Ask The Rabbi!!

[M1903A1]

Who/what was Moloch?

[TomHagen]

Originally Posted by M1903A1

Who/what was Moloch?

A Moloch is the term in hebrew for an Angel. yet, the common concept of Angel is not the same as the Jewish concept of a Moloch (or Malach) angel.

[htown]

How do the concepts differ?

Originally Posted by TomHagen

A Moloch is the term in hebrew for an Angel. yet, the common concept of Angel is not the same as the Jewish concept of a Moloch (or Malach) angel.

[TomHagen]

Originally Posted by htown

How do the concepts differ?

I can just tell you what a Malach is. A Malach is an almost completely spiritual being, but is not sentient, meaning they have no free will of their own, but rather do G-d's bidding, and are spiritually sationary, in that they don't have bad days and good days, cannot ascend to higher levels or fall down to lower ones but remain within certain parameters, but rather fulfill their task wholeheartedly, without fail, accepting the yoke of Heaven. They do not resemble humans (as they are not physically oriented) and they are spiritually giant awe inspiring beings.

[M1903A1]

Originally Posted by TomHagen

A Moloch is the term in hebrew for an Angel. yet, the common concept of Angel is not the same as the Jewish concept of a Moloch (or Malach) angel.

I always thought that Moloch was the name of an Old Testament regional deity that called for some form of child sacrifice by its followers. Or was this a case of a deity being generically referred to as "Moloch", like the deity whose followers were challenged by Elijah was called "Ba'al"?

[TomHagen]

Originally Posted by M1903A1

I always thought that Moloch was the name of an Old Testament regional deity that called for some form of child sacrifice by its followers. Or was this a case of a deity being generically referred to as "Moloch", like the deity whose followers were challenged by Elijah was called "Ba'al"?

Correct. Moloch was an idolotrous cult, like Ba'al.

With transliteration from Hebrew it is sometimes hard to derive the questioner's intended reference. Often the word is spelled VERY differently in Hebrew, but is tranliterated similiarly in English. So I try to go with the most common usage of a term or name.