Parshat Re'eh: Perversions hated by G-d

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of August 14, 2009 / 24 Av 5769

With all the discussion about healthcare in this country, we can make the argument that Jews have valued human life more than anyone through the millennia. While ancient Greeks left unwanted babies to die, and some civilizations did not care for the elderly, the stereotype of the “Jewish doctor” and the reputation of Jews to seek the best medical attention are not just punch lines of a Jackie Mason comedy routine.

Even Darwin’s idea of “survival of the fittest” goes against our sensibilities as far as real questions of life and death are concerned. Biblical warfare aside, the history of the Jewish people — starting with King Solomon — was always meant to be a story of peace and tranquility, unless there was a need to fight against an invading enemy. Even under such circumstances, some Jews in our long history chose death over fighting, perhaps preferring to die to sanctify God’s name or perhaps to avoid having to take anyone else’s life.

However, one thing is made abundantly clear in the Torah. We have no notion of human sacrifice; we never did have a notion of human sacrifice; and we will never have a notion of human sacrifice.

The late Rabbi Mordechai Breuer writes (Pirkei Moadot, Volume II “Jerusalem”) that Abraham was told to sacrifice his son on Mt. Moriah specifically because God wanted to explicate once and for all, that Judaism and monotheism have no room for child sacrifice. God does not want us to kill innocent humans. We do not give up anyone’s life for anything, except in very specific circumstances, such as if an enemy army is looking to wipe out a city and requests a specific person in exchange for sparing the city.

We are commanded against taking children and offering them as sacrifices to idols (Vayikra 18:21, 20:2-4). It is unclear to me where the desire to sacrifice one’s children or one’s own life to a god comes from. It is an entirely different matter to enter the battlefield prepared to give one’s own life for one’s country, in order to save many more lives in the defense of freedoms we hold dear. But even soldiers in a battlefield would sooner have someone else take their life in battle than purposely give up their own lives for the sake of the possible success of a mission — with “success” being loosely defined as more deaths on the other side.

The Torah tells us at the end of Devarim chapter 12:

“When God excises the nations to which you are coming, and drives them away before you, you shall expel them and live in their land. After they have been wiped out before you, be very careful not to fall into a deadly trap by trying to follow them.  Do not try to find out about their gods, saying, ‘Now, how did these nations worship their gods? I would also like to try [such practices].’ Do not worship God your Lord with such practices. In worshiping their gods, [these nations] committed all sorts of perversions hated by God. They would even burn their sons and daughters in fire as a means of worshiping their gods!”

On this last verse, Rashi records Rabbi Akiva’s account of an idolator who had tied up his own father in front of a dog he was worshipping, thereby allowing the dog to eat his father. In the civilized world, child sacrifice as a form of idolatry has largely disappeared. But child sacrifice in the name of God is all too alive and popular.

History has shown that the suicide attack was relatively uncommon until its advent as a means of warfare by Japanese kamikaze pilots in World War II. Arabs in Israel, and media-labeled “insurgents” in Iraq, have brought the method of “sacrifice” to new heights. This is not our way. The Chizkuni says even if we were to want to do such a thing in the name of God or in order to serve God, it is an abominable behavior detested by God in the strongest of ways.

May those who view these forms of murder as excusable and righteous perish from the earth, for only when they cease to exist will there be a chance for peace in our world.