Martyrdom for the Sake of Heaven 55

over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, he challenged God by asking whether the judge of all the earth would act unjustly.’

Abraham did not need Divine revelation to ask this question. For God to command a person to violate his God given sense of justice, as in the Akeidah, presents us with a theological dilemma, and may bring us back to Kierkegaard . We might doubt, however, that the Torah thinks in these terms, and relates to a concept of ethical universals. The sacrifice of the universal may not be part of the Torah story. The Torah may believe that God can command human sacrifice, but chooses not to. In the Midrash , Isaac offers himself for slaughter with zeal because this is the ultimate service of God and the ultimate obedience. What I am most interested in here, is not the justice of Abraham making Isaac into an involuntary martyr through obedience to the will of God , but the midrashic Isaac who is a willing and even zealous voluntary martyr.

The Rabbis do find such voluntary martyrdom positive:

“ Rabbi Akiva was being judged before the wicked Tunius Rufus. The time for reciting the shema arrived. He began to recite it and smile. He said to him: ¢ Old man, old man, either you are deaf, or you make light of suffering. He said...’ neither am I deaf, nor do I make light of suffering, but all my life I have read the verse:“ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your property.” I have loved Him with all my heart and I have loved him with all my property, but until now I was not sure I could love Him with all my soul. But now that the opportunity to love Him with all my soul has come to me, and it is the time of the recital of the shema, and I was not deterred from it, therefore, I recite and, therefore, I smile.”"’

Rabbi Akiba is not able to fulfil the mandate in the Torah that “ you shall love the Lord your God ... with all your soul,” until given the opportunity to become a martyr. This is his understanding of the meaning of the verse. Martyrdom, then, is not only positive, it is a mitzvah; and without fulfilling it, a commandment of the Torah is not performed.