Wrestling with the Abominable: Child Sacrifice and its Reception

(2) Say further to the Israelite people: Anyone among the Israelites, or among the strangers residing in Israel, who gives any offspring to Molech, shall be put to death; the people of the land shall pelt the person with stones. (3) And I will set My face against that party, whom I will cut off from among the people for having given offspring to Molech and so defiled My sanctuary and profaned My holy name. (4) And if the people of the land should shut their eyes to that party’s giving offspring to Molech, and should not put the person to death, (5) I Myself will set My face against that party’s kin as well; and I will cut off from among their people both that person and all who follow in going astray after Molech.

(9) When you enter the land that your LORD God is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the abhorrent practices of those nations. (10) Let no one be found among you who consigns a son or daughter to the fire, or who is an augur, a soothsayer, a diviner, a sorcerer, (11) one who casts spells, or one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or one who inquires of the dead.

(31) Truly, Assyria, who beats with the rod, Shall be cowed by the voice of the LORD; (32) And each time the appointed staff passes by, the LORD will bring down [His arm] upon him and will do battle with him as he waves it. (33) The Topheth has long been ready for him; He too is destined for Melech [Molech]—His firepit has been made both wide and deep, with plenty of fire and firewood, and with the breath of the LORD burning in it like a stream of sulfur.

(11) “And when the LORD has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, as [God] swore to you and to your fathers, and has given it to you, (12) you shall set apart for the LORD every first issue of the womb: every male firstling that your cattle drop shall be the LORD's. (13) But every firstling ass you shall redeem with a sheep; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. And you must redeem every male first-born among your children. (14) And when, in time to come, a child of yours asks you, saying, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall reply, ‘It was with a mighty hand that the LORD brought us out from Egypt, the house of bondage. (15) When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD slew every [male] first-born in the land of Egypt, the first-born of both human and beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD every first male issue of the womb, but redeem every male first-born among my children.’

(11) The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: (12) "I hereby take the Levites from among the Israelites in place of all the male first-born, the first issue of the womb among the Israelites: the Levites shall be Mine. (13) For every male first-born is Mine: at the time that I smote every [male] first-born in the land of Egypt, I consecrated every male first-born in Israel, human and beast, to Myself, to be Mine, I am the LORD."

(6) “With what shall I approach the LORD, do homage to God on high? Shall I approach Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? (7) Would the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with myriads of streams of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for my sins?” (8) “He has told you, O man, what is good, And what the LORD requires of you: Only to do justice, and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your God.”

(21) But the children rebelled against Me: they did not follow My laws and did not faithfully observe My rules, by the pursuit of which man shall live; they profaned My sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My fury upon them, to vent all My anger upon them, in the wilderness. (22) But I held back My hand and acted for the sake of My name, that it might not be profaned in the sight of the nations before whose eyes I had led them out. (23) However, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the lands, (24) because they did not obey My rules, but rejected My laws, profaned My sabbaths, and looked with longing to the fetishes of their fathers. (25) Moreover, I gave them laws that were not good and rules by which they could not live: (26) When they set aside every first issue of the womb, I defiled them by their very gifts—that I might render them desolate, that they might know that I am the LORD.

(1) And that is that He commanded us to redeem the firstborn man, that we should give the money to the priest. And that is His saying, "you shall give me your firstborn sons." And He explained to us how this giving should be: And it is that we redeem him from the priest; and it is as if [the priest] already acquired him, and we purchase him from him for five sela - and that is His saying, "but surely redeem the firstborn man."

(7) One who gives of his offspring to Molekh, for which one is executed by stoning, is not liable unless he hands over his child to the priests of Molekh and passes the child through the fire. If he handed over the child to the priests of Molekh but did not pass him through the fire, or if he passed him through the fire but did not hand him over to the priests of Molekh, he is not liable, unless he hands the child over to the priests of Molekh and passes him through the fire.

