Jews throughout the ages have willingly given up their lives, rather than abandon being Jewish. Why? Because until you know what you are willing to die for, you have not yet begun to live.
Over the past 2,000 years in the Diaspora, Jews have had many opportunities to display their courage to stand up for Jewish beliefs. Consider Natan Sharansky - a prisoner of conscience who willingly underwent years of psychological and physical torture for the sake of being Jewish.
The pages of Jewish history are filled with thousands of Sharanskys. Whether during the Inquisition, the Crusades, the pogroms, or the myriad other persecutions and expulsions - Jews have given their lives for Judaism.
To the Western ear, “sacrificing your life for a belief” sounds like a far-too drastic action! Is there logic and reason to what our ancestors did? And where did they find the strength to lay down their lives rather than accept another religion?
RABBI AKIVA AND THE SHEMA
One of Judaism’s most inspiring legends is Rabbi Akiva.Even though he only began to learn the Aleph-Bet at age 40, he applied himself with such determination that he became the greatest sage of Talmudic times.
During the first century, the Romans tried to obliterate Judaism and passed a laws prohibiting Torah study. In defience, Rabbi Akiva gathered together his disciples and taught them Torah.
The Romans arrested Rabbi Akiva and executed him by brutally tearing the skin off his body with iron forks.
As he was being tortured, Rabbi Akiva joyously recited the Shema - “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”
His students exclaimed: “Rabbi, not only do we give our lives for the sake of God, but we do so in ecstasy?!”
Replied Rabbi Akiva: “All my life, I strove for the level of dedication to sanctify God’s name with my very life. Now that I have the opportunity, I joyously perform it!”
Was Rabbi Akiva superhuman? How could this “opportunity” give him so much pleasure that it completely obscured the agony of death?
KNOW YOUR PLEASURES
A fundamental of Judaism is that there is nothing a human being can do for God. God has no needs. Yet at the same time He gives us everything - air, water, food, sun. And He gave us the Torah as instructions for deriving maximum pleasure from this world.
In the Shema, the Jewish pledge of allegiance, we are commanded to love God B’chol Nafshecha - “with all your soul.” You have to be willing to sacrifice your life rather than deny God.
If mitzvot are for our pleasure ... how does this give us pleasure?!
This is the pleasure of clarity and commitment. If you can perceive something as so important that you will sacrifice your own life for it, then your life has weight and purpose and direction. Because until you know what you are willing to die for, you have not yet begun to live.
Material pleasures are necessary and nice, though they do not compare to the higher pleasures of love and meaning. Imagine you’re offered 10 million dollars in exchange for one of your children. After rejecting the offer, you’d be overwhelmed with the precious value of that child! You may have always known his worth on an intellectual level, but now it becomes real to you.
Similarly, once you have found a cause so meaningful that you would forfeit your life for, when you indeed live for that cause, it is with unparalleled power and pleasure.
This is the secret of Jewish heroism. This is why so many Jews throughout history have sacrificed their lives for what they believe. Because dying for God is a higher pleasure… than living without Him.
"Struggle for good against Evil With Humata (good thoughts), Hukta (good words) and Havarshta (good deeds). Thus spoke Zoroaster, the great prophet of Iran to his followers who in India are known by the name of Pasis. "There is but one path, the path of ASHA. All other paths are false paths" - YASNA This quotation from Yasna sums up the teachings of Prophet Zoroaster. Asha is a path of action - good thoughts, good words and good deeds - with emphasis on service to the suffering humanity. Every living being according to this religion is believed to posses the eternal principle of FRAVASHI. Zoroastrian is monotheistic in its higher ideology having AHURA MAZDA as its Supreme Deity and AHRIMAN as a lesser power of evil, which continually retards the smooth progress of good-universe is conceived as a battlefield between Ahura Mazda and Ahriman. In this confrontation, Ahura Mazda will ultimately defeat Ahriman. In the Zoroastrian religion, the theory of Re-incarnation does not exist FIRE is looked upon as a visible symbol of godhead and it is believed that the Sacred Fire was brought to earth from heaven by the prophet himself. In Zoroastrian temples that are known as Fire temples, fire is kept burning all the time. These temples are tended by Priests called Jozdalhregavs. Over 3000 years ago Shah Jamshed of the Peshadian dynasty ascended the throne on "NAVROZE" - nav meaning new and roze meaning day. It was the day of the Equinox - a day when light and darkness stand equal on the scale of space and time when the length of the day equals that of the night. That particular day came to be known as Jamshed Navroz and is celebrated even in modern times with lot of feasting. This new day is the beginning of a new year, a new awakening into an inner sphere of spiritual consciousness and anew vision of life. It is the time of questioning of looking within oneself, of seeing the millions of miracles that take place within the vast universe. Navroz means spring when Mother Nature casts off everything that is old or super-flows and dresses herself like a young bride in every vibrant colour and hue, rejoicing in her own pure spiritual beauty. Thus Navroz is a new dawn in everyone's life. Parsis believe that there are six seasons in a year with an important festival in each of them. These festivals are known by the name of GAHAMBARS. These were originally agricultural festivals but as Zorastrianism developed, they assumed religious significance. Parsis celebrate Khordad Sal as the birth of their Prophet Zorastor who was born in theiddle of second millennium B.C. His birth anniversary falls on the 6th day of the first month of the Zoroastrian Calendar and is observed with rejoicings. In each of these festivals Parsis do a lot of charity to the needy. To extend a helping hand to the poor is special characteristic of the Parsis.Important teaching from other one of the oldest religions in the world zorastrainism
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