Kiddush Hashem.Maimonides

Book of Commandments, Principle 4

“You shall be holy” (Lev. 19:2) and “Sanctify yourselves, and be you holy” (Lev.
11:44) [as] charges to fulfill the whole Torah, as if He were saying: “Be holy in
doing all that I have commanded you to do and in guarding against all the things
I have enjoined you from doing.” . . . There is then no difference between His
saying, “You shall be holy” (Lev. 19:2) and “Do My commandments.”
(Book of Commandments, Principle 4)

Book of Commandments, Positive Commandment 9

The Ninth Commandment that we have been commanded concerns the sanctification
of the Name, as it is said, “I am to be sanctified among the children of
Israel” (Lev 22:32). The meaning of this commandment . . . is that we are commanded
to publicize (lepharsem) the true belief (dat; also religion) in public and
not to fear harm by any aggressor. Even if there comes upon us a mighty coercive
[power], who demands of us that we be unfaithful to God, we will not hearken to
him but we will submit ourselves to death and we will not deceive him into
thinking that we are unfaithful [to God] even while in our hearts we believe in
Him. And this is the commandment of qiddush hashem that the Israelites as a
whole have been commanded, that is, the willingness to die at the hand of a
coercive power for the love of God and belief in His unity, as Hananiah, Mishael,
and Azariah did at the time of Nebukhadnezzer the evil one when he decreed that
all must bow to the idol and all people, including Israel, bowed, and no one
present sanctified the name of God, and this constituted a great disgrace to Israel
that this commandment was lost to all of them and that there was no one there
to fulfill it; but they were all afraid. And this commandment applies only in
circumstances like that great gathering in which the entire world was afraid and
when it was an obligation to publicize the Unity [of God] and to decree it at that
time. And God had already promised through the prophet Isaiah that the disgrace
of Israel would not be total at that gathering; but that young men would appear
among them at that hard gathering whom death would not deter; and that they
would sacrifice their lives and publicize their faith and sanctify the name in public,
as we have been commanded by Moses our Rabbi, and this is the saying: “Jacob
shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale; when he sees his
children, the work of My hands, in the midst of him, sanctifying My name; for
they shall sanctify the holy one of Jacob and shall reverence the God of Israel”
(Isaiah 29:22–23). In the words of the [Midrash] Sifra: “For this purpose I have
taken you out of the land of Egypt, that you sanctify my Name in public.” And in
the Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin, they asked: Is or is not a Noahide commanded
to sanctify the Name of God? Come and Hear: [It is written:] The Noahides were
given seven commandments. But if you include this one [i.e., sanctification of the
Name], there will be eight. Thus it is shown that [sanctification of the Name of
God] is one of the commandments incumbent [exclusively] on Israel, for which
they bring proof from the verse in which it is written “I am to be sanctified among
the children of Israel” (Lev 22:32).

Book of Commandments, Positive § 3

The third commandment: That we are commanded to love Him; that is, we
should contemplate and cognize His commandments and His actions until we
apprehend them, and we should take enjoy absolute pleasure in apprehending
Him; this is the obligatory love . . . [T]hrough intellectual understanding, the
apprehension of God will be verified, and pleasure will follow, and [the requisite]
love will necessarily follow.
And [the rabbis] already said that this commandment also contains [the
prescription] that we should preach and call all people to His worship and to
believe in Him. The reason is that just as when you love someone, you give him
your complete attention, praise him, and seek to make others love him, so when
you love God truly to the degree to which you can apprehend what He truly is,
you will undoubtedly preach and call upon the heretics and fools to knowledge
of the truth that you know. In the words of the [Midrash] Sifri: “And you shall
love the Lord” (Deut. 6:5)—[you should make Him] beloved by creatures, like
Abraham your patriarch . . . just as Abraham who, because of his love for God—as
Scripture describes him, “Abraham My lover” on account of the greatness of his
apprehension [of God]—sought to summon people to belief [in God] out of
his strong love [for God], so you too should love Him so strongly that you
summon people to Him.

Book of Commandments, Negative

We have been warned not to transgress the prohibition against the desecration of the Name; this is the opposite of sanctification of the Name which we have been commanded
whose explanation was explained earlier in Positive Commandment 9; as
it is said: And you shall not desecrate My holy name (Lev. 22:32). This sin
is divided into three parts, two concerning people in general, one particular
individuals.
(A) The first of the parts that concern people in general is that if someone is
demanded to transgress any one of the commandments during a period of
persecution, whether the coercer intends to make [him] transgress either a
minor or major commandment, or one who is demanded to transgress [the
prohibitions on] idolatry, forbidden sexual relations, or murder even during
a period which is not one of persecution—in all these cases one is obligated
to surrender his life, and to let himself be killed and not to transgress, as we
explained in the Positive Commandment 9. And if he transgressed and was
not killed, he has desecrated the name of God and transgressed this prohibition.
And if this was in public, i.e., among ten Israelites, then he has
desecrated the name of God in public, and he transgresses God’s statement
“And you shall not desecrate my holy name” and his sin is very severe.
However, he is not punished with lashes because he was coerced, because the
court can execute a punishment of lashes or the death penalty only when the
person acted intentionally, willingly, with witnesses and warning . . . Thus it
should be clear to you that the one who commits idolatry under coercion is
not guilty of karet (being cut off) and a fortiori of death by court, but he did
transgress the prohibition on desecration.
(B) The second part which also concerns a generality is when a person does a
prohibited act for which he has no desire or enjoyment, but his actions show
disregard and disobedience. This person also desecrates the Name of God
and is punished by lashes. The verse therefore says, “Do not swear falsely by
My name; [if you do so], you will be desecrating the name of your God” (Lev.
19:12), because this shows disregard for this commandment and it gives no
bodily enjoyment.

(C) The third part that applies to particular individuals concerns a person who is
known for his piety and integrity who does something which seems to
ordinary people to be a sin, an action of the sort that it is improper for
such a pious person to perform it, even though it is permissible. This person
has desecrated the Name of God. As our Sages said, “What is an example of
desecrating God’s Name? [Rav said,] If someone like me would take meat
from the butcher without paying immediately. Another Sage said, ‘If someone
like me would walk four cubits without learning Torah or wearing
phylacteries.’ ” This prohibition is repeated in the verse “[Do] not desecrate
the name of your God; I am the Lord” (Lev. 18:21).