they were acting as Israel’s agents.
On the daf / in context: The prohibition of the asherim in the Land is explained by Israel’s prior acquiescence through the sin of the golden calf, which empowered subsequent idolatrous acts by the nations.
Type of Learning
Derash on the verse (Sifrei / Bavli) — explaining how the nations’ idolatry could forbid property in the Land.
What Is Learned
The asherim of the Land are forbidden because Israel’s earlier acceptance of idolatry (the calf) made the nations’ later acts effective as their agents.