Many people are against the term eved HaShem [slave of HaShem] because they think, where am I in this picture? I’m going to lose myself…

The answer is that Hashem wants all of you, with no compromises. People make the mistake of thinking: “I have to give up on my sleep for Hashem?” The truth is, you’re not giving up anything; rather you are serving Hashem with His sleep.

What happened at Har [Mount] Sinai? We received the Torah, but how did we become servants of Hashem? Some say it was when He held the mountain over us like a barrel, but the truth is, our servitude began when we said naaseh venishma. With these words we gave ourselves to Hashem entirely. Naaseh — we will do entirely whatever You say, like when the brothers saw that they were now alone with Yosef [Joseph]. What did they say? “Behold, we are your slaves!” The same is true here.

First, let’s get a notion of what slavery is. We may have read about the lot of slaves in ancient times, and in our times as well, there have been people like Sadam Hussein who could command people to dance before him and then with a wave of his hand, order their execution. How can such a thing happen? To just kill a person with the wave of a hand? The answer is, the rulers see nothing wrong with this. These people are his slaves, after all. This is what a slave is.

If we’d see a big fish swallow a little fish, we wouldn’t rise up against any injustice. This is the way the world works, no? The small fish is food for the big fish, and so on. The same is true about the stones that joined into one underneath Yaakov’s [Jacob’s] head, to serve this tzaddik [righteous man] — this is their nature, to serve the tzaddik. The same is true for us: I am a servant of Hashem and I do His will, whatever He commands me. When we agreed to this at Matan Torah, it became our reality and purpose.

The first step of naaseh venishma, explains the Beis Halevi, is for a Jew to resolve to live in the way of Torah, giving up himself, body and soul, for Hashem and His Torah.

The next step in the defining of a Yisrael [Israel], after agreeing to give ourselves over, was that Hashem gave us kedushas haguf (holiness of the body). What is kedushas haguf? It means that this holiness can extend beyond the body. This is something every Jew can do — to influence his fellowman, and even more — to actually convert a non-Jew (via a beis din) and extend his kedushas Yisrael to him.

Rav Chaim Zimmerman devotes an entire chapter of his sefer [book] to kedushas Yisrael. There, he explains that only after Matan Torah did Jews have kedushas Yisrael. Avraham Avinu [our father Abraham] did not possess this, even though he certainly possessed kedusha of his own. Kedushas Yisrael, as said, was the result of Hashem’s granting this to us for fulfillment of mitzvos [commandments]. Even though Avraham Avinu had the din of a metzuveh v’osseh [one who does because he is commanded to] for the mitzvah of bris mila [circumcision], but not for the other mitzvos. These he fulfilled of his own volition. As great as it was to keep mitzvos without being commanded to, it did not gain Avraham kedushas Yisrael.

Is there a way for us to tap into this kedushas Yisrael that we possess? Yes! Since we gained kedushas Yisrael from the Torah, it follows that when you produce a chiddush [innovation] in Torah, you change yourself into a new being, and automatically feel this kedushah and greatness within you.

And what constitute “chiddushei Torah?” The Nefesh Hachaim clarifies that this refers to anything we learn that makes the subject matter clearer for us. Moreover, as long as we go over what we learn, the more we will see new things within it. All this is called “chiddushei Torah.” My rosh yeshiva, Rav Chanoch Leibowitz, however, would ask: If what you’re saying is really new, then it’s not Torah; and if it’s not new, then how can you call it a “chiddush?” Rather, the answer is that if you make the matter you are learning clearer to you, then vis-a-vis yourself, this is called a chiddush, but of course, whatever new insights we reach are within the Torah itself.

Of note is that once, davka [precisely] before Shavuos, the Israeli Ministry of Religions saw fit to hold an inspection at our yeshiva. Why then? Simple! The acceptance of the Torah was done with Hashem holding a barrel over the Jews, declaring that they either accept the Torah, or there would be their burial. So too Hashem brought upon us a similar case in which we had no option of taking a break from learning. Instead, everyone was dutifully in his place. Of course, this was an external reason, but it came to verify — what is our level of mesirus nefesh [self-sacrifice] for Torah? This inspection was for our benefit, to fill up the beis medrash [house of study] — because who knew when the inspectors would arrive — and once we were all there, we got to work learning with exertion, the way it should be learned. It was a merit for us and a chesed [loving-kindness] to us from Hashem, to help us accept the yoke of Torah before Shavuos.