Sanhedrin 72 - 78 Whose Blood is Redder? "The non-Jewish ruler
of my city ordered me to murder a fellow Jew and if I fail to do
so he will murder me. What should I do?" This is the question
which was put to the Sage Rabbah. "Allow yourself to be killed
rather than commit murder," answered Rabbah. "Who says that your
blood is redder than that of the other fellow?" According to
this logic if a group of Jews is commanded to deliver one if its
members to enemies who intend to kill him and failure to do so
will result in all of them being killed it would seem that they
should be permitted to do so. But the halacha, as stated in the
Jerusalem Talmud and recorded by Rambam (Yesodei Hatorah 5:5),
requires the entire group to give up their lives rather than be
guilty of being active accomplices to the murder of one of their
members. Rabbi Yossef Caro, in his Kessef Mishneh commentary on
the Rambam, explains that the law requiring a Jew to give up his
life rather than commit murder was received by Moshe at Sinai
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