Elon Moreh

אלון מורה


Genesis 12:6 names it as the terebinth-oak at Moreh, near the sanctuary of Shechem, where YHVH spoke to Av-Ram and they made a covenant. Av-Ram and Av-Raham are identified with several shrines, most particularly the Cave of Machpelah by the terebinth-oak of Mamre at Chevron; but he is also mentioned sacrificing or seeking oracles at Beit-El, Be'er Sheva and Be'er Lechi Ro'i, all of them wells, and here at the oak-grove of Moreh - both motifs of nomadism: the search for water and for shade and shelter, for a place to caravanserai, and thanks be to the gods of the place for their hospitality.

It is Ya'akov (Jacob) who is most identified with this shrine, as we know from Genesis 34 where Dinah, whose shrine it probably was, was "raped" by the followers of the ass-god Chamor, in vengeance for which act his cult was effectively wiped out in a religious cherem by Shim'on and Levi.

See also El and Elon for the cult of the oak, and the essay Cults and Myth-Making for the wider topic.

Moreh (מורה) as spelled can mean "an archer" or "a shooter of darts", and is also used poetically for the early rain. In later Yehudit it came to be equated with the craft of teaching. However Moreh is probably mis-spelled here, and should have an Aleph (א) ending; Moreh thus spelled stems from the root Yara (ירא) = "to fear", and would be used for anything to which great reverence was owing.



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