Divrei Emor
Sanctifying the Name, Part 1
Right after the Torah’s discussions of laws pertaining to the blemishes that can disqualify an offering, Hashem declares: “You shall not desecrate My holy Name; rather, I should be sanctified among the Children of Israel, I am Hashem Who sanctifies you.” (22:32) The mitzvoh of kiddush Hashem occupies a unique place in our hearts and minds. Our heroes are not those who can hit a baseball, not those who can act in a movie. Rather, our history is populated with those who willingly, often happily, made the ultimate sacrifice.
When we look into the halachos of kiddush Hashem, a complex picture emerges. We are used to thinking of kiddush Hashem in terms of two areas; giving up our lives, if need be, for a mitzvoh; and behaving as dignified members of Am Israel when in front of the nations. One might think that the mitzvoh of kiddush Hashem would be considered a form of expressing ahavas Hashem, and therefore would be categorized along with krias shma, tefillin, and other such mitzvos. However, the Rambam places this mitzvoh in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah, grouping it with yedias Hashem, yichud Hashem, ahavas Hashem, and yiras Hashem, and thus giving it a special status: not only does kiddush Hashem encompass and affect all other mitzvos, but it is also a constant mitzvoh, applicable at all times. How can we accomplish kiddush Hashem at those times when we are alone and are not in danger?
Furthermore, the general rule is that the mitzvoh of kiddush Hashem requires us to give up life only to avoid idol worship, murder, and immorality, but not others (including Shabbos). If a Jew gives up his life for any other mitzvoh, (except in certain circumstances) the Rambam flatly states (5:1): “[H]e is guilty for his life.” But if kiddush hashem is showing love for Hashem, why is it limited to these three mitzvos? Clearly, a deeper understanding of kiddush Hashem is needed.
For one thing, kiddush Hashem is not merely an act. Compare two instances of Jews giving up their lives. One summer day in 1941, HaRav Elchonon Bunim Wasserman hy”d addressed fellow townspeople in the courtyard of the home where he had been staying, just before the enemy took them all away to be killed. According to HaRav Ephraim Oshry, an eyewitness who survived:
“R’ Elchonon spoke quietly and calmly as was his practice. Not even the sound of his voice was changed. On his face, his customary earnestness. His tone betrayed no feeling for self, and his did not attempt to say good-bye to his son, Rav Naphtali. He spoke to everyone, to the whole of Israel.
‘In Heaven it appears that they deem us to be righteous because our bodies have been chosen to atone for Jewry. Therefore, we must repent now, immediately. There is not much time. We must keep in mind that we will be better offerings if we repent. In this way, we will save the lives of our brothers and sisters in America.
‘Let no thought enter our minds, G-d forbid, which is abominable and which renders an offering unfit. We are now fulfilling the greatest mitzvoh. With fire she was destroyed, and with fire she will be rebuilt. The very fire which consumes our bodies will one day rebuild the Jewish people.’” (Epoch of the Messiah V-VI)
Rav Wasserman, the greatest talmid of the Chofetz Chaim, was not given to exaggeration. Clearly, he said, and meant, that the Jews of America today owe a great part of their spirituality, if not their lives outright, directly to the mass kiddush Hashem of European Jewry sixty years ago. We therefore have an obligation not to squander this legacy.
On the other hand, just as a disqualifying blemish can render an offering unfit, the wrong motive can ruin a kiddush Hashem. The Slonimer Rav zt”l writes that during the time of one of the Karliner Rebbes, the authorities made a false accusation against the Jews and threatened them with mass destruction, unless they handed over the “perpetrator.” One Jew stepped forward, “confessed,” and was hung. Certainly, the man’s actions caused the decree to the lifted, but the man bragged and glorified himself so much before his execution that the Karliner could not bear the stench of ego that gutted the man’s self-sacrifice.
Clearly, from both Rav Wasserman and the Karliner, kiddush Hashem requires a certain mindset in order for its enormous effects to come about. What is that mindset? Rav Elimelech of Lizensk wrote at the beginning of his Tzetl Koton that even those who are not asked to give up their lives, but even die peacefully in their beds, can still fulfill the mitzvoh of kiddush Hashem. How? If they are able to make themselves into people who would give up their lives, if asked, Hashem considers them as if they had fulfilled the mitzvoh.
One incident which illustrates this concept is recorded in Brachos 61b. As Rabbi Akiva was being viciously tortured to death, he joyously recited the Shma. Turnus Rufus, the Roman commander who had ordered the execution and who had been delightedly expecting the usual screams of agony, was shocked. “How can you laugh while suffering so much?” he blurted out. Even Rabbi Akiva’s own students, who for decades had witnessed his great ways, wondered, “Rebbe, how can you serve Hashem to this extent?” Rabbi Akiva explained, “All my life, I was concerned over a verse of the Torah. We are taught in the Shma to accept Hashem’s sovereignty and decrees upon ourselves ‘with all of your life.’ (Devarim 6:5) This implies that one must serve Hashem even if it means giving up his own life. I used to wonder if I would ever have the privilege of serving Hashem to such a degree. Now that the chance has come to me, shall I not fulfill it with joy?”
The previous Rosh HaYeshiva of Ner Israel, HaRav Yaakov Moshe Kulefsky zt”l, explained Rabbi Akiva’s words. Every time that we say Shma and feel that we would give our lives if the situation would chas v’shalom arise, we fulfill “with all of your life.” Rabbi Akiva told his students that he was happy in his excruciating death because it vindicated his many decades of kavanah in saying Shma; that is, his response to the Romans made him realize that he had successfully prepared for such a moment, and that thought brought him joy.
