Dying al Chillul Hashem Redux

The eerie similarity between religious Zionists and suicide bombers

Before we get to the extremely important article, Dying al Chillul Hashem (a repost from November), here is additional context.

A few recent headlines from the Israeli Pravda provide insight into the contempt the Erev Rav regime has for even its most loyal subjects, and the seemingly limitless devotion of these abused subjects. If this is not indicative of Stockholm Syndrome, battered woman syndrome, and a religious cult, then what is?

Exhibit #1 (images link to the complete articles cited):

Thank you, Captain Obvious, and bonus points for blaming the soldiers you set up to “fail”. You've successfully regained my trust. It will all be different now, and everyone should join the IDF. Well done.

Exhibit #2:

They will own nothing and be happy, while scapegoating haredim for all their problems.

Exhibit #3:

An IDF officer who lost his leg fighting Hamas in Gaza, is being told by the military that he must reimburse the IDF with roughly $16,500 and that his military pay is suspended until he does. The demand is made because of the time he was away, receiving life-changing medical treatment for his injuries, in the United States.

Lt. Yonatan Ben-Hamo, a D9 bulldozer team commander, was gravely wounded in early November 2023 when an RPG struck his vehicle in northern Gaza. After months of severe pain and limited mobility, he traveled to New York for specialized surgery and to be fitted with a high-tech prosthetic that he said dramatically improved his recovery. The trip lasted about two months and was financed with the help of Jewish-American supporters…

…“Why do I have to feel like a second-class citizen?” he asked relatives. “I want to keep serving despite my injury. I’ve spent a year chasing people in the IDF for basic help.”

…His family said no senior military official has visited him in the past year, and that frequent personnel changes have left them with no consistent point of contact. “There’s a willful blindness toward wounded soldiers once they’re no longer seen as useful to the system,” they said.

Following the report's publication, the IDF released a statement apologizing for the situation and adding that the funds will be returned to Ben-Hamo in the coming days.

What will it take for people to realize that all of this is not due to human error, intelligence failures, gaps in the system, foreign pressure, or other vague buzzwords to explain away reality, but a consistent pattern of deliberate neglect, abuse and outright contempt for the peasant class — especially if they are religious?

Why does someone who had his leg blown off under the delusion that he was fighting to defeat our enemies and keep the people of Israel safe, then treated with utter contempt by the IDF for the sin of surviving, want nothing more than to continue “serving”? Is this idealism, or insanity?

If you’ve ever wondered how so many intelligent people could be so stupid to fall for a cult and give up everything, maybe it’s time to look around you…perhaps even look in the mirror.

I’m going to say something that will seem outrageous, but I want you to calmly consider it.

Religious Zionist cheerleaders for the IDF, whose proudest moment in life is when they serve up their precious child to serve, who consider this act the highest calling of a Jew, who continue to offer up sacrifices no matter what, and who revile no one on earth more than those who refuse this religious rite, have a lot more in common with Muslim terrorists and suicide bombers than they would like to believe.

Hear me out.

Why does the terrorist risk being maimed and killed, and the suicide bomber being blown to bits?

1. He believes that if he dies he will go straight to heaven and enjoy 72 virgins, irrespective of how he lived his life to that point. This act of sacrifice earns him automatic entry to the ultimate heavenly reward as he understands it.

2. He has been heavily indoctrinated from the cradle to believe he is fighting for the greatest of causes: his land, his people, the honor of his religion. No matter how much his experiences demonstrate that those in power are cynically using him for their own profit and agenda, and he is nothing more than a disposable resource to them, he will cling to this belief.

3. It’s the clearest path out of poverty. If he survives, he will receive financial compensation and greater economic opportunities than his counterparts.

4. He faces extreme social pressure.

Why does the Religious Zionist risk being maimed and killed?

