Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Real Story of Rabbi Akiva and Lag B'Omer

[music] [singing] [music] [music and singing] [singing] >> Uh we are praying for the protection of Israel, the lasting unity of Am Israel, which will lead to victory. And we pray for all of those whose health has been affected by terror. Refuah shleima for Leah Shoshana bas Yisraela Sura and Michael ben Chaya uh and an aliyat neshama for Alexander ben Avraham and Batsheva, the father of David Balinsky. Uh he David Balinsky just got up from shiva for his father. Uh may the memory of Alexander ben Avraham and Batsheva be blessed in Gan Eden as well as Dora bat Louise, the mother of Abigail Devir, whose fifth yahrzeit uh is tonight, Tuesday night, Wednesday, day 34 of the Omer, uh as well dedicated by Frieda Givon in memory of her mother Gittel bat Moshe HaKohen, who was a partisan in the woods of Poland, a true eshet chayil, who passed away in Brooklyn on Lag BaOmer. And an anonymous contribution was made for the nitzachon of all of our chayalim, and may Hashem give protection for all of Klal Yisrael and for the geulah shleima very, very soon. I just wanted to add that uh a very, very famous yahrzeit of Lag BaOmer is the yahrzeit of the Rama, of Moshe Isserles, uh who died very young in his in his 40s. And it's interesting, there's a funny little bit of mistake here, that one of the great rabbonim that was maspid wanted to enumerate 33 praises of the Rama because the Rama died on the 33rd day of the Omer. For some crazy reason, the hesped only contains 32. So, one was missing. Maybe the message is only God is perfect. So, he enumerate everything, but you know, we don't reach the absolute level. But this is the Rama's yard site or it was the Rama's yard site. And zechuto yagen aleinu. Those of you who have ever been in Krakow the Rav Rama was the Rav of Krakow know that the Rama's shul is still open, still being used. And in particular, religious groups who visit always daven in the Rama's [clears throat and laughter] Beit Knesset. And it's fascinating that all the Chassidim daven Nusach Sefard. They do not daven regular Ashkenaz Nusach. But even when Chassidim go into the Rama's shul, they daven the Ashkenaz siddur because they say, "This is the Rama's shul. We're going to daven the minhag of the Rama." And again, zechuto yagen aleinu. Okay, everybody. And I hope you had a wonderful Lag BaOmer. You know, we have a uh principle that for every Yom Tov, the day after the Yom Tov is still connected to the Yom Tov. And that is called Isru Chag. As far as I know, there [clears throat] is no concept of Isru Chag for Lag BaOmer. But I'm going to invent a new holiday of Isru Chag for Lag BaOmer. And although it's not Lag BaOmer, since we're just coming from Lag BaOmer, I'd like to talk about Lag BaOmer. So again, please forgive me if I'm a little a little late, but I didn't get to it last last week. And what's interesting is that Lag BaOmer commemorates two very different events. And there are two different reasons why Lag BaOmer became festive. One is because death stopped and the other is somebody else died. I mean, you're both celebrating the cessation of death and you're celebrating in a sense a death and I'll explain what I mean. The cessation of death brings us to the story of Rabbi Akiva. Now, this is largely a familiar story but I want to go over it a little bit uh because there's tremendously inspirational lessons that we learn from the story of Rabbi Akiva. Akiva ben Yosef, I'll call him Akiva because he was not yet a rabbi, uh was descended from converts. He was not He himself was born Jewish but his uh grandfather had been a convert to Judaism and he was what was called an Am ha'aretz. He was a totally ignorant man. Obviously, he was a man of great talent. He must have had great natural intelligence but he literally did not know how to read which was relatively common in those days. And he found himself in the employ of a very wealthy Jerusalem landowner who went by the nickname Kalba Savua. Now, Kalba Savua was not his name, it was his nickname. Kalba Savua is Aramaic for an overstuffed or satiated dog. Why was he called an overstuffed dog? It really was a compliment. He was so hospitable that even a dog that would walk into his house would walk out stuffed and those of you that have dogs know that dogs are never full. Dogs will always keep on eating and eating and eating and eating but he could even satisfy the dog. And Kalba Savua in fact is mentioned in Maseches Gittin which is the portion of the Gemara that we study on Tisha B'Av because it talks about the Churban. Kalba Savua is mentioned when the Romans began their siege around Jerusalem, around Yerushalayim. They were cutting off food and other supplies. There were three wealthy people in Yerushalayim who had enough resources that they could have kept the city alive for 21 years. And Kalba Savua is mentioned as one of those Ashirim. And then, if you recall, there were zealots within the city, Jewish zealots, who wanted to precipitate an immediate war with Rome instead of holding out. So, they burnt the Jews The Jews burnt all of the supplies, creating mass starvation and great, great death. But, this is Kalba Savua. So, Kalba Savua was a righteous man. Kalba Savua was a charitable man. Uh and Akiva was one of his shepherds. Who knows how many shepherds Kalba Savua employed? Maybe he had a thousand Maybe he had a thousand shepherds. You know, who knows? But, the boss's daughter, her name was Rachel, somehow saw in Rabbi Akiva, saw in this ignorant shepherd, some type of greatness or potential that even Akiva himself didn't know that he had. And she fell in love with him. It's one of the few somewhat romantic stories in the Gemara. She fell in love with it with him. She wanted to marry him. Her father was so outraged and how could his daughter marry this ignorant shepherd that he made a vow. He made a neder that she could not benefit from any of his assets. He essentially disinherited her. And from that