Martyrdom – Kosher or Treif

Muslims and martyrdom is a topic no-one can get away from these days. The abominable bombings in London last June has literally brought the “Israel suicide scene” right onto the streets of Bloomsbury…and the TV sets of suburbia.

So what does Judaism say about this. Certainly there is a concept of martyrdom in Jewish literature but it’s radically different from the perverted and selfish “martyrdom” promoted by some Islamic groups with its promises of abundant physical pleasure in the ‘afterlife’ as incentive to murder men women and children.

Martyrdom in Judaism has several levels. There is the historically common phenomenon of being prepared to ‘die for the cause.’ as it were. Throughout the long exile Jews have always been willing to give up their lives rather than submit to apostasy and change to another religion. Jewish philosophy explains that this is quite ‘natural’ for Jews; they cannot (naturally) separate themselves from the source of their souls. [True there were those who converted to save their lives, but that didn’t represent their natural inclination, rather it was a function of subjective rationalising]

We refer to the Six Million as ‘kedoshim’ martyrs for Judaism and thus they are at the very upper echelons of the ‘After-life’ regardless of whether or not they lived religiously observant lives.

But the common denominator here is the ‘passivity’ of Jewish martyrdom. This stems from the Jewish view that our bodies do not belong to us at all – rather we are trustees for our bodies and we have no right to inflict on them any physical affliction, let alone death, unless specifically mandated to do so by the Torah.

So in the absence of the ability to protect ourselves from an aggressor who wants to destroy Judaism and demands we change our religion we are required to give up our lives rather than submit to such a decree. And if someone threatens to kill us unless we murder someone else or commit adultery, we are also required to give up our lives for we cannot say whose blood is redder and we never have the right to destroy families through immorality.

But there is another kind of ‘martyrdom’ that is not nearly as drastic as the first but still has cosmic significance.

The Talmud asks what’s the difference between a tzaddik (righteous man) and a chassid (pious man)? Answers the Talmud: The tzaddik is one who after cutting his fingernails buries them (to prevent anyone tripping on them and hurting themselves). True, such a thing is rather unlikely – but that‘s why he’s a tzaddik, he wants to avoid harming anyone, whatever the possibility. The chassid by contrast neutralises the nails by burning them. This is considered greater than burying them, for according to Jewish tradition it’s dangerous to burn any part of the body even after having been removed from the body. So the chassid is ready and willing to put himself in danger rather than have the very faint and indirect responsibility of hurting someone else. This is really what it means to be a chassid – a pious one. ‘Piety’ lies neither in the clothes one wears nor the amount of shockeling one does, but in the willingness to do a favour for someone else. Sure, this can sometimes mean significant sacrifices of our bodies, our money and our time. Nevertheless these are acts of true ‘martyrdom’, for we really are ‘sacrificing’ ourself to help another.

This concept is so fundamental to Judaism that the Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Chassidic movement once said “a person can live for 70/80 years solely for the purpose of doing a favour for another either materially or spiritually.”

So let’s be ‘martyrs’ today… let’s do more favours for each other!