Kommentar zu Wajikra 22:32

That is that He commanded us to sanctify His name. And that is His saying, "and I shall be sanctified in the midst of the Children of Israel" (Leviticus 22:32). And the content of this commandment is that we are commanded to publicize this true faith in the world, and that we not fear the injury of any aggressor. And even though an oppressor seeks to coerce us, we may not listen to him, but rather must give ourselves over to dying; and not deceive him to think that we have denied [God or His Torah] - even if we [regardless] believe in Him, may He be exalted, in our hearts. And this is the commandment of sanctifying [God's] name, that the Jewish people is commanded as a whole - meaning, to allow ourselves to die at the hand of the coercer on account of our love for God, may He be exalted, and our faith in His unity. This is like that which was done by Chananiah, Mishael and Azariah at the time of the evil Nevuchadnetsar, when he commanded to bow down to an image and all of the masses bowed down to it, including the Jews; and there was no one there sanctifying the name of the Heavens. Rather all were afraid; and this was a great disgrace for all of Israel, since the commandment was lost from all of them. And this commandment (in such circumstances) is only commanded in such a large and public stand in which everyone is afraid. And this was a designated publicization of [God's] unity which was designated by God through Yishayah - that the disgrace of Israel not be complete during this stand, but that young men would appear at that difficult time; and death would not scare them and they would allow their lives [to be taken], such that they would publicize the faith and sanctify [God's] name among the masses. This is as He promised us when He said, "no more shall Yaakov be shamed, no longer his face grow pale. For when he - that is, his children - behold what My hands have wrought in his midst, they will sanctify My name, etc." (Isaiah 29:22-23). And the language of the Sifra is, "On this condition did I bring you out of Egypt: On condition that you sanctify My name among the masses." And in the Gemara (Sanhedrin 74b), they said, "Is a gentile (ben Noach) commanded about the sanctification of [God’s] name, or is he not commanded? Come and hear - the Children of Noach were commanded to observe seven commandments. And if you say like this, there would be eight." Behold it has become clear to you that it is among the commandments that are obligatory for the Jews. And they brought His saying, "and I shall be sanctified in the midst of the Children of Israel," as a proof for this commandment. And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in the seventh chapter of Sanhedrin. (See Parashat Emor ; Mishneh Torah, Foundations of the Torah 5.)

ולא תחללו YE SHALL NOT PROFANE [MY HOLY NAME], by transgressing My commands willfully. Having regard to what is implied in the statement: You shall not profane [My holy name] (viz., that it must be hallowed), what is the meaning of ונקדשתי? But, this implies a positive act of sanctification: Abandon yourself to martyrdom and hallow My name! I might think that this command applies even to the Israelite when he is alone (i. e., when no other Israelites are present when the heathen bids him transgress a Divine command)! Scripture, however, states: בתוך בני ישראל [AND I SHALL BE SANCTIFIED] AMIDST THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. — And when offering oneself to martyrdom, one should offer himself with the firm determination (lit., under the condition) to die if necessary, for he who abandons himself on condition (i. e. cherishing the hope) that God will not exact the sacrifice and that a miracle will happen to save him will have no miracle wrought for him; for thus we find in the case of Chananyah, Mishael and Azariah that they did not offer themselves for martyrdom expecting a miracle, as it is said (Daniel 3:17, 18) “[And God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and He will deliver us out of thy hand, O king]. But if not, be it known unto thee that we will not serve thy gods etc. — Whether He saves us or whether he does not save, “be it known unto thee etc.” (Sifra, Emor, Chapter 9 5)

AND I WILL BE HALLOWED AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. The meaning thereof according to the opinion of our Rabbis¹⁶³Torath Kohanim, Emor 9:4: “When it states, And I will be hallowed it means: ‘be ready to die and hallow My Name.’” is that it constitutes a positive commandment, that we sanctify His Name by observing the commandments, and that [under certain circumstances] we submit to death rather than transgress them.¹⁶⁴See “The Commandments,” Vol. I, pp. 12-15, for a full discussion of this commandment. This is the explanation of the following verse, That brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your G-d,¹⁶⁵Verse 33. which is a reason including all the commandments, meaning that it is fitting for them to sanctify His Name because we are His servants whom He has redeemed from Egypt.

ולא תחללו את שם קדשי, seeing that you the priests of all people are more aware than anyone of the perfection of My works, if you do not take care not to deviate from My commandments, this would be the greatest desecration of My holy name. The verse is reminiscent of Ezekiel 36,20 where the prophet laments that the exiles who come to host countries behave in such a way that the leaders of the host countries exclaim in dismay that surely these cannot the people of whom they have heard that they emulate the ways of their G’d!

To transgress My words. I.e., if someone wants to cause you to transgress the Torah, do not listen to him to transgress My words.

ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל, to continue to perform miracles for them as I had vowed to do when I said in Exodus 34,10 “I shall display miracles in the presence of your whole nation as proof that אני ה' מקדשכם, I, the Lord sanctify you.”

Surrender yourself. Without [Rashi’s previous comment] I would say that one [phrase, “You shall not profane My holy Name”] refers to inadvertent sin, and one [phrase, “I will be sanctified among Bnei Yisroel”] refers to deliberate sin, and the [purpose of the] verse is to instructing us to be careful to avoid both severe, intentional sins, and also less severe sins, unintentional sins. But now that Rashi explained that the phrase [“to transgress My words”] is speaking of intentional sins, why do I need [the words] “I will be sanctified among Bnei Yisroel?” I think Rashi means as follows: Since “You shall not profane My holy Name” means that one should not transgress My words intentionally but observe them, why does the Torah need to write “I will be sanctified,” [commanding us to sanctify] Hashem and to observe themHis words?. Is this not obvious, since the opposite of to sanctify is to profane? Rather, the verse means as follows: Even if you can avoid transgressing and profaning [My name], even so, [you must] surrender yourself and sanctify [My Name]. And since it is forbidden to just avoid [profaning Hashem’s Name] but rather one must surrender himself [to sanctify Hashem’s Name], one should therefore surrender himself to death, since by surrendering himself to death he is sanctifying the Name. But if one surrenders himself [to death] relying on a miracle to occur, it is not considered as though he is surrendering himself to death, and this is not a sanctification of the Name. Thus Rashi concludes, “’Who brought you out’ — for this purpose,” i.e., so that you surrender yourself to death without relying for a miracle to occur. (Nachalas Yaakov)