Q&A: Nicanor. Gentile? Pious? Schemer? Both?
Nicanor. Gentile? Pious? Schemer? Both?
Question
Nicanor, after the sailors threw door number 1 overboard, lay down on the second one and said, “If you throw it, throw me with it.” They left it alone. And when they reached Jaffa, they saw that the first one was sticking up from beneath the ship. A miracle was done for him.
My question: apparently he gave up his life for Temple property. That is not one of the three cardinal sins! Apparently he acted improperly—so how does the Mishnah mention him approvingly?
Maybe he was a gentile, and a gentile may give up his life even for an ordinary commandment?
Maybe he was pious, and according to Sefer Hasidim one may give up his life even for an ordinary commandment.
Maybe he was a schemer and knew that just threatening suicide would be enough for them to leave the door alone and throw other objects overboard instead…
In fact, it worked.
And the praise is not for the trick, but for the miracle that happened to him with the first door, showing that Heaven agreed with the maneuver.
The first two possibilities are my ideas.
The last one is my son’s.
Who is right?
Answer
First, according to Tosafot, someone who gives up his life for other prohibitions is worthy of all praise. It is only according to Maimonides (Laws of the Foundations of the Torah, ch. 5) that he is liable for his own life. So the difficulty is only according to Maimonides. It could be that this was a public matter, and there it may be permitted to give up one’s life. Beyond that, it is certainly possible that he did not really give up his life, because he knew they would not throw him in together with the door.