Positive Mitzvah Nine Sanctifying G-d's Name
The purpose of this Mitzvah is that we are duty bound to proclaim this true religion to the world, undeterred by fear of injury from any source. Even if a tyrant tires to compel us by force to deny Him, we must not obey, but must positively rather submit to death; and we must not even mislead the tyrant into supposing that we have denied Him while in our hearts we continue to believe in Him,
Baruch Hu.
This is the Mitzvah concerning the Sanctification of the Name which is laid upon every son of Yisrael: that we must be ready to die at the tyrant's hands for our love of Him,
Baruch Hu, and for our faith in His Unity, even as Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah did in the time of the wicked Nevuchadnetzar, when he forced people to prostrate themselves before the idol
This Mitzvah applies only in circumstances such as those of that great occasion, when the whole world was in terror, and it was a duty to declare His Unity
publicly at that time. Hashem had already promised through Yeshayahu that Yisrael would not be completely disgraced on that hard occasion, but young men would appear among them, undeterred by death, and would sacrifice their lives and proclaim the Faith, sanctifying the Name
publicly, as He commanded us through Moshe our Teacher. This promise is in the words,
The Sifra says:
The Gemara of Tractate
Sanhedrin 74b
says:
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