[Picture: ‘’tov lamoot b’ad artsanu’’—it is good to die for our country – the mythical words of Yossef Trumpeldor... The image was uploaded to Wikipedia and made available to the public, by an unknown person]

[For articles on the “Sabbath of  Acharei Mot" in Hebrew, click here]

Rabbi Dr. Yossi Feintuch was born in Afula and holds a Ph.D. in American history from Emory University in Atlanta. He taught American history at Ben-Gurion University.

Author of the book US Policy on Jerusalem (JCCO).

He now serves as rabbi at the Jewish Center in central Oregon. (JCCO).

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In every classroom during my elementary school years a Bristol board banner was posted right above the chalkboard; it read in big letters: ‘’tov lamoot b’ad artsanu’’—it is good to die for our country – the mythical words of Yossef Trumpeldor, the commander of Tel Hai, a remote northern outpost of the nascent Jewish settlement in Palestine, who was gunned down in 1920, alongside other comrades, in a battle with an Arab phalanx. He died while eking out these words that quickly became iconic in the land of Israel.

[Picture: ‘’tov lamoot b’ad artsanu’’—it is good to die for our country – the mythical words of Yossef Trumpeldor... The image was uploaded to Wikipedia and made available to the public, by an unknown person]

I came to reflect about these words when reading in this weekly Torah portion -- that starts by recalling the death of the two eldest sons of Aaron the High Priest --: ‘’You are to keep my laws and my regulations, which when a human does them, he lives by (means of) them, I am Adonai’’ (Leviticus 18:5).   These words may be understood to mean that no one should die in order to live and keep the commandments of the Torah, or that no one should menace his life in order to fulfil God’s laws; Mitzvot should add life to the living, or make life livelier and spiritually enriching as the Torah notes:

“A human being does not live on bread alone, but rather by all that issues at Adonai’s order do humans stay-alive’’ (Deuteronomy 8:3). There are, in fact, three Mitzvot that specifically pledge the reward of longer life for those who keep them: Honoring one’s parents, keeping honest weights, measures and volumes in dealing with customers, and not harming a mother bird, or removing her nestlings if she flies nearby the nest and is likely to witnesses such a hurtful action.

[Picture: the death of the two eldest sons of Aaron the High Priest... Artist: James Tissot 1898. The image is in the public domain]

The Rabbis of yore agreed that the observance of any Mitzvah (commandment) may or even should be suspended if keeping it might jeopardize one’s own life; the observer should live in order to be able and continue the practice of Mitzvot when the mortal danger to his life no longer existed. Nonetheless, the Rabbis singled out only three ‘’cardinal’’ Mitzvot that one should be prepared to surrender his life for keeping them, rather than violate them as with all the other 610 Mitzvot. Hence, one must not pro-actively and intently murder an innocent soul even in order to save his own life; nobody’s blood is redder than the blood of his innocent fellow. And similarly, no one is commanded to sacrifice his own life in order to save another life, although saving a single life is tantamount, as the Rabbis teach, to the saving of the whole world, and one should do his utmost in saving another’s life, provided that such efforts have a good chance to succeed without costing the life of the saver.

Similarly, one is obligated to surrender his own life, if necessary, to avoid perpetrating an act of sexual turpitude, such as adultery (or incest). When Mrs. Potiphar, Joseph’s mistress, orders him repeatedly to adulter with her, Joseph is fully aware of what would likely happen to him for refusing this sacrilegious order of his master’s wife. But he is willing to pay the ultimate price as long as he would not commit adultery. The third commandment that the Rabbis singled out for submitting one’s life so as not to violate it is the prohibition on idolatry. Accordingly, Aaron, the High Priest, should have resisted the frantic demand of the people to produce a golden calf to represent Moses when his absence from the camp seemed to have lingered more than forty days.

[Picture: When Mrs. Potiphar, Joseph’s mistress, orders him repeatedly to adulter with her, Joseph is fully aware of what would likely happen to him for refusing this sacrilegious order of his master’s wife...  The image was created and uploaded to Wikipedia by: Leonello Spada, and is in the public domain]

All other Mitzvot may be surrendered then if fulfilling them are likely to bring about the death of the observer. As we can deduce then from that Levitical verse in our weekly portion the religion of the Torah is pro-life; one’s greatest accomplishment is not in dying like a Jew, but rather in living as a Jew. Isaac was not to die at God's behest on Abraham’s altar but to live; his demise would have meant that after Abraham there would have been no heir to continue the service of God and the perpetuation of God’s covenant with the future Hebrew nation. Hence the words of Torah: '' ... keep His commands and His statutes and His laws. And you shall live... (Deuteronomy 30:16) are resonated by Psalmist: ‘’The dead cannot praise Adonai, nor any who go down into silence --- I shall not die but live and proclaim the works of Adonai’’; the religion of Torah is experienced and practiced by living it and not by dying for it. And we, therefore, should not remember Yossef Trumpeldor primarily for his death, but for his life and numerous heroic deeds for his people.

[For articles on the “Sabbath of  Acharei Mot" in Hebrew, click here]