[Avodah] Dying al Kiddush Hashem

[Yitzhak Grossman]

On Mon, 1 Dec 2008 18:43:58 -0500
Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:

> Rambam, in Maamar Qiddush Hashem (Mosad haRav Kook 1960 edition of
> Igeros haRambam pg. 60) writes explicitly that any Jew killed for being
> a Jew even if it has nothing to do with conversion, is called 'qadosh'.

Rambam does *not* say that; in fact, he say *exactly the opposite*!

"And the third category, in the levels of those killed Al Kiddush
Ha'Shem, and those who are forced in the compulsion of Shemad.  Know
that every place that our Sages z"l have said "he should be killed
rather than transgress", if he is killed he has sanctified God's Name,
and if he was in the presence of ten Jews he has sanctified His Name
publicly, like Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah and Daniel, and the ten
killed by the government, and the seven sons of Hannah, and the other
Jews who have been killed in the sanctification of God's Name, may the
Merciful avenge their blood soon, ..."

Rambam clearly defines Kiddush Ha'Shem to voluntary giving up of one's
life.

[I have Mossad Rav Kook's second edition of 5747, and the
pagination seems different from yours, so if you're referring to a
different passage, please clarify.  My passage begins on p. 116, s.v.
"ve'hasug ha'she'lishi"]

> In the Warsaw Ghetto, R' Shim'on Huberban, R' Hillel Zeitlin and R'
> Menachem Zemba each invokved this Rambam.

I assume you're quoting from R. Dr. Aaron Rothkoff-Rakeffet, as an
email of yours on Areivim suggests.  A couple of months ago, my
brother-in-law showed me an article of his in Gesher (5745, Volume 9)
in which he quotes Huberband (I have no idea who he is; RDRR identifies
him merely as "[participating] in Emanuel Ringelblum's Oneg Shabbat],
which was a code name for secret documentation work of the Warsaw
Jewish underground movement").

But RDRR *himself* notes that Huberband is apparently misquoting Rambam!

"Maimonides, however, never ruled that the term kadosh could be applied
indiscriminately.  He clearly reflected the Talmudic consensus that it
is only relevant when the Jew had a choice."

Rav Zemba, too, says *virtually the opposite* of what you claim he
says, according to RDRR (quoting an account of Rav Zemba's words of
Hillel Seidman, whom I assume you have confused with Hillel Zeitlin):

"In the present ... Halakhah demands that we fight and resist to the
very end with unequaled determination and valor for the sake of the
Sanctification of the Divine Name."

> Micha Berger             In the days of our sages, man didn't sin unless

Yitzhak
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