What Is Moloch?

It doesn’t matter who or what Moloch is. What matters is that it involves the wasteful destruction of all that is holy in the name of something that is not. It is one characterization of the cosmic mistake called “idolatry,” which really means worshipping ourselves.

That said, as a shoresh enthusiast, it is pretty hard for me to work around the מלכ root meaning “ruler,” which is one of the reasons scholars interpret Moloch as a being, but the truth is we have no idea what tons of the nouns in Tanakh actually mean.

All that postrat descriptive stuff that made Moloch so popular online only considers Moloch in terms of Its functions. But Moloch cannot be comprehended unless It is BEHELD.

And that can only be done by facing this question:

With whose confidence do we bring new life into the world?

Moloch is not wrong. It is worshipping Moloch that is wrong.