Hayom Yom

Mesirat nefesh (self-sacrifice) for Torah-scholars means, "When a man dies in a tent,"[1] as interpreted by our sages,[2] to "put to death" all pleasure-taking in worldly matters - for even trivial worldly delights are obstacles to being thoroughly devoted and dedicated to the "tent" of Torah.

Compiled and arranged by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory, in 5703 (1943) from the talks and letters of the sixth Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory.

Bamidbar 19:14.

See Berachot 63b: "From whence do we know that Torah knowledge permanently remains only in an individual who gives his very life (as it were) for it? From the verse, When a man dies in a tent, i.e. he gives his very life to be in the "tent of Torah," renouncing all wordly pleasures.

מס"נ [מסירות נפש] הראויה לבני תורה הוא כדרז"ל [כדרשת רבותינו זכרונם לברכה] אדם כי ימות באהל, להמית את כל התענוגים בעניני עולם. כי אפילו דברים קלי הערך בתענוגי עולם, מונעים המה מלהיות מסור ונתון באהלה של תורה.