Violence erupted on the streets of
Baltimore Monday. Shortly after the funeral for Freddie Gray z”l
concluded, and despite pleas by Gray’s family that all protests be suspended
and the day be devoted to prayer and remembrance, as 3:00 pm rolled around and
schools let out, youth and others descended on Mondawmin Mall. Media reported
that, in conjunction with three local gangs, looting began, police were
attacked, and numerous fires were set. A CVS in West Baltimore was torched and
a community center under construction in East Baltimore was engulfed in flames.
As evening wore on, African American pastors, to their great credit, called
members of the three gangs to meet with them at the Old Shiloh Baptist Church
where Freddie Gray had been eulogized earlier in the day.
We watched 
horrified
as the events unfold on our TV screen. Days of largely peaceful demonstration
and protest against what appears to be another case of police brutality against
a young black man who died in police custody was now being overtaken by violent
rioting and looting by people who appeared to be inspired by greed far more
than any semblance of righteous anger. In all, it was reported that 15 structures
were burned, 144 cars destroyed, dozens of businesses looted, and 20 police
officers injured. The National Guard was activated and the city placed under a
curfew for perhaps a week.
horrified
as the events unfold on our TV screen. Days of largely peaceful demonstration
and protest against what appears to be another case of police brutality against
a young black man who died in police custody was now being overtaken by violent
rioting and looting by people who appeared to be inspired by greed far more
than any semblance of righteous anger. In all, it was reported that 15 structures
were burned, 144 cars destroyed, dozens of businesses looted, and 20 police
officers injured. The National Guard was activated and the city placed under a
curfew for perhaps a week.
Of all the words and images that
emerged in the following 24 hours, two stand out in my mind. The first is an
interview reporter Deborah Weiner conducted at the Old Shiloh Baptist Church
with members of three gangs: the Bloods, the Crips, and Black Gorilla Family. You
can view it here.[1] The
second is a video of Toya Graham, who found her son dressed in black hoodie and
face mask to participate in the looting; she pulled him out, screamed at him
and smacked him, telling him to go home. “I don’t want him to become Freddie Gray,” she said. You
can see several video clips here.[2]
These scenes of Baltimore, and
especially the interview of the gang members and the mother pulling her son off
the street, came into sharp focus for me this week as I read the combined Torah
portions of Acharei Mot and Kedoshim. Amidst a long litany of
forbidden sexual relationships enumerated in Leviticus chapter 18
(traditionally read on the afternoon of Yom Kippur, as well) we find this
seemingly out-of-place prohibition against sacrificing children to Molech[3]:
וּמִזַּרְעֲךָ לֹא-תִתֵּן,
לְהַעֲבִיר לַמֹּלֶךְ
Do
not allow any of your offspring to be offered up to Molech.
(Leviticus 18:21)
Who or what is Molech, what is this about, and how does it speak to what is
happening on the streets of Baltimore and elsewhere in our country?
Molech was an ancient deity,
worshiped by the Ammonites, Canaanites, and Phoenicians, that was propitiated
by the sacrifice of children. Acharei Mot forbids offering up children
to Molech. Kedoshim (Leviticus 20:2-5) tells us that one who goes ahead
and sacrifices his children to Molech is to be executed by stoning; but in the
next verse we are told that such a person will be punished by karet, the
divine punishment of “being
cut off” from the peoplehood of Israel. Despite
these dire warnings I Kings 11:7, in describing the many excesses of King
Solomon, tells us that he built a high place for Molech. Similarly 2 Chronicles
28:3 and 33:6 and Jeremiah 7:31 and 19:2–6 know these sacrifices to have
happened in a place called Tophet in gai ben-Hinnom “the Valley of the son of Hinnom.” For example, Jeremiah 32:35 tells us.
וַיִּבְנוּ אֶת-בָּמוֹת הַבַּעַל
אֲשֶׁר בְּגֵיא בֶן-הִנֹּם, לְהַעֲבִיר אֶת-בְּנֵיהֶם וְאֶת-בְּנוֹתֵיהֶם לַמֹּלֶךְ,
אֲשֶׁר לֹא-צִוִּיתִים וְלֹא
עָלְתָה עַל-לִבִּי,
לַעֲשׂוֹת הַתּוֹעֵבָה
הַזֹּאת--לְמַעַן,
הַחֲטִי אֶת-יְהוּדָה
They built the
high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to set apart
their sons and their daughters for Molech; which I did not command them, nor
did it ever enter My mind that they should do this abomination thereby causing
Judah to sin.