moment on, she lived in abject poverty. She married Rabbi Akiva. Uh he continued For some reason, he didn't get fired. He continued in in the employ of Kalba Savua. But, the Talmud discusses that they lived in barns and straw. It discusses the extreme poverty that they went through. Rabbi Akiva and Rachel had children. Rabbi Akiva did have children. We know from the Gemara itself, he at least had one son and one daughter. Perhaps there were more, but we know that they had children. But at some point, and again, unfortunately, we're not given a timeline, so we don't know how many years, etc. But at some point, Rachel had the idea that Akiva should go learn Torah in Yerushalayim. And even if that meant he would separate from his family, she was willing to assume the responsibility of living without a husband, in poverty, and having to raise their son and daughter, raise their children. And Rabbi Akiva went. So, initially, Rabbi Akiva was not convinced of this. He He thought it was not a good idea. But the Gemara tells us the story that as a shepherd, he once observed water dripping on a rock over a long period of time, and eventually, the water made a hole in the rock. So, Rabbi Akiva figured, if water can penetrate a rock, then the Torah, which is compared to water, it's interesting even at even as an am ha'aretz, even that Torah is compared to water, can penetrate my brain, my rock. Even if I'm like a rock, I I I I don't I haven't learned anything. The Torah can penetrate. So, he went off for 12 years. And when he started, keep in mind, he didn't know how to read. So, he started with a first grade. Imagine a first grade hater, where you have a 40-year-old man who's sitting there learning how to read. But he was there for 12 years faithfully. The Gemara implies he didn't even visit his wife. I don't know if we have to take it as literal as that, but he was really gone for 12 years. After 12 years, he returned to pay his wife a visit, and he overhears a conversation that his wife has with a neighbor, in which a neighbor says to her, "What type of husband do you have that leaves you for 12 years as you're living in poverty all by yourself? What type of man did you marry? And she responded, "I wouldn't mind if he'd stay away for another 12 years." This is meant to be complimentary, meaning for Torah learning, anything goes. So, the story goes, this is hard to believe, that once he overheard her say, "You can go back for another 12 years." He went back without even saying hello or coming in for a cup of coffee. Now, that is hard to understand. Why couldn't he just say hello? Why couldn't he come in? Why couldn't he just be with her a little bit? So, I'll give you two explanations. One is the Litvak interpretation, and the other is more of a Hasidic interpretation. I prefer the Hasidic interpretation, but I'll I'll give you both of the interpretations. Rav Aaron Kotler said that we have to understand that in Torah study there is such a concept as critical mass. By that I mean, if [snorts] you learn 2 hours straight, that is not the same as learning 1 hour interruption, another hour. There's a certain cumulative effect in which the sum is equal is greater, I'm sorry, the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts. People don't realize this. There's a certain spiritual uplift you get by continuity. So, Rabbi Akiva didn't want to make an interruption. He had 12 years. If he would have interrupted and then gone back, it would have been a 12 plus a 12. This way, he wanted to make it a retzev, a consecutive 24. The Chazonish gave a mashal to this. Let's imagine you had a big pot of water, and it would take 30 minutes to bring this big pot to a boil. But you shut off the gas every 29 and 1/2 minutes. You wait until the water cools down. Then you turn up the gas again uh for 29 and 1/2 minutes. No matter how many 29 and a half minutes you have, it might be 100, it's not going to boil. You need 30 consecutive minutes. So, this is the Litvak interpretation. He didn't want to say hello cuz that would have broken up the continuity. The I can't I don't even know if I'm if if I'm what if what I'm going to say is a Hasidic interpretation. Actually, it's my interpretation, but but uh I I think it's a very moving interpretation. I would suggest a different idea here. And that is the ambivalence of the decisions that Rabbi Akiva made together with his wife and really because of his wife. You know, Rabbi Akiva was a husband, he was a father, he was a tzaddik. And the notion of just leaving his family, even to learn Torah, must have weighed very, very heavily on his heart. We shouldn't look at it as simply, you know, okay, who cares about them? The main thing is my learning. This must have been an agonizing decision. And I want to emphasize that the permissibility of this decision is only because that is what his wife really wanted. If a man were to say to his wife, "This is what I want to do." And she wouldn't agree to that. Or even if she agreed, but it's like a coercion agreeing, it would be absolutely forbidden to do this. We have to understand that this is what she wanted. But Rabbi Akiva certainly was not indifferent to her suffering. So, some say, "If he would have allowed himself to even spend 15 minutes with her, he would not have been able to go back. He couldn't go back. He couldn't bear her suffering. So, because they both decided that it was so essential that he devote his life to Torah learning, he had to be cruel. He could not let himself feel the human emotions that would normally well up. He had to make a conscious decision not to open up his heart. Now, this is a very difficult idea to accept, but let me give you an example from a totally different context. Nothing to do with this context, but you'll see what I mean, that sometimes in life you have to be self-consciously cruel in order to carry out what needs to be carried out. Let's imagine, God forbid, God forbid, a person had a child, say an 8-year-old child, who needed their leg to be amputated