Tomorrow I will send out a separate email about today's Torah class with a scan of the relevant source from the Sefer Habris. It deserves its own email, as does the article below.
Additional material and commentary follows the article.
Dying al Chillul Hashem
One of the many fundamental Torah concepts that have been hijacked and distorted in recent times, with devastating consequences, is the concept of dying al Kiddush Hashem, for the sanctification of Hashem.
When Jewish soldiers are killed, irrespective of the circumstances, we are dutifully consoled that they died al Kiddush Hashem.
When Jewish civilians are murdered by terrorists, whether in Eretz Yisrael or in exile, we are told the same. The terrorists shouted “God is great” before committing their heinous act, and we agree that their success in the form of dead Jews somehow demonstrated that.
The young people who were slaughtered at a licentious music festival as they danced before an idolatrous statue, on one of the holiest days of the year, are often referred to as kedoshim, holy people, for having been slaughtered. Not because it put an end to idolatrous music festivals in Eretz Yisrael that desecrate Hashem (it didn't), but simply because they were killed for being Jews.
The traumatized and wounded survivors did not earn this most venerable distinction, for they survived. They are pitied for having suffered, but they are not reflexively referred to as kedoshim. It is death that has been sanctified. Especially death. Only death.
It is taken for granted that every Jew who was murdered during the Holocaust died al Kiddush Hashem. Six million kedoshim!
At what other time in history did we have so many kedoshim? Not even at Har Sinai itself did we have six million kedoshim. Was the Holocaust the holiest time in Jewish history? Did Hashem's name emerge from the Holocaust with greater sanctification than at any other time?
The public has been convinced that a Jew sanctifies Hashem's name in the most exalted of ways simply for being murdered. This entirely unwilling and undesirable sacrifice has been transformed into such a holy event, a Get Into the Next World Free card, that one wonders why Jews in danger of being murdered by their enemies even try to flee. Do they not realize what a great opportunity they are forfeiting? Do they not realize that being shot to death or blown to pieces more than makes up for a lifetime of sins?
No one refers to the survivors as having escaped death al Kiddush Hashem – certainly not with the same reverence. Surviving is heartwarming, but only death is holy. It is the dead who receive tributes and ceremonies, in gross disproportion to what they earned during their lives.
The survivors often feel guilt for having survived. Survivor's guilt, the medical experts call it. And why not? They didn't die al Kiddush Hashem. They aren't worthy of the highest honor.
Tanach relates many stories of Jews being killed in wars and otherwise being killed by their enemies. Not once is there an indication that their death sanctified Hashem's name. On the contrary, their deaths are portrayed strictly as a punishment for sins, a lowering of status for the Jewish people, and, as a direct result, a desecration of Hashem's name.
It is a desecration of Hashem's name when a Jew is killed for being a Jew. The enemies taunt us and say “Where is your God?”
Conversely, it is a sanctification of Hashem's name when a Jew kills the one who wishes to kill him for being a Jew.
The same is true throughout the Talmud. Chazal never refer to Jews who were killed during the churban as kedoshim. The churban was the greatest tragedy in Jewish history, marked by the extermination of countless Jews. The only sanctification of God's name that came from the churban was the fulfillment of the words of the prophets who warned the people, and the fact that God metes out punishment even to His special nation.
But the people who were killed were not holy for being killed, nor was God's name sanctified by the triumph of heathens over the Jewish people.
The concept of dying al Kiddush Hashem related specifically to people like Rabbi Akiva, or Chana's seven children. When Jews are faced with a choice between renouncing Hashem and His Torah or death, and they defiantly choose the latter, they sanctify Hashem's name. When Jews are willing to sacrifice everything, including their own lives, to hold steadfast to the Torah, they are fulfilling their purpose in the highest possible way.
Of course, it would have been an even greater kiddush Hashem if Rabbi Akiva's executioner was miraculously struck dead and he escaped. It is always a greater kiddush Hashem to triumph over our enemies and live than to have our blood spilled. But when Hashem does not see fit to perform such a miracle, we must be willing to die al Kiddush Hashem if necessary.
Being killed needlessly, absent a halachic obligation to be martyred, is a chillul Hashem.
Pinchas is famed for being a righteous zealot who killed Zimri, the head of a tribe, and Kozbi, a Midianite princess, in the midst of an immoral act. His heroic action stopped a plague that was ravaging the Jewish people.
