Parshas Acharei-Kedoshim: Sacrifice Sin, not Children

We have a double Torah portion this week, Parshas Acharei - Kedoshim, Vayikra (Leviticus) 16:1-20:27. Much of contemporary culture around the world chooses to remain uninformed of the Almighty’s life preserving instructions conveyed in these Torah readings. The best remedy for what ails us is studying and applying them.

Acharei Mot, Vayikra (Leviticus) 16:1–18:30, invites us to look to a future when human spiritual growth finally merits the messianic Redemption. The portion opens with Moses delivering a stern warning from Hashem to Aaron to lead His people on the path of true life affirming holiness not the false, death inducing delusions found in fashionably unorthodox spiritual pursuits.

The portion describes very specific annual Yom Kippur priestly rituals and animal sacrificial rules needed to atone for harms done when wickedness rules the human heart and mind. A long list of prohibited behaviors commences with a complete prohibition from eating the blood of a food animal or fowl because the blood contains the soul of that animal. The Almighty considers the soul so sacred that the blood of an animal must be used only by a priest as representation of the owner’s personal sacrifice for his own sin. Acknowledging that the soul is in the blood ought to put to rest any confusion about an unborn baby’s ensoulment at conception, when immediately cells begin multiplying, leading to blood and blood vessels visible at 2 1/2 weeks after fertilization.

Chapter 18 begins as the Almighty tells Moses to alert the people….Canaanite law and social norms among the Jews will not be tolerated. Rather, they must safeguard His life saving rules of conduct or be ejected from the land, just as the morally depraved Canaanites were ejected. Within the long list of deviant sexual behaviors that follows, a warning against child sacrifice gets its own line item in Leviticus 18:21, And you shall not give any of your offspring to pass through for Molech. And you shall not profane the Name of your God. I am the Lord.

Expanded curses to anyone involved in child sacrifice occurs in Parshas Kedoshim, Vayikra (Leviticus) 19:1–20:27. In biblical times, killing one's children is quite common, but Torah makes it a capital crime for Jews. Anyone enabling it probably dies indirectly after being banished from the tribe and separated from God’s mercies. In current times, no longer does relief from the pain and consequence of sin, shame, guilt, and moral failure happen by execution or linger after banishment. Escape and relief comes from a life restored by casting off secular attitudes and embracing holy principles on our journey of life.

Here are the relevant verses. Leviticus 20:2-5: Whosoever he be of the children of Israel that giveth his children to Molech, he shall surely be put to death: And to the children of Israel, you shall say: Any man of the children of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech, shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall pelt him with stones. And I will set My attention upon that man, and I will cut him off from amidst his people, because he gave of his offspring to Molech in order to defile My holy ones and to profane My holy Name. But if the people of the land ignore that man when he gives of his offspring to Molech, not putting him to death I will set My attention upon that man, and upon his family, and I will cut him off, and all who stray after him to stray after Molech, from amidst their people. 

Many laws enumerated in this portion strongly repudiate abortion and abortion industry practices, all of which are evil and ruinous.

Leviticus 19:2: Speak to the entire community of the Israelites, saying to them, ‘You must be holy, for I, God, your God, am holy. It doesn’t say, be helpful or reasonable or fiscally responsible or ambitious or demand your civil right to destroy innocent life. It says, be holy!

Leviticus 19:3: Every man shall fear his mother and his father and keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord. We respect our parents’ authority unless they ask us to violate God’s moral authority. Along with the power of peer pressure and social media, parents have tremendous influence over their children's moral development or disintegration, When parents persuade or coerce their daughter or son into an abortion for an unplanned pregnancy they teach moral weakness. They put their children at risk for complications afterward. They lose a grandchild, too. Choosing life requires abortion vulnerable couples facing parental threat of banishment from their home to have uncommon courage, insight, understanding and faith. Tragically, too many young adults unwillingly succumb to parental intimidation and mind control rather than seek the abundant financial, practical and moral support available outside their family.

Leviticus 19:4: Do not turn to idols, nor make for yourselves molten gods; I am the Lord your God. Abortion propagandists dress up baby killing as a panacea for life issues around unwanted pregnancy. With some moral and practical support, abortion vulnerable couples can reclaim spiritual strength and actively save their unborn children and their future by depending on God’s direction and care. 

Leviticus 19:11: You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. Abortion steals life, money, peace of mind and the future. Abortion profiteers engage in duplicitous practices by routinely failing to report evidence of sexual assault and sex trafficking, and failing to provide informed consent to patients about negative consequences of the procedures or the pain that the baby suffers or the atrocity of selling the baby for research while still alive. Patients receive biased counseling in favor of abortion to meet monthly quotas. Lies abound: abortion is healthcare, it’s a harmless medical procedure, it will solve your problems, it's not human, it’s not alive, etc.

