{"id":62561,"date":"2019-09-08T15:54:02","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T12:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=62561"},"modified":"2023-04-04T09:17:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T06:17:31","slug":"the-precipitous-attraction-to-baal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-precipitous-attraction-to-baal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Precipitous Attraction To Baal"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[927,858,429,780],"acf":{"old_id":"62561","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33692,"related_cahpter":"303","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A recurrent ref-rain...","content":"

The chapters we are about to study chronicle the epic struggle between two personalities \u2014 Ahab, king of Israel, and his nemesis, the great prophet Elijah.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ahab and Jezebel’s Baal worship constitutes the focal point of the tension, but the medium that generates much of the drama is a drought. Elijah withholds rainfall to pressure Ahab and his nation to abandon their commitment to Baal. Why is rain chosen as the means of influencing Ahab? Is there a connection between Baal and rain?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Baal is the rain or storm god, responsible for fertility and agricultural success. The Talmud (Moed Katan 2a-b, Bava Batra 28a) even refers to a field irrigated exclusively by rain as a <\/span>sedeh Baal<\/span><\/em>, a “Baal field.” The primary agricultural and economic drawback in Israel and Phoenicia \u2014 two lands essentially on the same geographical continuum \u2014 is lack of rain. With no great rivers to provide irrigation, the land of Israel relies solely on rainfall. which is unpredictable and sporadic; hence the enormous attraction to Baal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Torah asserts that total commitment to God’s laws is the only means of guaranteeing rain. Baal worship, however, ostensibly offered an alternative guarantee of rainfall, and thus economic stability and prosperity. The desperate Israelite farmer, whose crops and livelihood were threatened by drought, might have felt that a visit to the local priest of Baal was an excusable religious infraction if it were to ensure his family’s survival.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We should not dismiss Baal as merely a figurine or molten image \u2014 whole worlds of mythology bolstered its worship. Baal constituted the male representative of the rain god. Its female counterpart, Ashera, took two forms: a tree or a female image or figurine, frequently a pregnant or nursing woman. The theory was that Baal (the rain) fertilized Ashera (the tree – see 1 Kings 18:19).This union of male and female led to cultic sexual rites in the temples of Baal; the sexual union of male and female temple prostitutes (<\/span>kadesh <\/span><\/em>and <\/span>kedesha<\/span><\/em>) would simulate and stimulate the god’s bringing the desired rainfall and its ensuing abundance (Deut. 23:18-19). Thus, we can appreciate the connection made by the Torah (for example, in Leviticus 18) between idolatry and illicit sexual practices. This background may help us understand the allure of this deity, which seemed to exhibit an almost magnetic attraction for the Jewish people from the time of the Judges (Judges 2:11) through the Temple’s destruction (II Kings 23:4).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alex Israel, 1 Kings: Torn in Two,<\/em> Maggid Books, 2013, Omri and Ahab: An Introduction\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":61437,"id":61437,"title":"alex israel - kings 1","filename":"alex-israel-kings-1.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/adonijahs-scheme-to-ascend-the-throne\/alex-israel-kings-1\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"alex-israel-kings-1","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":61414,"date":"2019-08-19 12:13:44","modified":"2019-08-19 12:13:53","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1020,"height":1304,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-235x300.jpg","medium-width":235,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-768x982.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":982,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-801x1024.jpg","large-width":801,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":1020,"1536x1536-height":1304,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":1020,"2048x2048-height":1304,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-939x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":939,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-329x420.jpg","home_baner-width":329,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Excerpts from: 1 Kings - 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