There is a startling Midrash in Shemos Rabba 33:5. Rabbi Yossi teaches that Pinchas initially made the following deduction: “If a horse is willing to go into battle and sacrifice its life for the sake of its owner, how much more should I do so to sanctify Hashem's name!”
But then he sized up the situation and had second thoughts: “What can I do? I am unable. Two can overpower one, but can one overpower two?”
In other words, Pinchas knew that he was outnumbered by Zimri and Kozbi, not to mention Zimri's tribesmen who were guarding the tent. There was no realistic way Pinchas would be able to accomplish his mission, and he had no right to rely on open miracles.
The Midrash continues that Hashem attested that Pinchas had the ability to do it. In other words, he received a measure of divine inspiration that he could and would be successful. Only then did Pinchas proceed with what otherwise would have been a suicide mission.
The Maharif Rav Yechezkel Feivel of Vilna, explains:
And if you are to ask, didn't he already learn from a logical deduction that he was obligated to sacrifice his life over the sanctification of Hashem? One can say in response that as long as Pinchas did not conclude in his mind that he had the ability to accomplish this, what benefit was there for him to sacrifice his life? For the main sanctification of Hashem was to kill and abolish from the world the one who was committing the licentious act [Zimri]. If the two might overpower the one, he would not come to the category of sanctifying Hashem at all. Thus it was not appropriate for him to sacrifice his life for this until a divine spirit entered him.
If Pinchas recklessly threw himself into a death trap and was slaughtered, neither his noble intentions nor his martyrdom would have constituted a kiddush Hashem. It would have been a waste of a precious Jewish life.
This would have been true even though the Jewish people were facing an existential crisis, even though Pinchas was right in principle, and even though a near-certain suicide mission would have demonstrated far greater courage and spirit than the alternative.
There is no mitzvah to enter death traps, there is nothing holy about being maimed and killed by following suicidal orders from people who have no business giving them, and nothing about this macabre death exercise glorifies Hashem's name.
It is not a kiddush Hashem when idealistic, beautiful Jews throw away their lives, even if they have the best of intentions.
It is a chillul Hashem.
[Note: I also spoke about this in a Torah class a while back, which is available here.]
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CLARIFICATION
I would like to clarify that I have no actual interest in Donald Trump or the elections. My intention is to get people to step back and contemplate why they believe so strongly in certain people and institutions, how they form their views and conclusions, and why they are so resistant to modifying certain views and conclusions, no matter what.
If there are glaring vulnerabilities in how your mind works, you can be sure that very bad people are exploiting them, and have great expertise in doing so. And if you've never considered the above, you can be sure you have glaring vulnerabilities in how your mind works, because the same people also have great expertise in creating these vulnerabilities from the earliest stages of life.
So don't just react and get upset when I tweak your comfort zone. Think about how you think.
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If voting for competent, righteous people with integrity was the simple solution to all our problems, how come all the people who get elected wind up being incompetent, corrupt, and wicked, and our problems only get more severe as time goes on?
How come none of the people who get elected call out the monsters who rule from the shadows, let alone do anything about them?
(Trump cultists who believe he is competent and righteous must be reminded that they also believe he was tricked into supporting medical genocide. Bibi cultists, Ben Gvir cultists...don't even start.)
Seriously, shouldn't all that faith in voting reward humanity with better leaders and a better world at some point already?
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Trump shares bizarre 'God made Trump' campaign video
I saw this posted on a blog here.
God also chose him to be "tricked" into unleashing medical genocide and still being oblivious to it, because that's what we expect of world-saving heroes. Brainwashed "anti-vaxxers" give him a free pass on this one.
God also chose him to merely encourage people to take poison shots, instead of forcing them. That's the bar for being a savior these days.
God also chose him to try to carve up the land of Israel to be given away to barbaric squatters. Brainwashed "Religious Zionists" give him a free pass on this one, too.
Ladies and gentlemen, the chosen one. Be careful what you pray for.
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Could it be that the Erev Rav who control the land of Israel and seedy goyim around the world have such a bizarrely close relationship specifically with Chabad because the cultish obsession that a Rebbe with supernatural powers will come back from the dead to be the Messiah is a great entry drug to normalize you-know-who?
If that's not it, make it make sense.
