12 May BAMIDBAR: SACRIFICE FOR TORAH

The Mishnah in Pirkeh
Avot (6:4) teaches:
This is the way of Torah:
You eat bread with salt,
you drink water in
rations, you lie on the
ground, and you live a life of distress – and
you toil in Torah.
At first glance, the Mishnah is telling us that
the Torah requires us to live in abject
poverty. But this is clearly not the case. While
it is true that many great Rabbis were very
poor, many others were wealthy. And most
were somewhere in the middle between very
poor and very rich. Certainly, most Torah
scholars today sleep in comfortable beds, not
on the floor, and eat far more than bread with
salt. What, then, does this Mishnah mean?
The answer brings us back – to the celebration
of Pesach.
The Alter of Kelm raises the question of why
Hashem needed to rush Beneh Yisrael out of
Egypt so frantically, such that their dough
didn’t have time to rise, and they ended up
baking matzah. They spent hundreds of years
in Egypt – they couldn’t stay there an extra
half-hour so they could have proper
bread? Why did Hashem find it necessary to
have them chased out so quickly?

The Alter of Kelm answered that this was
necessary to teach us a vitally important
lesson – that in order to succeed as Hashem’s
nation, we need to be prepared to eat
“matzah,” to sacrifice luxuries, to live with
just the basics.

The Torah demands Mesirat Nefesh – self-
sacrifice. In order to excel as a Torah Jew, a

person needs to be prepared to forego
comforts and luxuries, and to show his
commitment even when the circumstances are
far less than ideal.
This is the meaning of the Mishnah. It is not
telling us that we need to suffer in order to
live a Torah life. Rather, it is telling us that we
must be prepared to sacrifice for Torah, that
living a Torah life requires us to do things that
are difficult, that are uncomfortable, that are
inconvenient, that are unpopular, that are
challenging.
It is wonderful to attend a Torah class with
several hundred other like-minded community
members in a comfortable, air-conditioned
shul at 8pm when one has a free evening. Every
single person who does so should be
commended, and I have nothing but praise for
all of them. But – this is not how greatness is
achieved. One achieves greatness by
displaying commitment when it’s
difficult. When a person maintains his Torah

learning schedule even when he’s had a very
hard day, when he didn’t get a good night’s
sleep, when the material is difficult or the
speaker isn’t at his best. One achieves
greatness when his friends are getting together
for an event that he knows is inappropriate, so
he does not go .
Of course one should learn Torah and
perform mitzvot when it’s convenient. But in
order to fully actualize our potential, we need
to be ready to learn Torah and
perform mitzvot even when it’s not
convenient, when it’s challenging, when it
requires struggle and sacrifice.
This is why the Torah was given in a desert –
to teach us that we must be committed to
Torah even under “desert” conditions, when
we don’t have our usual comforts and
conveniences, when things are difficult. This
is how greatness in Torah is achieved.
After my father zt”l passed away, we came
across one of his books. He owned hundreds
upon hundreds of books, but this one was very
special. When he was already very sick, he
asked for this book, and one of my nephews
bought it for him. After he passed away, we
saw that the book had been read through – and
it had numerous handwritten notes on the
margins. On some pages, there were stains of
blood, apparently from the times when he

learned the book after receiving an injection
or IV infusion in his hand.
This is what the Mishnah was talking
about. This is Mesirat Nefesh for Torah –
learning Torah intensely even when this is
challenging.
Of course there is nothing wrong with learning
under comfortable conditions, in a
comfortable room, with heat or air
conditioning, when we are well fed, after a
good night’s sleep, feeling healthy, and in
good spirits. But in order to truly excel, we
must be prepared to devote ourselves to Torah
even when we find ourselves in a “desert,” in
difficult circumstances.
As Shavuot approaches, let us all choose one
thing we are willing to do for Torah even
though it is difficult, one challenge we are
willing to take upon ourselves for Torah. We
will then be able to truly say that we earned
the great privilege of standing on Shavuot
morning and receiving the Torah from
Hashem anew.