tophet

Contributed by Rabbi Geoffrey W. Dennis

A high place designated for the sacrifice of children to pagan gods such as Moloch. Child sacrifice, mostly in time of national or communal crisis, was an integral element of Western Semitic paganism and tophets were created not only in Israel and Lebanon, but even in Phoenician colonies such as Carthage, where child sacrifice was well documented.

One of these places was at Gehenna, near Jerusalem.

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