Self-sacrifice in Jewish Law - Overview

Overview

In general, a Jew must violate biblically mandated, and certainly rabbinically mandated, religious laws of Judaism in order to preserve human life. This principle is known as ya'avor v'al ye'hareg (יעבור ואל יהרג, "transgress and do not be killed") and it applies to virtually all of Jewish ritual law, including the most well known laws of Shabbat and kashrut, and even to the severest prohibitions, such as those relating to circumcision, chametz on Passover, and fasting on Yom Kippur. Thus, the Torah generally asserts that pikuach nefesh (פיקוח נפש, "the preservation of human life") is paramount, and in most situations even the preservation of a limb is equated with the basic principle.

However, there are three areas of prohibition that may not be trespassed under any circumstances, even to save a human life. While these three areas of Jewish law are often informally referred to as the "three cardinal sins," they actually encompass many more than a mere three prohibitions. They all involve murder, sexual misconduct and foreign worship. The governing principle here is called ye'hareg v'al ya'avor (יהרג ואל יעבור, or "be killed but do not transgress").

Someone who then runs great risks or accepts great hardship for the sake of observing the religious laws of Judaism without actually sacrificing his or her life is considered especially righteous. Such an act of figurative self-sacrifice is called mesirat nefesh (מסירת נפש, "giving over the soul"). For the obvious reason this status should be compared more with heroism than with martyrdom in the Christian sense.