Self Sacrifice

I know that there are religions in which it's a great thing to die for your faith, and doing so makes you a saint or gets you a ticket to paradise. What is the Jewish view? Is a person supposed to die for his beliefs?

The Binding of Issac and the Meaning of Jewish Martyrdom

On the essence of shamash, the "servant candle" of the Chanukah menorah

Come to think of it, the idea of a "moment of truth" is almost an oxymoron. If it's true, shouldn't it always be that way?

Could we possibly forgo the sounding of the shofar, which symbolizes the redemption of Israel? For me, it was unthinkable

The sole method we had for giving blood was a direct transfusion from one person to another.

The “binding of Isaac” has come to represent the ultimate in the Jew’s devotion to G‑d. But every nation and cause has its martyrs. Is there anything truly unique about Abraham’s deed, or about the Jew’s readiness to sacrifice himself for his Creator?

"The Rebbe must know something we do not," whispered disciples of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev. "Perhaps he sees a terrible calamity decreed for the coming year, G-d forbid"

Rabbi Eliezer says that each Plague actually consisted of four Plagues. Rabbi Akiva says not four, but five. Sitting at the Seder table, reciting from the wine-stained Haggadah, we hurry on towards the Matza, the bitter herbs and the meal. But what are ...

The three emissaries from the court of death entered the room, dressed in their uniforms of red and black, rifles in hand, their belts filled with bullets and hung with a pair of revolvers and another pair of Cossack knives, with helmets of brass and ...