Chapter V

The Talmud states:1 Lifum gamla shichna, which means as Rashi explains "A camel is loaded according to his capacity to bear." G-d demands of people no more than they can bear. During the time of exile, in the period of ikvesa diMeshicha, which is the Mishnaic term2 for "the period at the end of exile," as Rashi explains, there are many who impede and act as thorns in the sides of those who study Torah and are G-d-fearing. It is therefore important to know that Jews possess the strength to withstand and overcome all difficulties. They can do this nowadays with even greater strength and might than they could muster at the time of the existence of the Holy Temple, for the power of mesirus nefesh is even greater during the time of exile than during the time the Temple existed.

This will be better understood by drawing a comparison to the organs of the body. Though different in function, all bodily organs are similar in that they all draw their life-force from the brain. Notwithstanding their similarity, it is easier to immerse the heel in hot water than the head. The popular explanation is that the heel is less sensitive to pain than the head. However, this itself needs to be understood. Why indeed is the heel less sensitive to pain than the head? The heel receives life from the soul as does the head. As the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya,3 "The main life-force is in the brain and each part of the body receives its life flow from the brain according to its composition and construction." Thus, the life-force of the brain spreads to all parts of the body.

G-d imbued the soul with the ability to vivify to the body. He decreed that the soul descend and clothe itself in a physical body. This indeed is one of G-d's wonders: the ability to unite the spiritual with the physical. It follows that there is no difference between the life-force that enlivens the head and the heels. Why, then, is it easier to immerse the heel in hot water than the head? It is because the heel is more loyal to the dictates of the soul than the head. For the lower the organ, the greater is its devotion to the soul's dictates.

In a similar vein, in the time of exile when we are "upon the heels of Moshiach," the power of mesirus nefesh is revealed to a greater degree. Not only are we not fazed by those who scoff at and put obstacles in the path of the performance of Torah and mitzvos, but we perform with even greater vigor. With the power of mesirus nefesh we Jews the world over will merit the coming of Moshiach, the righteous Redeemer.

Summary: A Jew must know that G-d gave him the sacred power of mesirus nefesh which emanates from the truth of the soul. Exile is known as ikvesa diMeshicha. The feet support the whole body, and the power of mesirus nefesh is found in all Jews. Through mesirus nefesh we will merit the coming of Moshiach, the righteous Redeemer.