1. He believes that those who die are kedoshim, and will go straight to heaven, irrespective of how they lived their lives to that point. Getting killed in the IDF (not sudden unexplained deaths after taking shots, but specifically being killed by enemies) is the holiest of acts! It is even more holy than surviving, for survivors are not celebrated as kedoshim or guaranteed a free pass to heaven.

   This is the main reason why the Religious Zionists are not revolting, despite being shafted by the IDF for decades, and despite being maimed and killed over the last year in record numbers — all for the sake of lopsided hostage deals that could have been made on October 8 and the delusion that they were “keeping us safe”.

   No matter how many funerals they go to, their mourning will always be consoled by the belief that the slain are the holiest of holy, and are now in the best place in heaven, next to Moshe Rabbeinu. Their pent-up fury will be redirected away from those whose “negligence” got their precious children killed, and toward haredim, who they are conditioned to believe are the true existential threat to Israel and the absolute worst people on earth.

2. He too has been heavily indoctrinated from the cradle to believe he is fighting for the greatest of causes: his land, his people, the honor of his religion. No matter how much his experiences demonstrate that those in power are cynically using him for their own profit and agenda, and he is nothing more than a disposable resource to them, he will cling to this belief.

3. He believes he will be unable to get a good job and earn a living if he doesn’t join the IDF (ignoring how the reservists are being economically decimated). So he rolls the dice that he will make it out with his body and mind intact. Gotta get that degree and corporate position.

   So much for bitachon.

4. He faces extreme social pressure. Never underestimate the power of social pressure.

I shouldn’t have to explain that the Religious Zionists are not evil like Muslim terrorists (though their vicious side during Covid, their malice toward haredim that borders on bloodthirsty, and their general kefira hardly afford them moral superiority over their fellow Jews).

Nevertheless, their reasons for slavish devotion to the IDF are eerily similar to their Muslim counterparts who get maimed and killed for nothing, too.

With this in mind, here is the authentic Torah perspective:

Dying al Chillul Hashem

Originally published on November 13, 2024

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 would otherwise 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, which is available here.]

Also see these painfully relevant words from Rabbi Avigdor Miller zt”l:

Q&A from tape #259

Q: I’d like to quote for the Rav from some of the greatest roshei yeshiva and thinkers such as Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz zatzal and the previous Vizhnitzer Rebbe zatzal, that the irreligious Israeli soldiers have one of the most honored places in the World to Come. And, yibadeil l’chaim tovim, Rav Moshe Feinstein, said that most of the irreligious world, ruba de’ruba, are considered tinok shenishba and only a small amount are considered reshaim. In light of this would you perhaps reconsider your strong statements that you made against the irreligious Jews who died in the wars in Israel?

A: As far as irreligious soldiers who died in the wars, I don’t recall any strong statements that I made. If I did, so they’re like any other irreligious Jews. Irreligious Jews, you have to know, are better than most gentiles. And we don’t need any authorities to back that up; it’s common sense. Even American irreligious Jews are generally better than gentiles – and certainly, the irreligious Jews whose parents came from Russia or from Hitler’s crematoria; usually they’re not yet doing all the sins of the gentiles, and they don’t yet have as much malice towards the Jews as the umos ha’olam. There’s no question about that – you don’t have to quote anybody about that. You can quote me because I said in my very first book that the worst Jews are better than most of the good Gentiles.

Q: But you specifically mentioned in one of the Thursday night lectures that an Israeli soldier who is an atheist has no share in the World-to-Come?

A: The share in the World-to-Come is something that Hakodosh Boruch Hu alone can know, that’s what I said then. Only, why should they be given a share just as a gift? Hakodosh Boruch Hu will give them if He wants, but we go by certain rules. And one of the rules is if a person is a kofer, if he’s an atheist, he’s not going to have a share in the World to Come. If a person doesn’t believe in Olam Habah he won’t have a share in the World to Come.

