The strangest time of the Jewish year is the period of mourning during the Omer. It is also the most confusing, as many people do not know why they do what they do, apart from the vague answer that 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva’s students died a long time ago. But if we analyse this properly, this is a bit bizarre, for a few reasons:
1. There have been many tragedies in Judaism – why do we have around a month of mourning for this tragedy?
2. Why can’t we mourn the loss of the students on a recognised fast day e.g. Tisha B’Av?
3. Why does this sadness override the happy period of the Omer between Pesach-Shavuot?
To answer, let’s look at the source of the mourning. The Gemara in Yevamot 62b states that Rabbi Akiva had 12,000 pairs of students and they died in the same period because they didn’t treat each other with respect. Most people just quote this Gemara and take it for granted that the students just started dropping dead. However, like many other instances, the Talmud does not always relate historical facts like in a history book – on the contrary, the Talmud, like Tenach, aims to illuminate G-d’s hand in history and to explain why bad things happened. Rav Sherira Gaon helps out by explaining that there was a shmada (religious persecution) on the students. So let’s do a bit of historical research…
We know that Rabbi Akiva was involved in, or at least supported, the Bar Cochba rebellion (132-135 CE) against the Romans. The Emperor at the time was Hadrian, who apart from building a ‘security fence’ between Scotland and England, persecuted the Jews by banning brit milah, Torah observance, the Jewish calendar, ploughing over the Temple site and renaming Jeruslaem ‘Aelia Capitolina’. He also was responsible for killing the ’10 Martyrs’ that we read about on Tisha B’Av, one of which was Rabbi Akiva.
So if Rabbi Akiva supported the war, it would make sense that his students fought in the war and that was the background behind their deaths. Also, Rav Nachman tells us in the Gemara that their death was by asphyxiation, and this accords with our knowledge of how the fighters were eventually killed by the Romans.
One insight, quoted in the Pniei Halacha, is that the fact that the Talmud tells us that there were 2 sets of 12,000 students is obviously teaching us something (it could have just said 24,000). It is that there were 2 different ideologies amongst the students with regard to the rebellion. Some said that they should all fight and defeat the Romans whereas some decided that the best course of action would be to continue learning Torah in Yeshiva. This, however, was not the problem – because they are both valid opinions. The problem was that, to quote the Gemara, ‘they didn’t respect one another’. Instead of saying ‘I have my hashkafa but I respect what you are doing’ there was hatred on both sides. Sound familiar? Are we, as supporters of involvement with the IDF and believers of Hesder, which combines Yeshiva & Army, tolerant of the other side? Do the Charedim praise the balance of the Hesder movement despite not doing it themselves? Now we see why we need the period of mourning for Rabbi Akiva’s students more than ever before!
Although this isn’t the time to go into the reasons for the mourning period in the Omer, one notable point is that the reason why European Ashkenazim have made the period into such a sad time when it is technically a happy time (there’s a midrash that the Omer is Chol Hamoed between Pesach and Shavuot!). This is because of the Crusades, when Jews were massacred at this time of year (this makes sense because otherwise why get progressively more machmir to such an extent that it’s like the 3 Weeks?).
However with the advent of the State of Israel we can once again appreciate the mourning for Rabbi Akiva’s students, which for centuries took a back seat. We now have a dedicated period of time, which isn’t a high level of mourning but rather a time to question whether we have internalised the reason why Rabbi Akiva’s students died. And what better time than between Pesach and Shavuot, the first of which is a Chag of National Redemption and the second is Spiritual Redemption. And what better time than at the time of Yom Ha’atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim, which are undoubtedly significant days but which also cause much strife and disunity amongst the Orthodox world.
The lesson here is not to say that everyone should have one hashkafa because everyone should serve Hashem in the way that is the most Emet for them (70 faces to the Torah) – even though we know that our hashkafa of RZ makes so much sense, as explained at the end of K8. As believers of celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut etc in a certain way, we shouldn’t acquiesce to the views of those against it; rather we should stay strong and continue on our derech.
But the lesson here IS to say that the aforementioned ideas should be done with Ahavat Yisrael and full respect and tolerance for other views and hashkafas. Otherwise we are repeating the story of Rabbi Akiva’s students all over again! And if we do this, we will truly have the correct perspective. On Tisha B’Av when all Jews are united in mourning, let’s take this lesson and apply it to those times of year where we aren’t so united. The Temple was destroyed due to Sinat Chinam and will only be rebuilt with true Ahavat Chinam. And who was the main teacher of the idea of Ahavat Yisrael as the primary point in Judaism? Rabbi Akiva.
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