Frogs

The talmud relates that when chananiah, mishael and azariah (three Jewish officers in the court of Nebuchadnazer, emperor of Babylonia) faced the choice to either bow before an idolatrous image or be thrown into a fiery furnace, they took their lesson from the frogs which plagued Egypt in Moses’ time.

If the frogs entered the ovens of the Egypt to carry out the will of G-d, they reasoned, we certainly should be willing to sacrifice ourselves for our Creator.

To the Jew, "self-sacrifice" is not only the willingness to die for his beliefs—it is the way in which he lives for them. It is the willingness to give up his "self" - his desires, his preconceptions, his most basic inclinations.

Thus, the lesson of self-sacrifice is learned from a frog, a cold-blooded creature, who enters a burning oven. The ultimate test of faith goes beyond the issue of life and death; it is the willingness to sacrifice your very nature and identity for the sake of a higher truth.