How to Die Al Kiddush Hashem

Is dying because one is a Jew enough to make one a kodosh in the halachic sense?

May, 2019

The old humorous tale had been told a thousand times.

The young, sincere and very frum yungerbucher is on his way home from yeshiva late one night.

As he makes his way through the darkness is he attacked by a gang if ruffians.

They pull out a gun.

He thinks this is it, the end; he will have the zechus to die al Kiddush Hashem.

So he begins to prepare for his final mitzvah:

He closes his eyes and begins to recite, “Baruch atah Hashem…asher kidishanu b’mitzvosuv…mikadesh shimcha brabim (to sanctify His name publicly).”

The gang, frightened by this strange incantation in a foreign tongue, quickly runs off.

The bochur gives chase, fearful of a hefsek, he run to catch up to them with his finger to his lips screaming “Nu!, nu!…”!

There is a lot of truth to be found in this oft-repeated anecdote. The Shlah Hakadosh (d.1630) writes (Shaar Ha’Osios, aleph, Emes V’Emunah) that there is a special beracha to be said in such an instance. Indeed, I used his version of the beracha (said by many each morning after birchas hashachar) in the ‘story’ above. (See Metzuvah V’Oseh by Hagaon Rav Shmuel Dovid Friedman vol. 1 p. 123 for a wonderful discussion of this Shlah and beracha).

Over the past several days many stories are being told about Lori Kaye hy’d, the congregant in the Palway Chabad who was killed by nineteen-year diseased human being.

In many frum publications the term ‘died al kiddush Hashem’ is used. Recently, I was giving a shiur and began, “May this be in memory of Lori Kaye and all kedoshim”.

“Rabbi” someone interrupted (which I encourage during my shiurim), “You don’t mean that literally, do you? Sure, her zechus is enormous, but halachickly, dying al kiddush Hashem is a sugya in the gemara (Sanhedrin 76) and reserved for certain cases where one chooses death over, say, an aveira. Is dying because one is a Jew enough to make one a kodosh in the halachic sense?” (See Rambam hilchos yesodei hatorah 5:1ff).

The answer of course, is ‘YES!’, she most certainly died al kiddush Hashem.

Nevertheless, while some may bristle at the question, in truth it’s a fascinating one, and one that he was not the first to ask.

Much of this column will borrow heavily from Rebbetzin Farbstein’s ‘Hidden in Thunder’, vol. 2, ch. 10, which speaks in great detail about this issue.  English translations are largely based on Deborah Stern. The reader who wishes to delve into this and other topics that relate to the churban Europe in both halacha and hashkafa are greatly encouraged to see Rebbetzin Farbstein’s stupendous works on the subject.

Before the war, Rav Yehoshua Moshe Aronson was a rav in Sanniki (near Warsaw). He was deported to the Konin labor camp and later to Auschwitz.

He wrote a secret diary, now published under the name Alei Meroros (Bitter Leaves) about his time during the war.

He initially laments:

 “Is there a Kiddush Hashem dying at the hands of the Germans? There is no offer to save one’s life by accepting another religion… Although the Nazis were fighting…not only against the Jews but everything Jewish, they did not order us to transgress our religion. They chose a policy of systematic liquidation. The question is whether a Jew killed for being Jewish sanctifies Gd’s name through his death.” (see Alei Maroros p. 305)

Rav Dessler echoes this question (Michtav M’Eliyahu 3:348) in a letter to his son:

 “Many people have asked in amazement: What is gained by these deaths? If they had died because of an edict of apostasy and given their lives in the sanctity of Gd’s name, it would be something. (But) These murderers did not insist on faith…”

The Slonimer Rebbe (d. 2000) also once wondered aloud in one of his annual derashos about churban Europe (1984 and 1989 discourses, published in Ha–Arugah Elecha), seeing the question a little differently:

“On the hand, it is the greatest spectacle: six million holy Jews attained an exalted level of performing Kiddush Hashem. But on the other hand, it is distressing…that in fact that most of the people being killed had no idea that they were performing Kiddush Hashem, and did not have the privilege of offering themselves for the sanctity of His name. After all, all Jews were killed (meaning, even non-believers)… nor was there always peace of mind when they were killed. How could this be called death al Kiddush Hashem?”

Of course, all three answer the question, and all explain how indeed all deaths at the hands of our enemies, all who pay the ultimate sacrifice simply for being a Jew is automatically a kodosh in the strongest sense of the word.

