Dear Talmidot, Parents and Friends –

1)         This week at Midreshet Moriah

2)         Faculty Dvar Torah – Rabbi Aharon Wexler

3)         Mazal Tov

4)         Mi SheBerach        

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This Week at Midreshet

On Sunday, Midreshet girls went up to Har Herzl for a very meaningful visit. They learned about those who sacrificed their lives so that we could live and prosper in Israel. We stopped at the graves of those who fell defending Gush Etzion in 1948 and were privileged to meet and hear from the brother of one of the fallen soldiers.

Our guide explained that one must cry on Yom HaZikaron in order to be able to celebrate on Yom Ha'atzmaut and cried we did at the special Masa program for Yom Hazikaron in Latrun on Tuesday night.

Today, Yom HaZikaron, we started the day hearing from Tzvi Mark, a graduate of Berman Academy in Silver Spring, MD who was accepted to West Point Military Academy, but after one year decided to leave and join the Israeli Army. Hearing about his experiences and commitment, helped us feel the Hakarat haTov that all Jews have on Yom HaZikaron for all the soldiers who have fought and continue to fight for our right to have a Jewish State.

Afterwards, we walked up to Har Herzl and spent a few hours there, visiting and saying tehillim at soldeirs' graves. Those of us who overcame our shyness talked to the families of these fallen soldiers and were inspired by true stories of Israel's heroes from the past 64 years.  

Tonight we're off  to Neve Daniel to join the community in their tekes ma'avar, the ceremony transitioning from Yom HaZikaron to Yom Ha'Atzmaut. After a Tefilla Chagigit at the main shul we'll celebrate at Rav Eitan's house with food and dancing. Everyone is very excited about celebrating Yom Ha'Atzmaut in Israel!

See the latest photos on our website: http://midreshetmoriah.com/galleries/

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Understanding Molech

Rav Aharon Wexler

“Any Israelite or any foreigner residing in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech is to be put to death. The members of the community are to stone him.”

This weeks parsha includes a fascinating pasuk not only prohibiting Avodah Zara, but prohibits a particular god; other passukim in the Tanach describe the specific method of worship of Molech, that of passing one’s child through fire before it. This is of course for us an invitation to explore both Molech and his cult.

Molech was the god of the Ammonites. This is a very strange form of worship and caught the Torah’s attention for good reason. Scholars debate whether the child was offered as a fiery sacrifice or were only symbolically passed through the fire. Those who hold that the child was offered as an actual sacrifice look to the nature of karbonot in Ancient Israel and her neighbors in which the animal would be slaughtered and then burned. Others look at the lashon of the word “to pass” and learn from this that the child was not burned by the fire but only passed through. Rashi, as we shall soon see adopts the former position.

Child sacrifice was in fact used by Israel’s neighbors but never as a regular form of worship. Only in times of extreme duress or danger would a child be sacrificed to appease the god.

Some connect the Hebrew word Molech to Melech. Both share the same Hebrew root of MLCh. Yet Molech as opposed to Melech shares the same vowelization as the Hebrew word Boshet, which means shame. Perhaps this was the Torah’s way of telling us that worship of Molech was a shameful act.

Even Shlomo HaMelech was accused of contributing to his worship. “Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and to Molech, the abomination of the Sons of Ammon.” (Melachim Aleph 11:17) This failing of Shlomo HaMelech was illustrated in John Milton’s Paradise Lost:

Of Solomon he led by fraud to build

His Temple right against the Temple of God

On that opprobrious Hill, and made his Grove

The pleasant Vally of Hinnom, Tophet thence

And black Gehenna call'd, the Type of Hell."

Milton’s use of the word Tophet is interesting. It usually means ‘drum’ in Hebrew. He took it from another mention of the cult of Molech found in the Tanach in which we find the the righteous king Yoshia abolished its cult as part of his reforms. “And he defiled the Tophet, which is in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter passes through the fire to Molech.” (Melachim Bet 23:10)

In another use of the word found in Yimiyahu (7:31) Rashi explains that “Tophet is Molech, which was made of brass; and they heated him from his lower parts; and his hands being stretched out, and made hot, they put the child between his hands, and it was burnt; when it vehemently cried out; but the priests beat a drum, that the father might not hear the voice of his son, and his heart might not be moved.”

This brings us to the mention of the Valley of Ben Hinnom specified in Melachim, Yirmiyahu, and Milton. This valley is situated right outside of the Old City of Jerusalem between where the walls of the old City outside of Zion Gate and the beginning of Emek Refaim. The word Valley of Ben Hinnom in Hebrew is Gai Ben Hinom. Many scholars believe that the practice of burning ones child in that area gave rise to the Hebrew word for Hell, Gehenom or Gehenna in English as referenced by Milton. When the rabbis wanted to describe what punishment awaited sinners in the afterlife, there can not have been a more disgusting description then Gai Ben-Hinnom whose words in time became bastardized to Gehenom. This would also account for why people believe that one burns in Gehenom. This cannot possibly be true as there is no oxygen necessary for burning anything in a spiritual afterlife, but the association of burning in that area carried over into popular belief and explains the aphorism “to burn in hell”. It is all connected to the worship of a despicable Avodah Zara.

Shabbat Shalom

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Mazel Tov!               

Engagements:

Allie Ratner ('07-'08) and Simon Brookim  

Yhi ratzon shetivnu bayit ne'eman bYisrael  

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Mi SheBerach List

We have started a new list. Please email midmoriah@gmail.com if there is a name you would like to add.  

Names added this week:

Yeshaia Avraham Ben Zeva Leba

Shlomo ben Baila

For complete 5772 list, please go to: http://midreshetmoriah.com/alumnae/?id=464