Parsha in the Park - Don't Kill the Illegitimate Child!

Good morning, and welcome to Portion of the Park. This week is parshas Acharei Mot Kedoshim. In parshas Acharei Mot, we go through a whole list of forbidden relations. They include having a man having relations with his sister, his mother, his mother's his father's wife, all sorts of different relations, all of which can produce illegitimate children that are called mamzerim. Then we go The next thing that's listed is don't send a kid to the fires of Moloch. Um and then after that we have uh forbidden homosexual relations and forbidden bestiality. So why is this avodah zarah, this idol worship of Moloch, doing in the middle of this list? So one idea, okay, is that at the end of the list we have two types of relations that don't produce children. That's homosexuality and bestiality. Beginning of the list, they are all relations that are forbidden by that a man has relations with this type of a woman, he will produce children, or she will produce the children through that relationship. And what could be happening here is that the person says, "Well, these were forbidden relations, and they admit it. Yeah, it's forbidden. So I'm going to help clean up the world by offering this child to Moloch, and it's going to be child will be killed. I'm helping to clean up the world." And Hashem says, "No. Don't have these relations, but if you do and there's a child born, it's a real child. It's called a mamzer, but don't kill the child. It's part of society." This has been Portion of the Park. Have a wonderful day.