The term Gehenna is derived from gai
ben-Hinnom. Gehenna is purgatory. Hell on earth. Where children are
sacrificed, hell is established in our midst.
The Rabbis, in an attempt to explain
what evil could have been so great as to warrant the destruction of the Second
Temple by the Babylonians in 70 C.E., employ the image of Tophet in the Valley
of the son of Hinnom. They craft a horrifying description of parents who
ceremonially process with a variety of offerings to enter concentric gates
around a core cultic sacrificial altar. The priests loudly praise each
offering, saying “May
it be sweet and pleasing to you!” in
order to mask the cries of children who, behind the innermost gate, are being
offered up as sacrifices.
Another
interpretation of And her uncleanliness on her skirts (Lamentations1:9):
There was a place below Jerusalem, called "Tophet." And why did they
call it "Tophet"? R. Yudan said: "Because of the fire that was
there." And why did they call it the Valley of the son of Hinnom? It was
named “the valley of [a person named] the son of Hinnom";
and our rabbis said: Because from there they could hear the groaning of their
children. There was a great idolatrous image there placed before [the entrance
to] seven chambers. Below was a copper stove and in its hand a copper basket.
For one who brought an offering of flour they would open the first gate; for an
offering of turtle-doves the second gate; for a lamb the third gate; for a ram
the fourth gate; for a calf the fifth gate; for an ox the sixth gate; for a
human being the seventh gate. The priest would accept it and place it in the
copper basket, light the fire underneath, and praise aloud: “May
it be sweet to you! May it be pleasing to you!” Why
so much [exclamation]? So that [the parents] would not hear the cries of their
children and repent their deed [i.e., change their minds].” (Eichah
Rabbah 1:9, Buber ed., pp. 71-72)
Certainly no such place existed in
the first century, if ever it did exist. Why are the Rabbis drawing on the
image of sacrificing children to Molech? What are they telling us?
It seems to me that the message is
that the people are destroying their own future. Sacrificing children is emblematic
of their failure to set priorities that insure a healthy, prosperous future for
the nation. Narrow, selfish concern with being lauded for minor “gifts” to Molech conceal the enormous evil
of children being sacrificed on an altar none choose to see or hear, behind a
series of gates, out of sight, their cries muffled by the affirming praise of
priests.
How different are things today? I’m not
excusing the violence and looting—there is no excuse for such
anti-social and criminal behavior. But at the same time, it’s
important to honestly confront the reality of the lives many of these kids
live. Far too many of the schools they attend are deplorably inadequate and
under-resourced, the dropout rate is still far too high, and poverty is a
crushing existential reality in their lives. Here
is a frightening assessment.[4] We still
have a drug policy designed to incarcerate black men in obscene numbers, but
fewer and fewer vocational programs to convey skills needed to earn a living
(click here[5]). It’s
important to honestly assess the employment situation these young people face.
No longer does a full time job pay a living
wage.[6] Income
equality in America grows each day—the gap is a yawning chasm—fueled by
the insidious myth that those who don’t “make it” are “lazy” and
“undeserving.” (Read
this.[7]) How many
young people, and young black men in particular, are sacrificed on an altar of
misconstrued and avaricious capitalism?
II Kings 23:10 tells us that when
Josiah ascended to the throne of Judah in the 7th century B.C.E., he ordered
the High Priest Hilkiah to use tax monies to clean out the Temple. There
Hilkiah discovered סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה “the book of the Torah” (understood by many scholars as
Deuteronomy) which inspired Josiah to institute sweeping reforms to obliterate
rampant idolatry introduced by his predecessor Manasseh. Josiah burned the Asherah in the
brook of Kidron, cleared the Temple of the vessels and altars for worshiping Ba’al and,
וְטִמֵּא אֶת-הַתֹּפֶת,
אֲשֶׁר בְּגֵי בני-
(בֶן-)
הִנֹּם: לְבִלְתִּי, לְהַעֲבִיר אִישׁ אֶת-בְּנוֹ וְאֶת-בִּתּוֹ בָּאֵשׁ—לַמֹּלֶךְ
He defiled
Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, so that no one could make
his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
It is time to defile Tophet and tear
down the altar to Molech. We owe our children far more. It is trite to say that
are our future—but
it is true. People who destroy their future degrade their lives and society.
© Rabbi Amy Scheinerman
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