because otherwise they would die. And the parents tell the child at some point, "We're going to have to take off your leg." Explaining why, "Otherwise, you'll die." And imagine a child who cries, who begs, "Please, please, please let me keep my leg. Please, why How can you do it?" And they say to their parents, "How can you do this to me?" And there's no question, of course, the parents would be sobbing. But what do they have to do? They have to do it anyway. They have to do it. They cannot, you know, it it at some level you might say, "Well, let's just give in. He wants his leg so much. How can we do this, then?" That wouldn't be the right thing. So, even though I understand that you wouldn't necessarily look at the learning on as the same situation, but from their perspective, it was the same situation. And therefore, Rabbi Akiva could not allow himself to give in to that sense of wanting to be with her because he couldn't have gone back. Okay, I'll come back to this. Be this as it may, he goes away for another 12 years. So, after 24 years, the number 24 is very significant here. He comes back with 24,000 students. He is no longer the little Well, he never little by learning, but he's no longer the uneducated am ha'aretz. He is now the greatest rabbi in Israel. And he has 24,000 students. That number is phenomenal. Uh the largest Yeshiva in the world is a machlokes what the largest Yeshiva of the world is. It's either Lakewood uh in New Jersey or Mir here in Eretz Yisrael, and depending how you count the different branches. Uh is between 7,000 and 8,500, I think. There is no Yeshiva in the world that is 10,000 people. Rabbi Akiva had 24,000 people. How do you How do How does one person teach 24,000 people? I mean, there was there were there was no microphones, there was no uh you know, uh Reb Asher Arieli, who's one of the great great roshei yeshiva in Mir, uh has one of the largest shiurim in the world. What does Reb Asher have? Five 500 maximum. Uh Yeah, okay, there's a five So, imagine Rebbi teaching 500, you know, that's pretty hard. And he has a microphone. Uh Rebbi Akiva 24,000. So, he comes back with 24,000 students. And there's an interesting story here, and that is Kalba Savua did not recognize that Rabbi Akiva was his son-in-law. But Kalba Savua finally finally regretted what he did. He saw the suffering of his daughter. And he made a vow. And he was told that this great Rabbi can annul his vow. So, he went to Rabbi Akiva, said, "I made a vow many, many years ago that my daughter could not benefit from my property. Um can you release me from my vow?" Now, the way hataras nedarim works today is you normally need a basin of three. >> [snorts] >> But according to the law of the Gemara, either a basin of three or a very distinguished rav can mater neder. Our custom is we do not do that today. Even a godol hador he does not mater a neder by himself. But according to the Gemara, that could be done. And that was done in the time of the Mishna and the Gemara. But in order to mater a neder, you need what is called a pesach. >> [snorts] >> Pesach is an opening. And what that means is the Rabbi or the basin basin for the basins of basin has to identify a circumstance that had you been aware of something, you wouldn't have made the vow. I'll give you a even a trivial example. Let's imagine a person's trying to go on a diet, but they lack willpower. So, they make a neder they're never going to eat chocolate again. When they come home, it happens to be their birthday, they discover that their wife baked a great chocolate cake for the birthday of her husband. And she would be very hurt if he would say, "I can't eat chocolate anymore." So, he hurriedly convenes a basin and says, "You know, I made this vow not to eat chocolate, but had I known that my wife had baked the chocolate cake, I wouldn't have made the vow until tomorrow." That may be trivial, but that's called a pesach. That's called an opening. And a a neder can be annulled by virtue of identifying an unknown circumstance whereby you wouldn't have made the neder called pesach. So, Rabbi Akiva said to Kalba Savua, "You made a nether that your daughter cannot benefit from your property, but if you would have known that your son-in-law would have be would have become a talmid chacham, would you have made the nether under those circumstances?" Pesach. And Kalba Savua's answer is, "A talmid chacham, if I would have known he would know how to read. I wouldn't have made the nether." So, at that point Akiva revealed his identity and said, "The nether is mutar." And from that point onward, actually, uh they lived in uh in comfort and wealth. Kalba Savua did did support. Now, by the way, Tosfos does ask a very, very interesting question about this. In order to be a pesach, it has to be what you call a pre-existing condition. Meaning, at the time of the vow, I didn't know my wife made a chocolate cake. Cuz that means the vow was under a mistake. So, [snorts] if for example, Rabbi Akiva would have been a talmid chacham, but Kalba Savua thought he was ignorant, that would be a classic pesach. Had I known he was learned, I knew I wouldn't have made the vow. But you cannot use a future event as a pesach. Uh you can't say, for example, if I made a nether not to eat chocolate, and then the next day my wife makes a chocolate cake, I can't say, "Had I known my wife would make the cake, I wouldn't have made the vow." Because that was not an existing mistake at the time the vow was made. This is a halakha. And this is called ain poschin b'nolad. You cannot use as a Pesach, a future event that happens after the vow was made. So, Tosfos asks a very excellent question. Rabbi Akiva was an ignorant man at the time the vow was made. He became learned later. So, how can Rabbi Akiva say By the way, someone asked me this is a separate question. How can Rabbi Akiva annul a vow? There's a real conflict of interest here, because if he annuls the vow, he gets access to all of Akiva's wife's money. Okay. The short The short answer