Sanctifying the Name (Rabbi Sacks on Emor, Covenant & Conversation)
The Office of Rabbi Sacks
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The Importance of Martyrdom in Jewish Life
The sages understood the verse, you shall keep my decrees and laws which a man shall keep. In other words, saving life takes precedence over most of the commands. But there are three exceptions, the prohibitions against murder, for forbidden sexual relations and idolatry where the sages ruled that it was necessary to die rather than transgress. One of the most poi at of all collective responses on the part of the jewish people was to categorize all the victims of the holocast as those who died o kidu shashem,. That is, for the sake of sanctifying god's name.
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