Fire/Men

Judaism, Wntr, 2002 by Judith Seligson

Human Sacrifice

In the second week of September of the year 2001, altars to a god who loves human sacrifice were erected in Lower Manhattan and Northern Virginia and a massive burnt offering took place. Though no one has claimed responsibility, some think these rituals were performed to please Allah. "You must make your knife sharp and you must not discomfort your animal during the slaughter.'" These words of inspiration, found in the hijackers' luggage, echo the Hebrew Bible: "And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. And he shall slaughter the bullock before the Lord" (Leviticus 1:4,5). The hijackers "slaughter" their "animal" before their god. What god requires the slaughter of thousands of civilians in exchange for atonement? Does Allah delight in the smell of burning human flesh? No. This is an "other" god, not the one that answers to God or Allah.

The Bible warns against idol worship, of Moloch, for example, in which human beings, especially children, are sacrificed to appease or please a god. "Recent excavations in Palestine, at Gezer, Taanach, and Megiddo, have revealed regular cemeteries round the heathen altars, in which skeletons of scores of infants have been found, showing traces of slaughter and partial consumption by sacrificial fire." (2) "For every abomination to the Lord, which He hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods" (Deuteronomy 12:26). Those who sent these men to burn themselves and others are the high priests of this present-day heathen cult.

Fire is a central image in the act of worship of September 11. The burnt offering was once away of pleasing God. Noah's burnt animal offering was said to exude a "pleasant aroma" (Genesis 8:21), a metaphor for his good heart. By the time of the prophets, there were lots of burnt animal offerings but few good hearts. The prophet Hosea said "Forget the calves; go straight to God with words of repentance and prayer." (3) Ever since, prayer has been the currency of offerings to God in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions.

Fire is a tool God uses in both the Hebrew and Christian Bibles to cleanse the world of corruption. God sent "brimstone and fire" to consume the wicked in Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24). In the prophets, we read, "Behold, the Lord God called to judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep" (Amos 6:4). Apart from what we think of God's methods, in those particular times, what does it mean for human beings to mimic this conflagration imagery? Are they not putting themselves in God's place?

Fire is intimately linked with human beings. The Hebrew word for "human being" (eesh) and for "fire" (aysh) come from the same etymological root. There are many possible connections. Human civilization began when we learned to control fire. Fire is a symbol of the human heart, as in "burning with desire." It is a purifying agent, for sterilizing scalpels and refining metals. The word for prayer in Hebrew (t'filah) derives from the word for judgment (p' liloot). Prayer, our intimate act of self-scrutiny and self-judgment, is the inner, metaphorical fire human beings use to refine ourselves, to become the best that human beings can be. After all, the burnt offering is only as good as the person offering it.

Interpretation as Wish-Fulfillment

Fire can be a metaphor for self-improvement, for becoming better human beings. On the other hand, idolaters and would-be gods take "fire" literally, and use it for the destruction of others. One could say, then, that interpretation of scriptural words, like fire, for example, is a matter of life and death. One of the most traumatic stories in the Hebrew Bible, the "binding of Isaac," can be read as a dire warning about interpretation.

Abraham thinks God has told him to sacrifice his son, Isaac. God has told Abraham to make an oh'lah, a word that can refer either to "burnt offering" or "go up" the mountain. Abraham interprets the word to mean that God would be pleased by the odor of Isaac's burnt flesh. The seminal commentator on the Hebrew Bible, Rashi, in the eleventh century, wrote that God meant: "Abraham,... I did not say to you 'Slay him,' but 'Bring him up.' You have brought him up, bring him down." (4) That is, Abraham misinterpreted what God said when God said, "Oh'lah. "One could ask if Abraham misinterpreted God because he (unconsciously) wanted to kill Isaac. In that case, in each generation, we can confront our wish to sacrifice human beings, even our beloved children, and burn that desire.

What comes first, then, scripture or interpretation, God's wish or the wishes we impose on God? Are we not prone, like Abraham, to interpret the way our hearts lead us? Abraham, by his wife Sarah's and God's wish, had just sent Isbmael, his first son, by Hagar, an Egyptian mother, into the desert. He was told that Ishmael would be the progenitor of a nation, but would not inherit the Jewish tradition. Isaac, his son with Sarah, would. Perhaps Abraham was angry with God (and Sarah) for separating him from his beloved Ishmael. Perhaps he redirects his anger toward Isaac. Perhaps Abraham had not reconciled himself to Isaac as "thy son, thine only son whom thou lovest, even Isaac" (Genesis 22:2) as God identifies him. It is not clear that Abraham loves Isaac at all when they start their trek up Mount Moriah.