Self-sacrifice under Jewish Law
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Self-sacrifice under Jewish law can be said in Hebrew in two ways:
1) Mesirat nefesh (מסירת נפש), the exact translation is: 'giving over the soul'. [1]
2) Yehareg ve'al ya'avor (יהרג ואל יעבור), the exact translation is: 'One should let be killed rather than violate'.
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[edit] Usage
- Mesirat nefesh is normally used when talking about performing a positive commandment. For example: "One needs to do such and such with Mesirat nefesh," means, "doing such and such with the utmost dedication even at the cost of losing one’s life."
- Yehareg ve'al ya'avor is used when talking about violating a prohibition. For example, "going against this prohibition is byehareg ve'al ya'avor," means, "one should let oneself be killed rather than violate this prohibition." Since yehareg ve'al ya'avor is advanced wording, in other words, it is the direction one should take prior to doing something, so after one follows through on yehareg ve'al ya'avor, the act of doing so is called having Mesirat nefesh although it didn’t start with a positive commandment.
Following through and acting in accordance with the law of yehareg ve'al ya'avor, and thus acting with Mesirat nefesh, is considered a Kiddush Hashem.
[edit] Requirement
(The following requirements are according to the Rambam.)
Yehareg ve'al ya'avor is normally required for only three of the 365 prohibitions (negative commandments) in Jewish law:
- idolatry
- Certain types of sexual immorality
- murder of a human.
There are 613 commandments in Jewish law, of which 365 are prohibitions, meaning things one should not do, whilst the remaining 248 positive commandments are things that you must do. If one is forced to violate one of the above three prohibitions, then one has to give even one's life and thus not violate them.
However, if one is forced to violate a commandment in public—-in the presence of at least 10 Jewish adults—-and the motive of the forcer is to force you to violate a commandment with the pure intention of forcing you to go against your religion, then every prohibition becomes a matter of B’Yehareg ve'al ya'avor. This is because desecrating the Torah in a public fashion is a Chillul Hashem, which is considered the harshest violation of Jewish law at least as far as heavenly forgiveness is concerned [2] [3]. But if the forcer wants something else rather than forcing you to go against your religion-—for example, one is forced to violate the Shabbat because the forcer wants to make a profit—-or it is not in the presence of at least 10 Jewish adults, then even though it is a violation, then it is not a matter of B’Yehareg ve'al ya'avor since it is not a desecration.[4]
There is, however, one more exception, and that is when it is a time of crisis for the Jewish faith, for example, if a government or any other power wants to force Jews not to be religious. In such an instance, every prohibition in Jewish law becomes B’Yehareg ve'al ya'avor, and one is to have Mesirat nefesh on every negative or positive commandment even when it is not in public. However, if a government or any other power is not opposing the Jewish religion in itself, but rather any religion, such as in Russia under the communist regime, then according to some opinions, the above does not apply.[5]
It is also considered a crisis for the Jewish faith when a particular requirement within Jewish Law is in danger of being outlawed by a government or other power.[6]