is that Hatoras Nedarim is not purely a judicial proceeding. So, even if you stand to benefit, uh you are permitted to annul the vow. In other words, that's not a There's just not a problem. But, the problem is nolad. In other words, if as I say, if Rabbi Akiva would have been learned at the time, that would be a Pesach. But, he became learned later. Ein poslin binolad. So, Tosfos gives a beautiful answer. Tosfos says that even at the time of the vow, even before Rabbi Akiva went to yeshiva, he already had begun learning something. So, Tosfos says if one commits themselves to learning, it is such a certainty that they will become a talmid chacham, that that future event is treated as if it's a present reality. And therefore, that can be used as a Pesach. So, this part of the story of Rabbi Akiva is extremely inspirational. It's inspirational in a number of ways. He was 40 years old when he started. And he still became as great as he became. So, when people are latecomers in our seminary, I teach uh a lot of the students are baalei teshuva. They come from non-religious uh backgrounds. Many of them have not uh been exposed to Torah learning till their 20s. But, even their 20s, that's way earlier than the 40. So, the story of Rabbi Akiva is the great idea of not giving up. And then we have Tosafos' augmentation with respect to petach, that when you start that commitment, it's it's certain that if you stick with it, you're going to be blessed with success. That's also an aspect. And then, in spite of the very difficult life that Rachel has, we stand in awe at her devotion and her mesiras nefesh. And the fact that she saw in this ignorant man a greatness >> [snorts] >> that he himself did not know that he had. And this is what a wife can do for a husband, to bring out all of those potentials. So, in many ways it's a beautiful beautiful story. Now, let's imagine when Rabbi Akiva comes back with 24,000 students. Let's look at it for a moment from her perspective. For 24 years, she suffered loneliness, poverty, deprivation. But now, she sees the fruits of her sacrifice. She sees it was all worth it. What is the pasuk in Tehillim in Shir Hamalos? Hazorim bedima berina yiktzoru. Beautiful pasuk. Those who plant with tears will harvest with song, joyous song. So, imagine now what she feels. Imagine. After 24 years, she sees this. And how joyous her heart must have been. If the story would have ended there, it would have been like the classic fairy tale. They lived happily ever after. But the story does not end there. A short while afterwards, now again, it's it's we don't have a year by year, so we don't really know was it next year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years? We just don't know. But at some point there was a plague. And the plague occurred between Pesach and Shavuos. And those 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died in that plague between Pesach and Shavuos. Now there are some historians that assert that they really didn't die in a plague. Uh the reference in the Gemara to a plague was a euphemism to kind of hide something that they died as participants in the Bar Kokhba revolt. Remember Bar Kokhba? Right, that the second Mikdash was destroyed in the year 70. And around the years 130 to 135, a man, Shimon ben Kuziva and Rabbi Akiva called him Bar Kokhba, the son of a star. Rabbi Akiva believed he was Messiah. And some historians posit that although Rabbi Akiva was too old to be an active fighter Rabbi Akiva's students joined the Bar Kokhba revolt against Rome. In fact, uh there's some archaeological evidence that Rabbi Akiva was so convinced that Bar Kokhba was the Messiah that he actually instructed the Jewish people to start laying the foundations of the third Beit Hamikdash. There is some archaeological evidence on the Temple Mount >> [snorts] >> that in the initial stages of the Bar Kokhba revolt, which was remarkably successful for a few years, Bar Kokhba >> [snorts] >> liberated, it is said, 900 towns and villages, most of them were small, from Roman rule, and secured entree onto the Temple Mount, in which they laid the foundations of a third temple. Eventually, Hadrian retaliated with overwhelming force, and the last stand of the Bar Kokhba revolt was in a town called Betar, which is not modern Betar, but not far. Which the Gemara describes astronomical casualties, uh much, much greater than the Khurban of the Bet Hamikdash itself. The Bar Kokhba revolt was much more devastating, at least in terms of numbers, than even the Khurban base, Bet Hamikdash. So, some would say that the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva actually died fighting the Bar Kokhba revolt. And the fact that the Gemara calls it a plague is rests on a very well-known idea that the Babylonian Talmud uh is very, very, very reluctant to discuss the details of the Bar Kokhba revolt. For various reasons, that revolt is almost not discussed at all. And as far as I know, although I I I can't promise it's for sure, the name Bar I mean, there are passages that are referring to Bar Kokhba, but his name is not mentioned in the Talmud at all. It's a mention in the Talmud Yerushalmi. It is not mentioned in the Talmud Bavli. So, Rav Henkin, who supports the historical a view here, uh suggests that the reference to a plague refers to the plague of participating in the Bar Kokhba revolt. But be that as it may, that's really not important for our purposes, whether they died because of the plague, or whether they died because of the Bar Kokhba revolt, between Pesach and and Shavuot. Now again, this is a massive tragedy, but I still want to personalize it in terms of what is Rachel going through. Rachel suffered immensely for 24 years. She finally sees a meaning to her suffering. By Rabbi Akiva's success in her birth of Torah. The joy that was finally brought to her. And then what happens? That joy is snatched. The dust. What does that I know that I'm taking a 24,000 I'm putting it to the tragedy of one person, but I think there's something