As Rav Aronson explains, “But when the Gentile has trouble with the word Jew and with the very idea of Judaism as well, the Jew’s death is (always) a kiddush Hashem. Since the nations of the world know that these are Gd’s chosen people and that their harassment comes solely based on this…their death are automatically a kiddush Hashem.”

The holy Piasecner Rebbe, Rav Kalonymos Kalmish Shapiro hy’d, saw how many learned Jews believed that while their death would be seen as holy they may not be considered to have died al Kiddush Hashem.

To combat their feelings, he shared the following:

“The akeida was not only a test of Yitzchak, but also the commencement of a form of worship that requires total sacrifice for Hashem and the Jewish People. The akeida was a test of the desire and intent of Avraham and Yitzchak. It was never accomplished in reality because the malach told Avraham “Do not harm the lad” (Bereishis 22:2).

“For this reason, the murder of a Jew…consummates the akeida! (In other words) The akeida was just the beginning –the expression of intent and desire –while a murder of a Jew is the akeida’s conclusion. Thus, the akeida and the murder of all Jews (because they are Jews) are componants of one event”!

But in the case of Lori Kaye it is even clearer; her death even more remarkable.

The Maharam M’Rutenberg (d. 1292) witnessed many Jews being killed simply for being Jews; he himself died while being held in captivity.

He writes (Teshuvos #517):

“When someone resolves to die for the sake of kiddush Hashem (referring, it would seem, even if one is resolved to die for the ‘crime’ of being a Jew alone), from that point on, no matter how they are killed, he shall feel no pain at all…”

Someone like Lori who acted, who jumped in front of her rav has not just died al kiddush Hashem, for the ‘sin’ of being a Jew, but in her final moments taught the world how to live and to act al kiddush Hashem!

Writing just a few years before his passing, the Ohr HaChaim Hakodosh (d. 1743), interprets a series of pasukim relating to the korbanos (Vayikra 6:1-3) in a stunning manner.

What follows is a truncated version of his words, hameivin yavin (translation follows Rav Munk):

“We may consider this whole paragraph as an allusion to our present and final exile, designed to console us about the depressing conditions we find ourselves in. Inasmuch as the soul of every Israelite refuses to be comforted seeing our exile appears to be interminable, we are certainly in need of some comfort. At the time of this writing the exile has already lasted far longer than our previous exiles combined, …already 1672 years have passed since the destruction of the Temple… The afflictions the Jewish people suffer in exile achieve for us what the sacrifices achieved on the altar, i.e. atonement for our sins… ‘burnt…all night’ means enduring the whole ‘night’ of exile… The Torah informs us that when the dawn of that ‘morning’ (of redemption) finally looms, Hashem’s anger will burn and consume all those who have tortured us during the many years of our exile and especially the Western nations…The words “and the fire of the altar” allude to the many afflictions we have endured…The word also recalls the self-sacrifice exhibited by Isaac when he lay bound on the altar. …By ‘linen tunic’ the Torah means that when that time arrives even rachamim will consent to Hashem avenging the wrong done to the Jewish people and that Hashem makes a visible mark of the blood of any Jew who was killed because he was Jewish.. On the day when Gd goes out to exact retribution from our enemies He will wear that garment on His heart…Martyrs are the most beloved by Hashem; nothing separates them from Hashem at all. The Torah alludes to the absolute affinity which exists between the martyrs for the Jewish faith and Gd Himself… ״ In referencing the burnt fats of the shlemim offering, he states, “these allude to the tzadikim and wholesome ones, choice members of klal yisroel (who Hashem chooses as sacrifices)”

This majestic Ohr Hachaim can offer us some comfort in galus.

While martyrs may feel no pain, their surviving families do.

May Hakadosh Baruch Hu bring the Kaye’s a nechama, may she be a powerful melitzah yeshara, and may we all be zocheh to hear the derashos of the Rav Aronson and the Piasecner Rebbe –together with Lori and the six million kedoshim in attendance –in the era of the great reunification, that of techias hameisim, the age of bilah hamaves lanetzach.

May the ‘morning’ of the Ohr Hachaim arrive soon!

While our mesorah teaches that she felt no pain, we know that those around her feel tremendous agony.

May Hakadosh Baruch Hu bring them a nechama, may she be a powerful melitzah yeshara, and may we all be zocheh to hear the derashos of the Rav Aronson and the Piasecner Rebbe –together with Lori and the six million kedoshim in attendance –in the era of the great reunification, that of techias hameisim, the ageof bilah hamaves lanetzach.

May it come soon!