(30) And Jephthah made the following vow to the LORD: “If you deliver the Ammonites into my hands, (31) then whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me on my safe return from the Ammonites shall be the LORD’s and shall be offered by me as a burnt offering.” (32) Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites and attacked them, and the LORD delivered them into his hands.

(34) When Jephthah arrived at his home in Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him, with timbrel and dance! She was an only child; he had no other son or daughter. (35) On seeing her, he rent his clothes and said, “Alas, daughter! You have brought me low; you have become my troubler! For I have uttered a vow^-b to the LORD and I cannot retract.” (36) “Father,” she said, “you have uttered a vow to the LORD; do to me as you have vowed, seeing that the LORD has vindicated you against your enemies, the Ammonites.” (37) She further said to her father, “Let this be done for me: let me be for two months, and I will go with my companions and lament upon the hills and there bewail my maidenhood.” (38) “Go,” he replied. He let her go for two months, and she and her companions went and bewailed her maidenhood upon the hills. (39) After two months’ time, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. She had never known a man. So it became a custom in Israel (40) for the maidens of Israel to go every year, for four days in the year, and chant dirges for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

And so you find in the case of Jephthah the Gileadite, because he was not a Torah scholar, he lost his daughter. When? In the time that he fought with the Children of Ammon and made a vow at that time, as stated, “Then Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, [and said, ‘If You indeed give the Children of Ammon into my hand;] Then it shall be that whatever comes forth…, shall belong to the Lord, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.’” At that time the Holy One, blessed be He, was angry with him. The Holy One, blessed be He, said, “If there had come out from his house a dog, a pig, or a camel, he would have offered it to Me.” Hence He summoned his daughter to him. And why so much? So that all those that vow will learn the laws of vows and abnegations. [And the result was,] “and there was his daughter coming out to greet him [….] And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes.” [...]

When he sought to sacrifice her, she cried in front of him. His daughter said to him, “My father, I came out to greet you in joy, and [now] you slaughter me? Is it perhaps that the Holy One, blessed be He, wrote in the Torah that Israel offers the lives of people in front of the Holy One, blessed be He? And is it not written, ‘When one of you presents an offering to the Lord from the beasts.’ ‘From the beasts’ and not from people?” He said to her, “My daughter, I made a vow, ‘Then it shall be that whatever comes forth […].’ Is it possible that anyone who makes a vow does not have to fulfill his vow?” She said to him, “Behold, when our father Jacob made a vow, ‘and of all that You give me, I will surely set aside a tithe for You’; when the Holy One, blessed be He, gave him twelve sons, did he ever offer up one of them as a sacrifice? Moreover, does not Hannah [do likewise], when she makes a vow and says, ‘And she made a vow and said, “Lord of hosts, if You will surely see… [then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life].”’ Did she ever offer up her son as a sacrifice to the Holy One, blessed be He?” All these things she said to him, but he did not heed her. When she saw that he did not heed her, she said to him, “Let me go to a court of law. Perhaps one of them will find a loophole for your words.” Thus it is stated, “leave me alone for two months, so that I may go and come down to the mountains.” R. Zechariah said, “Is there anyone who comes down to the mountains? Does not one go up to the mountains? So what is the meaning of ‘and come down to the mountains?’ These represent the Sanhedrin, as in the usage, ‘Hear, O mountains, the lawsuit of the Lord.’” She went to them, but they did not find a loophole for undoing his vow, because of the sin of those that he slaughtered from the tribe of Ephraim.

Because she would in the future be separated in one house and not go out from there all the days of her life, she requested that she would walk for two months—since she wanted to fill her soul's appetite for wandering and walking, for she would no longer wander nor walk all the days of her life. And this is "I will weep for my maidenhood," that she would never be married, and also that she would walk to select the place of her dwelling in solitude. And my intention is that from this we learn the nations of Edom to make houses of solitude [קליסט"ר, presumably 'cloister']—to women who enter there and do not leave, and do not see a man for the rest of their lives.