LEV225 The ninth level (of The Stringency of Mitzvos and Classification of Punishment) is the severity of sins that require one to forfeit his life rather than transgress them. Our Sages, z"l, said (Sanhedrin 74a), "If one is told regarding any transgression in the Torah, 'Sin, and then you will not be killed,' he must sin and not submit himself to death, as the pasuk says [this verse], '… which a person shall do, that he may live by them' -- that he may live by them and not die through them." [This, however, is] to the exclusion of idolatry, illicit relations, and murder: if regarding any one of these three he is told, 'Sin, and then you will not be killed,' he must submit himself to death rather than sin – – even if he is told to sin in private. [Even] regarding any one of the mitzvos of the Torah, if he is told to sin in public, then he must submit himself to death rather than sin, as the pasuk says (Yayikra 22:32), "I shall be sanctified among the Children of Yisrael"; and in times of religious persecution, even [when forced to sin] in private, one must submit himself to death rather than sin.