[Avodah] Just walk away

[Jay F. Shachter]

> 
> A Jew is being forced to violate a mitzvah by an idol worshiper, not
> for the sake of his own pleasure   There are 10 Jews there and so it
> would be bfarhesia( public in nature)  is there an obligation or a
> praiseworthy action for one of them to walk away?
>

What kind of question is that?  Yes, I think you have an obligation to
save a Jew's life, by depriving him of the obligation to die.  I know
I would thank you for it.  Do you think you are doing a Jew a favor by
requiring him to martyr himself?  Let him live and do other mitzvoth.

(Incidentally, the only minyan mid'oraitha counts men and women
equally.  I'm just sayin'.)

Also, you should not have written "idol worshiper" above, because this
is not a din `aku"m.  Our printed texts have been censored by the
goyim, because there are some places where we say uncomplimentary
things about them, and the censors insisted on globally changing
nokhri to `aku"m, because they did not consider themselves to be
idolators so now the uncomplimentary things are not about them.  The
result is that many uneducated Jews now do not know when something is
a din nokhri and when it is a din `aku"m.  Many perform a
hypercorrection and take what is a din `aku"m and apply it to all
non-Jews -- e.g., they keep extra change when a non-Jewish merchant
mistakenly hands it to them -- and this often leads to mamash xillul
haShem.  The yeshivoth and seminaries should educate Jews better than
that, but they don't.

                        Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter
                        6424 North Whipple Street
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                                jay at m5.chicago.il.us
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                        "Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur"