This week we read the parashah Emor (Tell Them). It mainly deals with laws pertaining to the Kohanim (priestly family) and details some laws related to the festivals.
Within this parashah appears a verse from which we learn a very special mitzvah. The verse says (Leviticus 22:32): "They shall not profane My Holy Name, and I will be sanctified among the Children of Israel; I am God who sanctifies them." The mitzvah described in this verse is Kiddush Hashem, the offering of oneself for the sanctification of God. Another name for this concept is Mesirut Nefesh, literally "offering of the soul," and it refers to the sacrifice of one's own life for the sake of God.
Just this week, in conversation with a friend, he mentioned a Talmudic saying that goes like this (Talmud Shabbat 130a): "Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar says that every mitzvah that the Jewish people sacrificed themselves to death at a time of decrees of the kingdom, such as idolatry and circumcision, is still firmly in their hands, while every mitzvah that the Jewish people did not sacrifice themselves to death at a time of decrees of the kingdom, such as Tefillin, is still loose in their hands.".
Obviously, the connection to the weekly section lies in the concept of sacrifice unto death, a mitzvah that appears in this same section, as mentioned. However, from a deeper perspective, we must ask ourselves what this mitzvah holds for us today, since, thanks be to God, most Jews live in free countries that do not decree against the observance of the Torah and its mitzvot.
The word nefesh is generally translated as soul, but we find another meaning, as in the verse (Genesis 23:8) "[...] If you desire [...]", where the word used to express will is nafshechem, which shares its root with the word nefesh. Thus, the current concept of Mesirut nefesh is the surrender of one's will. In simpler terms: today, sacrifice in Judaism does not involve literally dying for God, but rather surrendering one's will, one's desires, to God, so that the person desires only God.
This does not mean that the person becomes a robot or loses interest in the worldly affairs of life, such as eating, drinking, etc., because, after all, that is what God Himself wants from everyone: that they have free will and live in a normal world and a normal life, but that the driving force of their life, the innermost and deepest motivation of their existence, is the desire and longing to unite with God.
Another way to think about this idea and connect it to Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar's saying is that people often complain about the situation in a community, demanding improvements, different programs, and so on. Each person should ask themselves: "Have I sacrificed myself 'even unto death' for what I myself demand? What have I done to change the situation besides complain and propose changes?" In Judaism, action is paramount, more so than preaching. That is why Rabbi Shimon says that only those mitzvot that a person undertakes with a strong commitment to action "even unto death" can be said to be firmly in their grasp, while the others, even if they fulfill them (because this isn't just about those who don't observe the precepts; from a deeper perspective, it also applies to those who fulfill them, but they are not "firmly" in their grasp...), are not truly in their grasp, like someone who takes something and it slips through their fingers.
We must adopt an attitude of sacrifice and action; only in this way can we strengthen the level of each individual and the Jewish people as a whole.