powerful here. That means her whole life has now become meaningless. Everything she went through didn't count. It just got erased. Can you imagine the the heartbreak after having that success and then having it taken away from you? Now, there's another part of the story. >> [clears throat] >> Uh the one mentions this is before Kabbalah matter than that I should have mentioned it before. That she approaches Rabbi Akiva dressed in rags. And this told me to think she's a crazy woman. Maybe she wasn't totally sane. Who knows that they wearing ripped clothing. And they want to push her away. Some bad habits don't change. That that would happen today, too. And Rabbi Akiva said to them shall leave the shall I come? All that I am and all that you are shall I It is hers. Now in fact the Rabbi Akiva you know you never know if the graves are accurate, but the the cover that is identified as Rabbi Akiva's cave is in Tiberia. Uh and uh there's a matzeva. Of course, the matzevas came later. The matzevas are not from from that time. And a lot of this story in Hebrew is on the matzeva including the famous words she'll leave and she'll have him. She'll have him. Now, there's an there's an end to this story that's also very beautiful that people don't always focus on. And that is Rabbi Akiva lost 24,000 students. He started again. He started with five students. Five. One of whom was Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai who's a hero of Lag B'Omer from another perspective. Now, think about that. One can imagine Rabbi Akiva's heartbreak and one could imagine how depressed he must have been. How heartbroken and he's not a young man anymore. >> [clears throat] >> One could imagine he would go into seclusion, retire, give up. But he says, "I'm going to start again." And starting with five is not the same as having 24,000. But that's another lesson in resilience. That even if your whole world gets destroyed, you do what you can as humble as you think it is. Because you never know which one of your activities in life is going to yield your ultimate success. And you need to know that the whole Torah Sheba Peh of the Mishna, of the Gemara, of all the commentaries on the Gemara and all the Halachas, >> [snorts] >> they come primarily through Rabbi Akiva and the five students that he taught. Re Meir, Re Yehuda, these are the foundation of the Mishna. They don't come from the 24,000. They were erased. We don't even know their names. So, when Rabbi Akiva taught the five, he was teaching the thousands and thousands of Jews who learn Torah to this very day. Don't give up. Do what you can, no matter how insignificant you think it is. It does remind me of a much more modern story. Uh of Heiman, who was a great great Rosh Yeshiva in Vilna, and he came to the United States in the '30s. He became the Rosh Yeshiva of Torah V'Daas in New York before the Holocaust. And Re Heiman used to give a shiur, again, not to 24,000, but to, you know, 500 talmidim, etc. And in those days in America, there were very few yeshivas, number one. And number two, uh the yeshivas themselves didn't have a lot of people. So, he was giving a shiur to five people. And he was doing it with a lot of excitement, gesticulations. He was, you know, geshmak, passion. And uh one of his friends from Vilna walks by the shiur room and noticed with the great enthusiasm that Re Heiman was giving a shiur. >> [snorts] >> And he said to him, maybe it's a bit of a mean thing to say. He says, "Re I know that that's how you used to give a shiur when you were giving to 500 talmidim. But why are you so excited now? You're talking to five people in a room. What's the big deal?" And Re Heiman said, "I'm not giving a shiur to five people. These five people, Be'ezras Hashem, are going to be married, they're going to have children, and many of them will become teachers and rabbis, and And have students, and the students will have students, and there'll be thousands and thousands of people coming from this. I am teaching Torah to the thousands of people that will be emerging from these five. So, the fact that I have only five bodies in front of me doesn't mean I'm only teaching five people. And I can imagine projecting backwards that that went through Rabbi Akiva's mind as well. Great lesson. Think about you know, maybe some of your parents, grandparents, relatives who survived the Holocaust in which they lost everything. They lost their parents. They lost their siblings. They lost in so many cases their children. They lost their spouses. And they came owning nothing, having nothing. And many of them reestablished families, married again, struggled, gave birth to children. Well, one one could understand if they just would have said, you know, "Life is unbearable. What's the use?" That's not what a Jew says. A Jew says, "I go on. I create no matter what. No matter what." And this was Am Yisrael, and Rabbi Akiva is one of the teachers who implanted that lesson. Now, a few years later at the tail end of the Bar Kokhba revolt, of course, Rabbi Akiva himself met the horrible death of a martyr a few years later. And that was, um, his, um, flesh was flayed with iron hooks. >> [snorts] >> And as he was dying in apparent agony, his students managed to talk to him, and they said to him, "Is this the reward for your devotion to Torah. And Rabbi Akiva says, "All my life I wanted to say you shall love Hashem with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your might. All of your soul means even if you give your life for Hashem, all of my life I wanted to fulfill the verse of loving Hashem even with your very soul. And now I merit to fulfill that commandment. I [snorts] give up my soul to Hashem with love." Rachel had died earlier. Like Rachel died shortly after the 24,000 students died. And again, I I I I have no proof of anything, but one could imagine that she died out of heartbreak. Although once again, we just don't have the exact dates of any of this. Okay. So, the Gaonim say that the reason why during the Omer period we do