Not One Letter
Called to answer for the decrees, the Sitra Achra named its price, and Rav Shimshon refused it.
The Ramchal records, in Derech Eitz Chaim, a remarkable account of Rav Shimshon in the dark years of Tach veTat. Wishing to understand the decrees falling on the Jewish people, he adjured the Sitra Achra, the forces of impurity, to tell him whether they could be turned aside.
The answer came back with a price. The decrees would be lifted, it said, only if three things were abolished: Shabbos, bris milah and the Torah itself.
Rav Shimshon did not hesitate. Not a single letter of the Torah, he replied, would ever be annulled. Whatever the cost, the Jewish people would not trade away what made them who they were.
Those who retell the account point out how closely it echoes the age of Rebbi Akiva. In that time the Roman government decreed against these same three mitzvos, Shabbos, milah and Torah, and Jews gave their lives rather than give them up. The Jews of Rav Shimshon's time were being asked the same question, and in the shul at Polonnoye, he and his companions gave the same answer.
Source: Ramchal (Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto), Derech Eitz Chaim (account of the adjuration of the Sitra Achra).
Every person is sometimes offered an easier road in exchange for something precious. This week, decide in advance one thing you will not trade away, whether it is Shabbos observed properly, a daily set time of learning, or the honesty of your word. Tell one person close to you what it is, so that you stand behind it. Rav Shimshon shows that clarity beforehand makes the moment of choice simple, because the answer is already chosen.