Dear Friends,
I hope this note finds you well and managing these challenging times.
The Daf Yomi will begin studying Makkos this Thursday, days before Pesach, and conclude three weeks later, two days after Yom Hazikaron is observed. I plan to dedicate my own daf yomi shiur and personal learning during this period to the soldiers of Tzahal killed in battle. I hope you will consider doing the same for your Torah learning. Let me tell you why.
Shortly after Major Dr. Moshe Leiter was killed in battle in Gaza in November 2023, I had the privilege to sit with his father Yechiel, who was since appointed Israel’s Ambassador to the United States. He noted how we tend to bandy about the term ”mesirut nefesh”, using it anytime someone extends themselves a bit, whether traveling a long distance to a friend’s wedding, changing a stranger’s tire, or staying after an event to clean up. Moshe hy”d had chosen to literally give his life for and to the Jewish people. He and all his fellow soldiers represent the true meaning of mesirut nefesh and that term should be reserved for them.
He is right.
Akeidat Yitzchak, the binding (and offering) of Yitzchak, is the original Torah story of mesirut nefesh. While Yitzchak survived the experience, our Sages taught us that his readiness to give his life always remains in the forefront of Hashem’s awareness, afro shel Yitzchak tzavur umunach lefanav, and we as Yitzchak’s descendants call upon Hashem to remember it as a merit for us every Rosh Hashana. Yitzchak’s unconditional commitment to give his life for God is remembered and enduring.
This should guide us to the same on our part for Moshe hy”d and his fellow soldiers. Their readiness to sacrifice everything for their people is astounding not only to us; as Rav Chaim Shmulevitz noted based on Bava Basra 10b, it entitles them – like Yitzchak – to an exclusive and vaunted place before God in the World to Come. We who have not fought, who do not regularly say goodbye to our families wondering if it will be the last time, must remember with humility, gratitude, and admiration the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and their families who have been doing so repeatedly for 18 months. They have been doing this for us, for Klal Yisrael.
We always owe them recognition and gratitude, but especially during this season. The mitzvah of remembering yetziat Mitzrayim goes beyond recollection of events past and requires us to bring that past to life within ourselves and our present experience, viewing ourselves in each generation as if we are leaving Egypt. We are charged with transcending ourselves to make the memories personal. Beyond Pesach itself, the Torah repeatedly urges us to use our formative experience of slavery and exile in Egypt to develop a deeper sensitivity towards the plight of others suffering similar challenges, and our mandate for charity is et ha’ani imach, to put ourselves in their shoes. Once again we are charged with transcending ourselves to make the experiences of others personal. If this is true for the needy to whom we owe nothing, how much more so for those who have sacrificed everything for us?
The Midrash (Vayikra Rabba 2:11) notes that every korban offering recalls the akeida, the offering that defined the holiness of the Mikdash, the primary place of our future offerings. And our Parsha begins with “Adam ki yakriv mikem korban, a person who offers from you a korban, from the animals, from the sheep and from the cattle you shall offer your korban.” Rabbeinu Bachye (Vayikra 1:2) read this verse as implying that the person’s desire was to offer himself to God, but the Torah enjoins him to preserve his life and instead sacrifice an animal. When we read these ideas each year, they are abstract concepts, food for the learner’s and worshipper’s imaginations. When we read them now, we can and should think of the soldiers and their families stepping up every day to that implied meaning of Adam ki yakriv mikem korban.
As Yitzchak is constantly remembered by Hashem, we must always remember with admiration and gratitude those who have and continue to be moseir nefesh for Klal Yisrael. That is why during these weeks at the very least we will be learning Torah in their memory.
Makkos begins on Thursday, April 10, the day of the Taanit Bechorim, and concludes on May 2, 4 Iyar, the day usually observed as Yom Hazikaron.
Have a wonderful Shabbos and may we be blessed with besorot tovot, truly good news.
Moshe Hauer
