Where is My Mesirus Nefesh? | Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer

I'd like to share with you something very personal. Last week, a student from BJX, a 34-year-old fellow from an unaffiliated family in Brooklyn, born Jewish, raised Jewish without any tradition, did something exceedingly brave, courageous and holy. He went under the knife and received a Bris Milah. I held his hand throughout the entire painful ordeal, and as I held his hand, I marveled at his Mesirus Nefesh. What self-sacrifice! But at the same time, I had a nagging feeling. I felt guilty. After all, I never made such a decision, to have a Bris Milah. Neither did most of us. Our parents made sure we had our Bris. And I thought: Where's my Mesirus Nefesh? Where's our sacrifice? I mean, this fellow, when I met him a few years ago, he didn't know the difference from an Alef or a Beis. And now, look what he's doing for Hashem. And then it hit me. When Moshe Rabeinu was about to pass away, He gives Brachos to the tribes, to the Shvatim. What does he say to Levi? You, Levi, have protected, you have preserved Bris Milah. When no one else in the desert Malled their children, you circumcised your children. You're the ones that kept Bris Milah alive. Says the Alsheich, says the תנא דבי אליהו, It's not only the act of being Gemalt, of being circumcised. It’s every single time we make a decision not to succumb, we choose holiness over טומאה, over impurity, and we choose not to look, we choose to be better, to be stronger, to preserve the covenant, we, too, are going under the knife. It's not a single act of going under the knife, it's multiple times, hundreds, if not thousands of times, daily, weekly, sometimes many times throughout a day. When we choose to not look, then the Ribono shel Olam says, You've kept my Bris, you've preserved, you've ensured, you've upheld the Bris. It's as if you're giving blood to the Aibishter. And the same way I held our student’s hand, I'm reaching out my hand now to each and every one of you, and I'm saying: חזק חזק! You could do it. It's worth the battle. It's worth the struggle. את בריתך ינצורו. It's like going under the knife and upholding, ensuring, protecting Bris Milah. It's the greatest holiness. It's the greatest, greatest victory.