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Moloch, usually depicted as an owl, or a bull, also spelled Molech, a Canaanite deity (fallen angel) associated in biblical sources with the practice of child sacrifice. The name derives from combining the consonants of the Hebrew melech (“king”) with the vowels of boshet (“shame”), the latter often being used in the Old Testament as a variant name for the popular god Baal (“Lord”). In the Hebrew Bible, Moloch is presented as a foreign deity who was at times illegitimately given a place in Israel’s worship as a result of the syncretistic policies of certain apostate kings. The laws given to Moses by God expressly forbade the Jews to do what was done in Egypt or in Canaan. “You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Moloch, and so profane the name of your God” (Leviticus 18:21). Yet kings such as Ahaz (2 Kings 16:3) and Manasseh (2 Kings 21:6), having been influenced by the Assyrians, are reported to have worshipped Moloch at the hilled site of Topheth, outside the walls of Jerusalem. This site flourished under Manasseh’s son King Amon but was destroyed during the reign of Josiah, the reformer. “And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Moloch” (2 Kings 23:10). Footage is of the Jewish Pageant “A Romance of a People“ from the 1933 Chicago's World's Fair. 9:15pm on 27 May 1933, four telescopes located in different observatories captured light from Arcturus and focused it onto photoelectric cells. These cells then transformed the light into an electrical current that was amplified and sent to the Expo site on the shores of Lake Michigan. And back in the early 1930s, this star made the front page of every newspaper in the United States, when Arcturus was used to symbolically link two great world fairs that were separated by a span of 40 years. It was 81 years ago this month — May 27, 1933, to be exact — that Arcturus became the object of a great publicity buildup in Chicago, at the opening of the Century of Progress Exposition. #baal #moloch #chicagoworldsfair