not make weddings or haircuts, and later authorities add music, although that's not in the original thing, is we want to commemorate and mourn over the deaths of the students of Rabbi Akiva. Yeah, make sure you understand this. The Talmud gives us the story of the deaths of Rabbi Akiva. That's in the Gemara. But the Gemara does not say that there's any mourning. As far as far as the Gemara is concerned, there is no mourning that's connected with counting of the Omer. So, be sure you understand the difference. The Gemara gives us the story. The Gaonim say, in fact, the Gaonim don't even say it was universal. The Gaonim say, "Yesh makom." It's interesting how it became so universal. There are places where they don't get married to commemorate the deaths of Rabbi Akiva's talmidim. Later, and again, it'd be interesting to trace this year by year by year, how it spread. Later, it spread. Now, among Ashkenazim, there was a another layer that was superimposed much, much later, and that is um that um many of the Crusade massacres, which wiped out Jewish communities in France and especially Germany, occurred during the period of Iyar and Sivan. So, as a result, the aveilus of Sefirat HaOmer became connected to the martyrdom of the Jewish communities. In fact, the Av Harachamim that we recite uh every Shabbos, which is really uh coming from the the time of the Crusades. This is uh asking Hashem to remember the souls of those who were killed al Kiddush Hashem. Uh the original minhag of Av Harachamim was only to recite it during the weeks of Sefirah because those were the times of massacre. Later, the minhag became every Shabbos. I believe there are still kehillos that only say Av Harachamim in Iyar and Sivan and not the rest of the year. Although, the normal minhag is to say it uh the entire year except on special festive occasions uh and and and like. But, that is why halachically you'll actually find that Ashkenazic Sefirah customs are a bit stricter than Sephardic Sefirah customs simply because Sephardim did not undergo the Crusader massacres. Okay. But, be this as it may, the Gaonim say that the makor, the source of aveilus of Sefirah, is talmidei Rabbi Akiva. So, here's the question that we have to ask. And that is okay, it was a great tragedy. Of course, it's a great tragedy. But, why do we have to commemorate it over and over and over and over again every year? After all, we've had worse, frankly. Whether it's the Holocaust or you know, uh Crusades, Khmelnytsky massacres. Why would there be such an emphasis on remembering and mourning the tragedy of the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva? And the answer is because we know why they died. You see, for most tragedies, we cannot give definitive reasons. Someone would ask, "Why did I share my love the Holocaust happen?" So, we we give you know, people give theories, people write books, people give schmuesin, either give religious answers or non-religious answers. But nobody knows. We're not in the VM, we're not prophets. We're not chazal. So, we don't know. But when it comes to the deaths of the students of Rabbi Akiva, we do know. And the Gemara in Yevamot says that the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died because they did not show proper kavod. They did not show proper respect. They did not show proper honor to each other. So, God took them away. And therefore, we remember the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva not just to mourn their loss, but to try to rectify the aveira that caused their death by showing kavod and love and respect for each other, which in turn is part of an indispensable preparation for Matan Torah. Because Matan Torah requires that we be isha achad u'leiv echad, one person, one heart. Now, let's focus on this for a moment. What does it mean they did not show kavod? These 24,000 students were the students of Rabbi Akiva. They were not insignificant people. They must have been great on some level. Do we assume they were pushing each other out of line? They were calling each other names? They were insulting each other? They were embarrassing each other? Would they be guilty of such gross behavior? So, if Shimshon Raphael Hirsch says a very, very beautiful thought, "We can assume behaviorally we were doing okay. If you would have had a video of their behavior, you would not have seen anything out of the norm. But, kavod is referring to an internal attitude. It is not referring to an external behavior." And he says, "Kavod is connected to the word kavet. Kavet means heavy, weighty, which is not just a matter of poundage, but weighty means significant, importance. When I have kavod towards you, that doesn't just mean I'm polite and even I'm nice because I can be nice and polite in a condescending, patronizing way in which I don't really think you have anything to offer, but I'll be nice to you because I'm a nice person. Kavod is a very different orientation. Kavod is I look at you and I see your significance. I see your godliness. I see your goodness. >> [snorts] >> I see your value. I am attuned to the tzelem Elokim within you. And I understand that you have something to offer. Offer me, offer the world. Now, that Rebbe Hirsch says is an attitude is an attitudinal thing, meaning to say, they were behaving perfectly fine. But, they didn't really think Now, even then, you still have a question. Well, why why didn't they pick that up? Well, I don't know. Maybe because they had such a great rebbe that they felt they didn't need each other. I don't need you. I have Rabbi Akiva. But [snorts] whatever it is, that's what it means they didn't have kavod for each other. So, then you'll ask the question, so for that you die? Is that a sin that's deserving of death? I mean, if we assume they behaved properly, but they just didn't have that kavod of seeing the greatness in each other. You're liable to misah? Yeah, the short answer is no. You're normally not liable to misah. No, you don't die for that. But these 24,000 were supposed to be the Torah