Another approach, this one from the Slonimer, comes from a careful reading of the Rambam, who states that kiddush Hashem and chillul Hashem can come in many forms. For example, when to take a non-kosher medicine is not simply a matter of kashrus. Rather, it also involves the elements of kiddush Hashem and chillul Hashem. (5:6-8) Furthermore, says the Rambam, every move we make in this world can include this dimension. “Anyone who rebelliously transgresses any mitzvoh in the Torah – this is a chillul Hashem . . . . [Likewise, A]nyone who stays away from a transgression or performs a mitzvoh, not for any reason other than for Hashem . . . . [T]his is a kiddush Hashem.” (5:10)
What is the common operating denominator? Says the Slonimer: the Rambam is telling us a yesod gadol, a foundation of Judaism. When a Jew does Hashem’s Will, aside from the actual fulfillment of the mitzvoh, he is also accomplishing a kiddush Hashem; but when he flouts Hashem’s Will, either by refraining from performing a mitzvoh or by doing a transgression, then he is also creating a chillul Hashem. For example, it is Hashem’s Will that in normal circumstances, we do not give up our lives to avoid committing a forced sin. At the very moment that the Jew commits that sin, he is actually performing Hashem’s Will, and therefore is actually gaining the mitzvoh of kiddush Hashem.
While forced sins come rarely, the point is clear. Every moment of our time in this world is an opportunity. We can either make that moment into a kiddush Hashem, or into the opposite. The choice is ours.
Sanctifying the
Name, Part 2
Perhaps one of the
most amazing stories of kiddush Hashem in our time comes from Avraham
Netzach z”l, a Russian Jew who was nifter recently at the age of 100. In
1935, Netzach was sent to Siberia because of his insistence upon keeping
mitzvos in the Soviet Union. He resolved to continue his loyalty to Hashem,
no matter how terrible the conditions.
We cannot imagine life in the labor camps. Not only were the prisoners subjected to constant bitter cold, they were forced to submit to backbreaking labor, starvation-level rations, and open hatred from the authorities and even from each other. Hundreds of thousands were shipped to Siberia, and few came back.
Netzach also took upon himself the yoke of Torah and mitzvos – a foolhardy move, to those who did not understand. Not only did he survive everything that the Communists threw at him, while performing every mitzvoh he could, he earned the grudging respect of those around him. He eventually earned the nickname “Subbota,” Shabbos, for his most well-known mitzvoh.
The greatest benefit he received, however, was a firm guarding from On High. Time and again, Netzach was in imminent danger of losing his life; and every time, Hashem saved him. The entire book is transformed from a dreary account, to a revelation of Hashem’s Goodnes.
For example, in 1939, the KGB realized that Netzach was not going to give an inch. They evilly assigned him to the “Lichtiger” brigade, all robbers and murderers, with explicit instructions to the brigade commander to find some excuse to have Netzach killed. Surprisingly, the commander ordered his men to treat Netzach well. He even arranged for him to avoid working on Shabbos. It wasn’t long before the commander, a convicted murderer, took Netzach aside and told him a secret. When he had been a small child, a famine struck his locale. Desperate, his parents arranged for him to stay with local Jewish acquaintances – Yankel the Beltmaker and his family. Before his parents could retrieve him, however, they died, and Yankel took it upon himself to raise this gentile orphan, who grew up in a Jewish family. “It’s your luck that you remind me of Yankel the Beltmaker,” explained the huge Russian, “and I’ll never let anyone do you any harm.”
Another time, just a few weeks before Netzach was to be released, a petty thief came into his prison office and demanded boots, which Netzach could not provide without breaking regulations. When Netzach refused, the thief attacked him, and Netzach threw him out. The miffed thief then summoned some of his friends, who then forced Netzach to attend a hastily-gathered kangaroo court, to be tried for the “crime” of insulting the thief – and the penalty for conviction was death.
The whole thing was a farce; even Netzach’s “defender” argued for his execution. The judge gave Netzach one last word before his death. Gazing at his accuser, he foggily remembered two incidents with him, nearly nineteen years before. Didn’t his accuser recall that once, many years ago, Netzach had shared some sugar cubes with him and thus saved his life? Yes, the thief replied, but that wouldn’t be enough to save Netzach’s life now. Once he had established the thief’s identity, Netzach then declared to the court, “My accuser is a KGB informer who caused the death of several of his comrades!” As Netzach outlined the thief’s previous treachery, the thief could have easily saved himself by denying everything. Instead, a miracle happened; he stood there, guilty and tongue-tied, until his outraged comrades took him outside and gave him the exact punishment he had tried to inflict upon Netzach!
The Extent of Shabbos
This week’s parsha
lists the holidays that help form the cycle of the Jewish year. The first
one mentioned, however, is Shabbos, illustrating that Shabbos carries a
power beyond all other set times.
How far-reaching is the effect of our keeping Shabbos? HaRav Elazer Menachem Man Shach zt”l was walking with his talmidim one Shabbos when they came to a well-used highway. As the cars whizzed by, Rav Shach asked his students, ”Why do we have Shabbos here, but not on that highway?” His students thought, but had no answer. Rav Shach then declared, “It is because of us! If we would keep Shabbos better, the influence of our Shabbos would extend further outwards, and that highway would be empty on Shabbos!”