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I use d/ a lot, so I decided to map / as follows:
:nnoremap <leader>j / (where <leader> is my space bar)
To my surprise, d<leader>j doesn't work. Why is that? I expect it to behave like d/.
I should add that <leader>j alone triggers the /, so it is indeed correctly mapped!
When you hit d, an operator, you enter Operator-pending mode. Vim will then wait for a motion command to be entered. In other words, when you follow d with <leader>j that's not happening in Normal mode...the mode for which you've mapped those keys.
For Operator-pending mode you need to use the :omap family of mapping commands, so...
:onoremap <leader>j /
Fortunately, there's a mapping type, :map, that encompasses both Operator-pending and Normal mode so you can kill two birds with one stone using
:noremap <leader>j /
However, this also includes Visual and Select modes so you need to be mindful of that. If that causes problems then just create two mappings (:omap and :nmap types).