Leviticus 19:12: You shall not swear falsely by My Name, thereby profaning the Name of your God. I am the Lord. Jewish abortion activists and supporters routinely violate this with each repetition of 'Abortion is a Jewish value and a religious right/rite.' This is a desecration of God’s name and very dangerous. It mirrors our enemy’s trope that killing Jews is a religious right/rite.

Leviticus 19:13: You shall not oppress your fellow. You shall not rob. The hired worker's wage shall not remain with you overnight until morning. Abortion homicide oppresses mothers, father, families, and communities, and robs the human family of a future and all the productive years that child would provide. Abortion is the sacrifice of human capital for profit. It is modern day child sacrifice for a dubious benefit. 

Leviticus 19:14: You shall not curse a deaf person. You shall not place a stumbling block before a blind person, and you shall fear your God. I am the Lord. Pro-abortion attitudes and supportive policies in law and politics set a trap for vulnerable parents. A popular position framed as compassionate care, it exploits and destroys others for personal and commercial gain. We counsel our Tikvat Rachel participants to recognize the superbly constructed trap into which they fell and to be open to forgiveness for their weakness.

Leviticus 19:16: You shall not go around as a gossipmonger amidst your people. You shall not stand by [the shedding of] your fellow's blood. I am the Lord. Gossip is viewed as deadly, so much so that it is combined in this verse commanding us to take action against any deadly assault on our fellows. Stopping gossip ranks with stopping mortal injury done to our friends and neighbors, including stopping others from shedding the blood of innocent children in the womb. These young human beings are our neighbors.

Leviticus 19:17: You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your fellow, but you shall not bear a sin on his account. Rather than harbor ill feelings and resentment towards those who abuse God and Torah, we educate and encourage a life affirming view in the Jewish community. We speak truth to lies and offer opportunity for changed attitudes and repentance. We need not assume another's transgression by remaining silent.

Leviticus 19:18: You shall neither take revenge from nor bear a grudge against the members of your people; you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. Love rejoices in life. We are required to treat our neighbors with love and kindliness. Whether misguided abortion supporter, irresponsible father, coerced or brazen mother, or innocent unborn baby, all must be treated with respect and honesty. Babies born from rape and incest must not be demonized and executed by criminal perpetrators. Born and unborn, are all valuable and precious in God’s loving creation.

Leviticus 19:29: You shall not defile your daughter by making her a harlot, lest the Land fall into harlotry and the land be filled with immorality. Progressive sexual freedom permeates our culture, often corrupting family systems. This presents as normalized provocative behavior that allows early sexual activity, treats teen pregnancy with baby killing, and leads to sex trafficking and gender bending. In some jurisdictions, parents who object to this trend and promote teen modesty, abstinence, and self respect risk criminal action from school administrators and state authorities.

Leviticus 19:35: You must not commit a perversion of justice with regard to measures of length, area, weight, or liquid or dry volume. Continuing to advance policies and attitudes that dehumanize an unborn baby as a product of conception or less than fully human perverts justice. 

In our Haftarah portion this week, Amos 9:7-15, we meet the prophet in mid chapter attempting to reassure his audience that Israel will be redeemed after sharing his vision of a devastated, conquered northern kingdom due to the moral failure of Jewish leadership. He preaches that God and His people are bound in a moral contract. His clear understanding of spiritual cause and effect is lost on the establishment. He is banned from Samaria, continuing to write and preach remotely. Amos preaches in the years 780 to 760 BCE. The northern kingdom of Israel disappears in 556 BCE.

This very long commentary can be summed up in a few sentences. Child sacrifice is strictly forbidden to Jews and to those about whom we live. God warns that He will make desolate the soul of any person who commits or condones this crime, and He will devastate any nation that practices it. Our sensibilities have been coarsened to the heinous nature of child killing. We now live in a soulless society, far removed from the holy vision He had for us. In 2024, over one millions babies were destroyed in America and we still do not have a political majority who considers this immoral and unacceptable. Hadassah estimates that 20,000 Jewish babies are destroyed annually in Israel and it is not considered politically important to stop the government from paying for most of them.

I offer this essay in support and love for Jews and Israel, whose future it is clear to see from our biblical heritage depends on a return to holiness. May HaShem bless this effort to remind our communities and supporters of Israel that only the Almighty can successfully protect and prosper Israel; therefore, we must not ignore secular policies in Israel. We must call them out and use our influence and organizational power to transform the Jewish state into a Torah based holy land. 

Please share this post on your social media to amplify our message in this troubled world. Thank you.

Cecily Routman

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.

Cecily Routman is the founder and president of the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation. She opposes abortion homicide in general and among Jews in particular and laments secular policy making in Israel that results in loss of Jewish life and delays the messianic redemption. She envisions a Torah based holy Land of Israel and a world that respects the life of every human being from conception.