How Much Do You Sacrifice?

Where do you draw the line? Logic says that we are to sacrifice for the things that are important to us in life. To provide a living for our families we work hard, giving up on potentially enjoyable vacations. We study late into the night to achieve our intellectual goals. We put aside our personal needs for our children. For in the sacrifice we uncover potentials we never knew we had. But, how much sacrifice is enough?

In this week’s portion G-d tells Moses to avenge Him through battling the Midianites. (The Midianites seduced the Jews into Idol Worship thereby turning them from G-d.) G-d tells him matter-of-factly, “avenge the vengeance of G-d against the Midianites, and afterwards you will be gathered unto your people (you will die)”. Simply put, G-d was saying that after this battle, your mission on this earth will be concluded and it will be time to return home. The Jewish people knew that this was Moses’ last “hurrah”, and thus hesitated to go to war. Moses on the other hand, immediately began the battle preparations.

The Torah tells us, that sacrifice is total. There is no limit. For to reach the greatest of heights you need to give up everything. As long as there is a boundary we won’t cross, we are still driven by our ego. To reach the very essence of our potential we need to transcend it.

At his very core Moses was a leader of his people. By going to war he knew that he would be giving up his physical leadership. But that too, he was willing to do because G-d had instructed him to do so. Moses could have made the argument that he would be giving up his leadership by doing so. But, to reach the essence is to transcend, to walk across the line of total sacrifice. It was by doing this that Moses became the greatest leader. For his leadership lives on more so after his death, then even in his lifetime. And all because he gave everything up for the G-d he was dedicated to.

In life we calculate the results of our sacrifices, “if I sacrifice this much then I will get the following in return”. Sometimes we are put to the test to sacrifice everything, counter to anything that makes sense. And that is where our essence comes out.

How much do you sacrifice?