Mesirut Nefesh

The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 9.) teaches that the world will exist for six thousand years. The first two thousand years are called תהו (void) because there was no Torah in the world. The following two thousand years are called the years of Torah. The final two thousand years is the era of Moshiach because Moshiach will come then."

The first two millennia of Torah began when Avraham Avinu was 52 years old. Why don’t the two thousand years start from the time Avraham recognized Hashem (which is at the age of 3, 40, or 48, as discussed above)?

The Satmar Rebbe zt'l answered that when Avraham was 52, Nimrod threw him into the fiery furnace at Ur Kasdim because he refused to worship idols. The value of Torah is when it’s kept with mesirus nefesh. Avraham believed in Hashem earlier, but when he was 52 years old, he kept the Torah with mesirus nefesh. That’s the beginning of the two thousand years of Torah.

During the Communist regime, it was difficult to find a mohel in Russia. One Russian family somehow contacted a mohel from Eretz Yisrael and requested that he come and make a bris milah for their child.

The mohel agreed. When he arrived, he discovered that the "baby" was a six-year-old boy. The mohel wasn't prepared to make a milah on a six-year-old child, but the parents pleaded with the mohel to do it.

“How can I?” the mohel asked. “The child will move around. It's dangerous.”

The six-year-old child said, “Tie me down with ropes if you have to. I want a bris milah. I want to be a Yid.”

After the bris milah, the mother kissed her child. She said, “For the past six years, I never kissed you because I didn’t want to kiss a goy. Now, I can kiss you.”

Think about the mesirus nefesh this mother had. For six years, she wouldn’t kiss her own son because he didn’t have milah. And think of the mesirus nefesh of this young child and let this be a reminder that Torah is kept with mesirus nefesh.

(Torah Wellsprings, Lech Lecha 5783, Rabbi Elimelech Biderman shlita)