יום שישי י"ט באדר ב תשפ"ד 29/03/2024
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  • The Mission Continues

    As in the past so it remains today - we were and still are under the selfsame commitment to adhere to the directions of the Gedolei Yisrael, who stand guard against breaches of purity threatening our camp. When we were required to ask – we asked. When we were instructed to depart – we left. The moment we are summoned back to raise the flag, every other consideration is pushed to the side and we answer: We are ready!

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בראי היום

  • Harav Yisrael Friedman zy”a, the Rebbe of Husyatin

    מוטי, ויקיפדיה העברית

    The ancestral chain of Harav Yisrael Friedman, the founder of the Husyatin chassidic court, originates with the holy Baal Shem Tov. The Husyatin chassidus has its roots in Galicia and eventually came to Tel Aviv, during the turbulent years between the two World Wars.

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  • Maccabi'im Gravesite

    In honour of Chanukah, we will discuss a fascinating, ongoing investigation attempting to establish the place of burial of Mattisyahu Kohen Gadol and his family.

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In I got It!

Kiddush HaShem

There are many ways to fulfill the mitzvah of Kiddush HaShem

26/07/2009 12:13
The mitzvah of Kiddush HaShem does not necessarily mean that one must give up one’s life for HaShem. Although it can signify dying for HaShem, it can also equal living for HaShem. For instance, the injunction that ‘all one’s words should be spoken softly to all men, and one should be a person whose company is pleasant, and one should receive each person with a pleasant countenance - one who conducts himself in this way will be praised by others who will love him; and of such a person it is written; “Yisrael in whom I take pride”.’ (Rambam)

The mitzvah of Kiddush HaShem is unique in that one can fulfill it on an entirely different level, one that does not even exist with other mitzvos such as shofar and lulav – these can only be fulfilled by a living person, and a dead person is not obligated in them, as is stated; “the dead are free [of obligations]”. In addition to this, if a person has two options; either to fulfill the mitzvah of lulav or to preserve his life, then it is clear that saving his life takes precedence. And if a gentile tells a Jew – ‘if you fulfill the mitzvah of lulav I will kill you’, then the Jew is not obligated to fulfill the mitzvah of lulav, since his life is of more importance than the mitzvah of lulav. But with the mitzvah of Kiddush HaShem, one of the ways of fulfilling the mitzvah is through the act of dying itself, since his very death actually fulfills the mitzvah. Although the person will become freed of all his other mitzvah obligations through allowing himself to be killed, nevertheless he still fulfills the great mitzvah of Kiddush HaShem by dying. This mitzvah is a mitzvah like any other of the mitzvos of the Torah; just as there is a mitzvah to blow the shofar on Rosh haShanah and to eat matzah on Pesach – so too is there a mitzvah to die or to allow oneself to be killed for Kiddush HaShem.

When precisely is one obligated to give up one’s lfe for Kiddush HaShem? If a gentile is trying to force a Jew to transgress one of the three cardinal mitzvos (idol worship, forbidden relations, or murder), or any other mitzvah at a time of forced transgression, (defined as a time when a wicked ruler is attempting to convert the Jews from their faith by forcing them to trample on the laws of the Torah, even one of them [Rambam]), or if the gentile tries to force the Jew to transgress in public, then one would be obligated to give up one’s life rather than transgress.

(There is actually an inherent irony in the mitzvah of Kiddush HaShem; if a person has what to die for, then it follows that he also has what to live for – a person who has nothing to die for, also has nothing for which to live.)

There are three ways of dying al kiddush HaShem:

1)  A Jew who is forcibly killed and has no possibility by which he might save himself. The gentile murderer is motivated solely by his hatred of Jews, as it states; “an everlasting hatred for the eternal nation”, according to the halocha that Eisav will always hate Yaakov. This is the form of kiddush HaShem constituted by the martyrdom of Rabbi Akiva and the other nine of the Ten Martyrs of his generation. When we daven “Our Father, our King; act for the sake of those who were slain for Your Holy Name” we are referring to these martyrs, and all those who were killed simply because they were Jews.

2)  A Jew who was killed as the result of his own choice; he had the possibility of choosing life but nevertheless chose to die. For instance; the gentile wanted to force the Jew to transgress, to ‘convert’ him to christianity or islam – if the Jew refuses, he will be killed. This is the manner of Kiddush HaShem chosen by Chana and her seven sons; the King ordered them to bow down to an idol or they were to be killed, and they chose the latter option. When we daven “Our Father, our King; act for the sake of those who were slaughtered for Your Unity”, we are referring to those who were killed rather than denying HaShem’s Unity and supremacy, and by doing so they ‘unify’ HaShem’s Name, so to speak, since their intention at their time of death was to die for the sake of proclaiming HaShem’s unity and supremacy.

3)  A Jew who takes his own life, since he knows that he will not be able to withstand the force of the gentile who is trying to coerce him to transgress. This form of Kiddush HaShem is exemplified by the four hundred boys and girls who were captives on a ship, and knew that their gentile captors intended them for the purpose of illicit relations; therefore, they jumped into the sea to their deaths (Gittin 57). When we daven “Our Father, our King; act for the sake of those who passed through fire and water for the sanctity of Your Name” we are referring to this category of Jews, those who of their own accord take their lives by death from drowning or in burning flames.

During the first crusade, which took place in the year 4856 (1096ce), the crusaders’ journey across Europe took them past the Jewish communities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz. These were then the main Jewish communities of Ashkenaz, and their Jews were slaughtered and butchered without mercy. There were those who were killed by external force; there were others who chose death willingly; and there were those who took their own lives, according to the testimony of the Ra’avan (Rav Eliezer bar Nosson) “and of those who took their own lives, fulfilling ‘a mother ripped of her child.’” All these are considered to have died al kiddush HaShem, and of them it is written in the Gemora; “those who are killed for HaShem – no angel and no being may linger in the proximity of their heavenly abode”. And of these said Dovid haMelech; “For we are constantly being killed for Your sake – they consider us as sheep for the slaughter” (Tehillim 44).

Our sages did not consider this mitzvah of Kiddush HaShem to be a compromise with reality, less than the ideal situation and only a mitzvah in retrospect. The Gemora relates that when Rabbi Akiva was being led out to his death, it was the time of the commandment to recite the krias Shema. Rabbi Akiva began to recite krias Shema, and his students who were present at this terrible time exclaimed; “even now?” He answered them; “all my days I was worried about [not meriting to fulfill] the verse ‘and you shall love G-d your Lord…with all your soul’ – even if He takes away your soul – and now that I have been given the opportunity to fulfill it, should I not do so?” Rabbi Akiva at the time of his death was already an old man who had utilised every moment of his life for good – and still he had been concerned that he would not be given the opportunity to fulfill this particular mitzvah, and he had hoped and longed that he would yet merit to fulfill it. Therefore, when he was about to die, he rejoiced that he had indeed merited to fulfill the wish of all of his days and years – from this we can derive that the mitzvah is indeed valid a priori, whose fulfillment can be sought even if extenuating circumstances do not exist.

And of these Jews, who seek to sanctify HaShem’s Name with their lives, it states; “from Bashan I will bring them back – I will bring them back from the depths of the sea. And I will exact vengeance for their blood; I will avenge them, and HaShem will dwell in Tzion.”