I was reading about runners breaking records, with the most famous example being Roger Bannister who was the first to run a mile in under four minutes. I find it fascinating because 1) experts considered it impossible 2) some even thought it would be dangerous to attempt it. And then, he did it and 3) others did it too!
This reminded me of the story about Rabbi Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch, who encountered a very difficult passage in his Torah study. After working on it for a long time, he finally unraveled its meaning. How dismayed he was when he heard an ordinary man learning the same passage, encountering the same difficulty, and easily coming up with the same answer that had taken him so much effort to discover. This made him question his own abilities if it was so hard for him, yet so easy for the ordinary person.
It was then revealed to him from heaven that nobody had comprehended that point before. It was only because he had worked so hard that he had opened a channel of wisdom in which this passage was illuminated. This made the wisdom accessible to others.
The same thing is said about mesiras nefesh. If a person were to say, if Hashem spoke to me and told me to bring my son up as a sacrifice, of course I would, aren't the people who sacrificed their children without Hashem's direct command, greater than Avrohom? - the answer is that Avrohom opened the channel for mesirus nefesh. It is because of his mesirus nefesh that subsequent parents can do the same.
What channels might we open for others with our own efforts? On a darker note, what possibilities are we opening for others by publicizing the breaking of taboos and the crossing of lines that should never be contemplated let alone acted upon?
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