The Midrash Tanchuma remarks that Moshe’s mesiras nefesh, self-sacrifice, for the Torah earned him the zchus that the Torah is called by his name, Toras Moshe. This means that Hashem Yisborach gave His Torah, Toras Hashem, to Moshe. What was Moshe’s kinyan, act of acquisition? His mesiras nefesh was the medium which catalyzed his proprietorship over the Torah. What, indeed, was Moshe’s act of mesiras nefesh? What remarkable act of self-sacrifice did he exhibit that was so sublime to cause Hashem to “transfer” ownership to Moshe? He did not eat or drink for forty days and nights when he went up on Har Sinai to receive the Torah. This exemplary demonstration of respect was his act of mesiras nefesh.
Let us explore the reason that Moshe did not eat or drink and the profound lesson we are to derive from this act of self- denial. Horav Boruch Mordechai Ezrachi, Shlita, cites the Yalkut Shimoni that attributes Moshe’s refraining from eating to one simple cause: derech eretz, proper manners! It just was not proper to “visit” with angels who neither eat nor drink and display disrespect for his “hosts.”
This is amazing! Moshe’s act of mesiras nefesh was not for Torah; it was for derech eretz. His devotion to middos caused Hashem to confer the title of Toras Moshe upon His precious Torah. Can one be mosser nefesh for middos and derech eretz? Yes, claims Horav Ezrachi. One is prepared to sacrifice himself for Torah. Do we realize, however, that “derech eretz kadmah la’Torah,” “proper middos and menchlichkeit comes before the Torah? To have studied Torah, to become a great scholar and still remain an individual of unsavory character traits, to study Torah and continue to be an “um’mench” is the antithesis of Torah. Thus, if derech eretz is an inherent part of Torah, to the extent that there is no Torah without derech eretz then mesiras nefesh for Torah includes within it mesiras nefesh for derech eretz.