leaders of the next generation. They were the gedolim. They were the ones that would be the transmitters of Torah to Am Yisrael. That was the original plan. And if the leader and the teacher does not see the value and the worth of his fellow Jew, he cannot be the one that transmits the Torah. So, it's not that God punished. See, this is what I'm saying. It's not that God punished the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva. They just had to be replaced. They had to be replaced by people who are able to see the goodness and greatness of every Jew. And that is why we remember the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva every Omer period because again, not because it's a tragedy, although it is, of course, but because we need to rectify that particular midah of kavod. Zelazny. So, what happened on Lag BaOmer? So, at least according to some interpretations, Lag Ba Omer, the plague stopped. Now, some say it stopped totally, meaning it didn't continue afterwards. That's the minute that you can get married after. Others say it started again. But Lag Ba Omer, it stopped. So, Lag Ba Omer is a celebration because the students of Rabbi Akiva didn't die on the day of Lag Ba Omer. Well, that's a simcha, to be sure. But why? Why would Lag Ba Omer, I mean, the 33rd day of the Omer is otherwise not a significant date. Why would that be the date punct exactly on that date? They didn't die. So, here we have to bring in a little bit of Kabbalah. It's a well-known idea that the seven weeks of the Omer correlate to the seven lower divine Sefirot. What are the Sefirot? Now, there are 10 Sefirot. These are what which you might call centers of divine energy through which God manifests his presence. 10 Sefirot. But the first three Sefirot are God's It's hard to talk about this, but God's internal mental operations. In fact, they are called Mukhin, God's brains. Keter, crown, Chokhmah, wisdom, understanding, or some say Chokhmah, Binah, Da'at. So, they they they have not yet been manifested in this world. So, when we talk about Sefirot operating in this world, we are normally referring to the lower seven and not the um not the uh first three. But we have the lower seven. And the lower seven are chesed, loving kindness, gevurah, inner strength, tiferet, beauty, netzach, eternity, hod, glory, yesod, foundation, malchut, kingship. Now, to go through each of these sefirot would would take a very long time. We don't have time tonight. Maybe we'll do it some other time. But, the point is each week of the Omer is linked to that particular spiritual emanation and power. Now, because And by the way, this is also the key to the seven ushpizin of Sukkot and the key to the seven hakafot of both Hoshana Rabbah and Simchat Torah. And in fact, it's also the key to the days of the week. So, Shabbat, for example, which is number seven, corresponds to malchut, the the the the seventh of the lower seven, three in the tenth. God's kingship is manifest on the day of Shabbat. So, each week of the Omer is connected to one of those seven sefirot. Now, because there are seven days in the week, each day is also linked to one of the sefirot. So, this creates interesting combinations, which is which even in the siddur you can see this, although the siddur does not explain it. The first day of counting the Omer is the second day of Pesach. So, that day is called chesed shebechesed, loving kindness of loving kindness. Why? It is the day of loving kindness situated within the week of loving kindness. Day two of the Omer, you're still in the week of Hesed. It's Gevurah, the strength that is within Hesed. Meaning, each macro sphere contains manifestations in microcosm of the other spheres. And this gets very confusing. Don't confuse day two of week one with day one of week two. Uh day two of week one is called Gevurah of Hesed. Day one of week two is called the Hesed within Gevurah. What's the difference? So, in truth, maybe it's a little late to mention this, there are actually books in Hebrew and in English which go through these Kabbalistic combinations. And they try to identify a specific spiritual exercise for every day of the Omer that will combine these various midot in a practical manner. Because the idea is Hashem mimics us, meaning we mimic Hashem's sphere, and that causes that sphere to be triggered. Call it the double imitation effect. By imitating God, we cause God to imitate us. But I imitate [clears throat] these midot, and that uh actually turns on the midot that bring different brachot into the world. Now, the seven sephirot, the lower seven we're talking about, are linked to seven human personalities who exemplify those sephirot, like the Ushpizin. So, Hesed is linked to Avraham. Gevurah, strength, is linked to Yitzhak. Tiferet, beauty, is linked to Yaakov. Netzach, eternity, is Moshe. You'll notice we're out of order here. Hold glory is Aaron. Foundation is Yosef. So, Yosef is after. And Malchut is David. Okay, and again, this is why the order of the Ushpizin in LP Kabbalah, even though Yosef was chronologically early, Yosef is Sefirah number six, meaning of the lower seven. That's Sefirah number nine, but we'll we're going with the lower seven. And Mosha and Aaron are respectively four and five. Right. So, those people who try to make the Ushpizin chronological, I think are missing the point. There is such a meaning, but the truth is Ushpizin was invented by Kabbalah. So, you got to follow the Kabbalistic system. I mean, you can't take the Ushpizin and then make it chronological because that's throwing off the correlation to the Sefirot. Although, some do have a minute to say them chronologically. Okay. So, now let's ask ourselves what day was Lag BaOmer, which, you know, we just passed, was what? Four weeks and five days in the Omer. Now, it's a little confusing, but you understand when you say four weeks and five days, that actually means you're five days into the fifth week, not the fourth week. You finished four weeks and you're five days into the into the