כי אתה בא אל הארץ אשר ד' אלקיך נתן לך לא תלמד לעשות כתועבת הגויים ההם: לא ימצא בך מעביר בנו ובתו באש כו' כי תועבת ד' כל עשה אלה ובגלל התועבת האלה ד' אלקיך מוריש אותם מפניך: (“For you are coming to the land which Ha-Shem your G-d is giving you; you will not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations. There will not be found amongst you one who passes his son or daughter into the fire.... For an abomination of Ha-Shem is anyone who does these things, and because of these abominations Ha-Shem your G-d is disinheriting them before you”; XVIII, 9-12).
The Talmud demonstrates, on the basis of similar references in Leviticus XVIII, 21 and XX, 1-5, that the practice here prohibited is the specific worship of an idol named Molech (סנהדרין ס"ד:-ס"ה.). The fact is that there are numerous blanket prohibitions of idolatrous practices in the written Torah, and, as the Torah Tëmima on our passage points out, all of them are prohibitions בדרך עבודתם (“by way of their [regular] service”).
It is readily acknowledged that the Canaanites were enthusiastic polytheistic idolators. What is it, then, about this particular practice that it should be so singled out for condemnation such that the Torah counts it as the proximate cause for the Canaanites being driven out of the Holy Land in favor of Israel, presumably the עון האמורי, the “sin of the Emori” which had not yet been mature in the time of Avraham (cf. Genesis XV, 16)?
B.
We begin by noting a famous dispute between Rambam and Ramban concerning the reason why the Torah institutes the sacrificial service.
Rambam asserts: בעבור שהמצרים והכשדים אשר היו ישראל גרים ותושבים בארצם מעולם היו עובדים לצאן ולבקר כי המצרים עובדים מזל טלה והכשדים עובדים לשדים אשר יראו להם בדמות שעירים ואנשי הודו עד היום לא ישחטו בקר לעולם בעבור כן צוה לשחוט אלו השלשה מינין לשם הנכבד כדי שיודע שהדבר שהיו חושבים כי הם תכלית העבודה הוא אשר יקריבו לבורא ובו יתכפרו העונות וגו' (“Because the Egyptians and the Kasdim in whose lands Israel were strangers and sojourners had always been worshipping ovicaprids and cattle, for the Egyptians worshipped the constellation Aries and the Kasdim worshipped demons who appeared to them in the form of goats, and the people of India to this day do not ever slaughter cattle, for this reason He commanded to slaughter these three species for [His] honored Name, in order that it be known that the things which they had thought an object of worship is what [Israel] sacrifices to the Creator, and through it sins are atoned....”; מורה נבוכים ח"ג פמ"ו).
Ramban, commenting on Leviticus I, 5, takes sharp issue with Rambam, arguing שאינו רק להוציא מלבן של רשעים וטפשי עולם והכתוב אמר כי הם לחם אשר לריח ניחוח וכו' (“that it is not only in order to refute evildoers and the fools of the world, since Scripture has said that [the sacrifices] are bread which serves as a pleasant aroma [to Ha-Shem]....”). he goes on to draw proofs from numerous citations in support of his thesis, and goes on: ויותר ראוי לשמוע הטעם שאומרים בהם כי בעבור שמעשי בני אדם נגמרים במחשבה בדבור ובמעשה צוה השם כי כאשר יחטא ויביא קרבן יסמוך ידיו עליו כנגד המעשה ויתודה בפיו כנגד הדבור וישרוף באש הקרב והכליות שהם כלי המחשבה והתאוה והכרעים כנגד ידיו ורגליו של אדם העושים כל המלאכה ויזרוק הדם על המזבח כנגד דמו בנפשו וראוי לו שישפך דמו וישרף גופו לולא חסד הבורא שלקח ממנו תמורה וגו' עיי"ש (“And it is more fitting to hear the reason which is said about [the sacrifices; cf. Even ‘Ezra ad loc.], that since human deeds are rooted in impulse, speech, and [overt] action, Ha-Shem commanded that when one sins and brings a sacrifice, he lays his hands on it apposite the deed, and confesses with his mouth apposite the speech, and burns with fire the entrails and kidneys, which are the seat of impulse and lust, and the limbs apposite a person’s hands and feet, which do all the work, and throws the blood on the alter apposite his own life’s blood, for it would be proper that his blood be shed and his body be burnt, were it nor for the kindness of the Creator who takes from him a substitute....”).
C.
In light of Ramban’s words, let us consider an insight which I have heard in the name of the great Rabbi Yoséf Dov ha-Lévi Soloveitchik זצ"ל concerning Avraham’s sacrifice of his son Yitzchaq, the ‘aqeida. Rabbi Soloveitchik notes that from the beginning of the Torah’s account of the ‘aqeida we read that it was Eloqim who tested Avraham (Genesis XXII, 1); that Avraham set out for the place which Eloqim told him (ibid., 3); that Avraham told Yitzchaq that Eloqim would provide the ram for sacrifice (ibid., 8); and that finally Avraham and Yitzchaq arrived at the place Eloqim had said (ibid., 9). The divine name Eloqim signifies G-d’s middath ha-din. His measure of judgment (עיי' למשל בראשית פ"א א' רש"י דה"מ ברא אלקים). Avraham was acting thoughout in response to divine judgment.
Then, at the dramatic climax of the story, we read: ויקרא אליו מלאך ד' כו' ויאמר אל תשלח ידך אל הנער ואל תעש לו מאומה כי עתה ידעתי כי ירא אל'קים אתה וגו' (“And an angel of Ha-Shem called to him... And said, 'Do not send your hand to the boy and do nothing to him, for now I know perfectly that you fear Eloqim'”; ibid., 11-12).
The actual human sacrifice did not take place because of the intervention of G-d’s middath ha-rachamim, measure of mercy, designated by the shém Ha-Shem, the Tetragrammaton. It was the mal’ach Ha-Shem who revealed to Avraham the ram in place of Yitzchaq.
D.
If we now re-examine our passage in this light, we see that Avraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son at G-d’s command, reflecting dedication to divine service on a superhuman scale, is in fact what the Canaanites were regularly performing in the service of a sham and a lie.
Imagine a society in which parents routinely hand over their children to the priests to be passed into fire. Despite Rashi’s note that the usual rite was to bring the child between two closely built bonfires, archaeological discoveries have demonstrated all too well that often enough the child was actually burnt up. Consider the grasp such a cult must have on its devotees. It is against this that G-d so stringently warns Israel, who have such an extra measure of devotion and dedication in their spiritual DNA, as it were, from Avraham Avinu.
We, in fact, are afforded in the modern age a glimpse of what such a society is like. The Muslims worship Allah (origin in a borrowing from the shém Elo-him, appears obvious from their mutual consonantal root alef-lamed-hé). In other words, hey worship the middath ha-din exclusively; indeed, the very word for religion in Arabic is din. And it is amongst them that the incredibly evil and sick cult of the suicide bomber has arisen.
Israel are warned to avoid such a horribly negative dead-end, and are reminded in our passage that the Holy Land is הארץ אשר ד' אלקיך נתן לך, “the land which Ha-Shem your Eloqim is giving you.” Judgment, as Ramban tells us, tempered by divine rachamim and chesed.
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