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The 614th Commandment (Fackenheim)

Emil Fackenheim's post-Holocaust mandate — "Do not hand Hitler posthumous victories."

The modern Jewish philosopher Emil Fackenheim, responding to the Holocaust, proposed a "614th commandment" (beyond the traditional 613): Jews are forbidden to hand Hitler posthumous victories. To despair, to abandon Judaism, or to give up on the Jewish people, he argued, would complete the destruction the Nazis began — so Jewish survival and faith themselves become a sacred duty.

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