fifth week. So, what week is week five of the Omer? Glory. Aaron, Hod. And what day is the Lag BaOmer? The fifth day, Aaron. So, this is Hod sheba Hod. The glory of the glory. Aaron, Aaron. You're overdosing on Aaron on Lag BaOmer. Not only is the day Aaron's day, and not only is the week Aaron's week, we're still in Aaron's week, but the day is Aaron's day. Aaron's middah was ohev shalom, rodeph shalom, lover of peace, a pursuer of peace. Ohev et habriyos, he loved all of God's creations. Um'karvan l'Torah, to bring them near to God's Torah. And again, the same thing with his mother, through the love that he showed people, he brought them to Torah. So, Lag B'Omer is a day where the spiritual emanations that come down min ha'shamayim are emanations of love and care and seeing the value and the worth of others. So, it could be that if the students of Rabbi Akiva were blinded in their inability to see the goodness of the other, that dafka on Lag B'Omer is like a blind person gaining sight for 24 hours. The koach of Aaron liberated them from that spiritual defect. And the day that they were liberated from that spiritual defect, they no longer died. Because they didn't have that aveira. Hod sheb'Hod, that was the greatness of the week of Aaron, the day of Aaron. That is why the students of Rabbi Akiva didn't die. Now, according to many opinions, the the plague resumed the next day. So, this was a one-day phenomenon. By the next day, they went back to their old habits. But at least for that day, they had 24 hours where things were different. They saw a reality that was deeper than the reality that they normally experienced. Right? This is Lag B'Omer. Now, people ask the question, Rebbi Akiva, we read 2 weeks ago the pasuk you said love your friend as you love yourself. And that's the mitzvah of Ahavat Yisrael. And Rebbi Akiva himself said, this is the most important principle of the Torah. How could it be that the students of Rebbi Akiva didn't see the good in each other if Rebbi Akiva himself taught was so fundamental. >> [snorts] >> Now, you might say, well, love and respect maybe not maybe are not the same. That might be, but in truth, they really are the same cuz truly loving somebody means you see their good, their goodness. >> [snorts] >> So, again, I have to bewail the fact, bemoan the fact that we don't have historical chronology. But I'm just wondering, and this is a speculation, don't ask me the source, that maybe Rebbi Akiva taught this after his 24,000 students died. Because remember, Rebbi Akiva has to ask himself, what went wrong here? How did this happen? What failure in the system was there that produced this? And Rebbi Akiva realized, in other words, this was his response, meaning he didn't emphasize this until the tragedy happened. Again, I have no source for this, I'm just suggesting it as a possibility. So, here is the point I think that's >> [snorts] >> an interesting lemisa. And that is we're preparing for Matan Torah. And you think to yourself, how does one prepare for Matan Torah? So, you think to yourself, I'll be stronger in my commitment to Torah learning, to mitzvot, more rigorous in Halakha. But here's the thing. In our very polarized world, it is often the case, not always not always, but it is often the case that the stronger and more committed you are to Halakha and learning, the less tolerant and accepting and open you are of other people who are not living up to what you regard as the right standards. Right? So, zealousness in one area tends to turn into disparagement of others. And the opposite is true, too. People who are big tents people, I love everybody, might be very mushy and soft in terms of their commitments to the truth. So, a person might say, abortion, you know, who am I, you know, to stand in the way of a woman's right to choose, gay marriage, who am I to stop people who love each other from having a relationship? In other words, you don't stand for anything. I love everybody, everybody's equally legitimate, every shita. So, you tend to have two types of people in the world. Again, this is this is a caricature, to be sure. You have the religious zealot who looks at everybody as an apikoros. And then you have the tolerant, accepting, loving Jew who doesn't stand for anything. What Sefiras HaOmer teaches us generally is do not be a binary person of an either or. You have to choose both. You have to be a person who is committed to Halacha, committed to Torah to grow in your adherence to the mitzvahs and at the same time look at your fellow Jew and even every human being with love and respect and tolerance and not just condescension even. Uh but you know, to genuinely seek out the goodness that is within them. And you got to combine them. You got to combine them. And this is something we learn from Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu on one hand was a fanatic in the sense that he taught the existence of one God when everybody thought he was crazy. He was a true believer. And the fact that all of the world were worshipping Avodah Zarah did not change him at all. But that same Avraham his tent was open to everybody. He prayed even for the degenerates of Sodom looking for some redeeming quality within them. And if Avraham is called the first Jew, whatever that actually means then we have to emulate the middah of Avraham Avinu. Okay? So, this is not an either or. And another way of putting it is that if you want to become zealous in Torah then include Ahavat Yisrael as part of your zealousness. Instead of saying, "I am zealous in Shabbos, kashrus, and everything else, and therefore you are not b'chorus." Why don't you just expand the repertoire a little bit? I am zealous in Shabbos and kashrus and Ahavat Yisrael. I include that. After all, it's in the same Torah. It's not like, you know, that's not in the Torah. That's in the Torah, too. So, how are you defining what you're zealous in? Okay, so this I think is the lesson of Sefiras Omer. It is the lesson of Lag B'Omer. >> [music] [music] [singing] [music]