The gemara says in Sanhedrin (46b) that if a man says, “Don’t bury because I don’t want a kapara,” – when a person is buried so that’s a kapara for him – but if before this man dies he says, “Don’t bury me because I don’t want a kapara,” so the Gemara says there that he won’t have a kapara. If he doesn’t want a kapara, he won’t have it! If a person doesn’t believe in Olam Habah, there’s no Olam Habah for him. That’s one of the fundamentals: האומר אין תחית המתים מן התורה - If you say that there’s no Next World, the Gemara in Sanhedrin says that you won’t merit the Next World.

So what will it help if a gadol will give him a paper, an Olam Habah certificate – the question is: Does he believe in Olam Habah? You say he’s a tinok shenishba? I’ll quote Rav Chaim Brisker. Reb Chaim Brisker said, “Nebach an apikoris is still an apikoris.” It doesn’t excuse it! We’re not talking about blaming him – it’s not a question of blame. To merit Olam Habah you have to be ma’amin in Olam Habah. And if a person is not a ma’amin – it’s not a question of whose fault it is – he won’t get Olam Habah! All you can say in the name of Reb Moshe is not that he’s a ben Olam Habah; you can say maybe that he’s better than the umos ha’olam. But the umos ha’olam also have no chelek in Olam Habah so there’s no need to say this irreligious Jew should get any Olam Habah. (Rav Moshe Feinstein zatzal, in his Igros Moshe [Even Ha’ezer 1:82, anaf 11] actually says that a tinok she’nishba is לא עדיפי מעכו״ם and that he is אינו בכלל ישראל) Rav Chaim Brisker is also an authority and he speaks clearly on this subject. And he’s not talking merely about whether if they’re better than the Gentiles. And he said that – he said that they won’t get any Olam Habah!

Q: But Rav Aryeh Finkel of Mir quoted Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz as saying that soldiers killed in the wars are on the highest level?

A: Highest level? Where? In Gan Eden? Where does he say that? Highest level?! He means the highest level of the gentiles! Read to me the words aloud about Olam Habah. Not other words – just about Olam Habah. What does he say about Olam Habah?

Q: In the sefer Pirkei Geula from Rav Shachna Zohn who has haskomos from Rav Elya Lopian of Rav Yechezkel Levenstein and all the great –

A: I’ll tell you what you should do. Instead of telling me something from a translation that’s just a few words that’s clipped from here and there, show it to me inside that one of these authorities say that he’s the highest level in Olam Habah. To be on the highest level in Olam Habah, you have to be not like the Chofetz Chaim – you have to be like Rabbi Akiva! Rabbi Akiva is higher than the Chofetz Chaim. So, when you say this irreligious soldier is on a highest level, so you’re saying he’s higher than the Chofetz Chaim?! Or you’re saying he’s higher than Rav Chaim Brisker?! I’m not measuring who is higher, Reb Chaim Brisker or the Chofetz Chaim, but let’s take Rav Velvel Brisker. Rav Velvel will tell you he’s less than Reb Chaim, his father. So, if you say the highest level, so he’s at least with Reb Velvel then. And if not with Reb Velvel, at least, let’s say, with Reb Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld.

So now we’re becoming ridiculous! We’re saying ridiculous things! We’re saying that the people who were drafted into the army and they had no alternative; if it was up to them they’d be eating Yom Kippur in a Tel Aviv café. But now they’re drafted into the army and they got killed against their will! It’s ridiculous to put that soldier next door to the Chofetz Chaim in the Next World! Unless a person doesn’t believe in the Next World, then he can hand it out cheaply. But the Next World doesn’t come that cheap! So you have to show me some authority who says that they’re sitting – not in the highest level in the Next World; show me that they’re sitting in the Next World at all! That’s what I want to see! Bring me a proof that they’re in the Next World at all!

You have to understand that when you speak to the public, sometimes you have to say words that can be construed with double meanings. So “the highest level” means compared, let’s say, to Idi Amin (former president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979.) Idi Amin is on the lowest level; he’s going to be on the lowest level in Gehinnom, so these soldiers will be a little higher than he is.