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Ba’al

“And they built the high places of Ba’al to burn their
children with fire as burnt offerings to Ba’al, which I did
not command, neither did I speak nor did it enter
My mind.” — Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) 19:5
 
“Destroy another fetus now
We don’t like children anyhow”
—Leonard Cohen, “The Future”

Here is an altar of Ba’al.
Decipher this hieroglyphic—
it says, for fruit to be prolific,
you’ll burn your child or break his skull.
When satisfied, Ba’al provides
you with his benefits aplenty—
for instance, with your soup of lentils.
All you can eat to your delight.

The war on kindness is afoot,
and lips of wise ones drip with venom.
And sacrifices in Gehinnom—
they’ve moved away but they’re not moot.
They are to other idols—they
are to the vagaries and whimsy.
Who cares much that the reason’s flimsy—
the child’s unwanted, good to slay,
to be plucked out, this hated seed.
A surplus piece of mother’s body.
She does not want him, he’s a burden—
it’s only fair, her chosen deed.

The tophet’s full with crimson waste
but ne’er enough to sate the fire—
it moans for more. It’s never tired,
and feeding it is in good taste.
It has to follow that one’s life
is only worth exactly nothing.
Ba’al is happy. He is laughing.
He’s never lived but hard’s his laugh.

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Gehinnom: originally known biblically as the accursed Valley of Hinnom (Heb. gei hinom) and the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (gei ben hinom), later corrupted into Gehenna, attaining the meaning of hell: a valley on the west-southwest of Jerusalem, where children were sacrificed to Ba’al and Moloch.

Tophet: the place of sacrifice.

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Michael Vanyukov is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Psychiatry, and Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh. He immigrated to the United States 30 years ago as a refugee from the Soviet Union.

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6 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Michael, not only do you depict the abominations of Ba-al and expose the modern cruel counterpart, you exhibit an educated knowledge of significant religious facts and ability to put it into wonderful classic poetry. I did not know Gehenna was a linguistic corruption of another word and was educated on Tophet as the place of sacrifice. I value the thought and work you put into this vivid poem of tragedies foisted upon the people.

    Reply
    • Michael Vanyukov

      Thank you, Roy, for your kind words. Tragedies indeed. Worse yet, unnecessary and avoidable ones. Rationalized by the idea that is wrong both scientifically and morally.

      Reply
  2. Brian A. Yapko

    This is an extremely powerful poem, Michael, on a subject which inspires passions like few others. Relating abortion to Baal worship is not only daring but, in some ways, frighteningly accurate. I’ve seen many stories of pro-abortion activists who treat their right to kill the baby in the womb as a pseudo-religion. I saw a psychotic woman on a news show recently who had tattoos, piercings, pink hair and who was dead behind the eyes loudly screaming that she was proud of her multiple abortions — in double digits. Perversely, I’m sure she was. That human souls can be twisted into such amoral contortions is so disturbing. Your rage-infused poem captures that disturbing, pagan-worshiping quality perfectly.

    Reply
    • Michael Vanyukov

      Thank you, Brian. You are perfectly correct. Worshiping false deities, including deified humans, is an old and tenacious human fallacy, leading to nothing but death – both physical and spiritual. “Dead behind the eyes” captures that – in abortion worship, in Allah worship, in Obama worship, you name it. Ba’al is laughing.

      Reply
  3. Margaret Coats

    Michael, how many reasons or excuses or justifications you pack into this poem! When we hear of child sacrifice in ancient times, we often wonder why, but you show that the faulty reasoning, contrary to divine will, is similar to what is heard at present. We have a tophet to the convenience of what seems a better life, just as ancients might have felt more secure in their “soup of lentils” after a hideous sacrifice to Ba’al. One striking line here: “feeding it is in good taste,” as if the imaginary benefits one gains from human sacrifice improve even base sensual satisfaction. That shows flimsy reasoning! And you present a good conclusion: Ba’al has never lived, but he can laugh hard at those who try to please his non-existence. I suppose you mean the false god, who may be a devil, has no real life because (if he is a fallen angel) he abandoned life received in creation. The idea works just as well with modern disbelief in pagan deities as non-existent.

    Reply
    • Michael Vanyukov

      Dear Margaret, as usual, you penetrate all the layers of the eternal inhuman/infernal phenomenon in humans I tried to touch. Thank you.

      Reply

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