How did Rabbi Akiva RECOVER from his TRAUMA?

there is so much we can learn about Jewish Survival on LBA om what happened on LBA om the Tom says that RAB yaka the famed tamuk Sage had 24,000 students in his Academy and they all perished they all perished in a very short period of time between the holiday of pesak and Chas miraculously on logba OM they had stopped dying what did rabie AA do he moved down to the South he started a new Academy at this point with five students and he started the infrastructure of Judaism all over again why is it such a big deal that they stopped dying on LBA om the implication is there were no other students of course they stopped dying there was nobody else left to die he lost everything why is that a celebration that seems like more of an atrocity let's take a step back for a moment and put what rabiaa was going through in context this is several years following the destruction of the second Bas MCT this of the second temple which RAB himself witnessed go up in flames you got to understand the trauma the the the negative experience that he's going through he's constantly being pursued by the Romans right the Jews are under Ro Roman control at this point and he manages with all of this with the Exile with the diaspora with the oppression he manages to recruit ultimately 24,000 students and disseminate God's word disseminate the Torah and they all just drop dead he loses all of them and what's worse is that the reason that they died the tat says is because they were disrespecting one another RAB akiva's fundamental teaching was that love your fellow is a fundamental principle in the Torah yet his students didn't seem to be upholding that just picture for a moment what the internal experience for rabi AKA might be like losing all the students is traumatic enough why he lost the students because they were disrespectful each other that itself is quite painful the historical context in which it happened not too long after the destruction of the base of mikdash how would any normal person react after suffering such an incredible loss what did RAB a do though he moved to the south of Israel recruited five new students and he started over somehow he was resilient he was strong he got knocked off course and he picked himself up he moved on he moved forward and he's able to start the infrastructure of Judaism again rabika didn't say h what a huge catastrophic failure I'm forget it I'm out of here I'm done he picked himself up he found new students only five of them and it's from these five students that the infrastructure and knowledge base and spiritual connection of Judaism that we have today emanated from where did Rabbi Akiva get this this resilience from there's a line in P the ethical teachings of the tud where it encourages us to absorb from the sages we shouldn't just respect sages but we should learn from the sages and we should and it says drink their words thirstily drink their words thirstily which is mid points out that this teaching drink their words thirstily was exemplified by RAB AKA himself it's actually referring to RAB AKA RAB AKA exemplified a thirst for Judaism a thirst for God a thirst for Torah he was 40 years old when he started he had no formal Jewish Education he didn't know anything and he was willing to really just start from scratch he was thirsty but look at the the language the text of the mishna it says he drink their words thirstily but if you translate it literally it actually says be a drinker don't just drink their words thirstily be a drinker of their words thirstily you see the difference the mission is not just telling us what to do it's telling us who to be and that exemplified rabi yiva Raba didn't just say I'm somebody who's going to learn knowledge I'm a knowledge con consumer it's who I am it's an identity it's not a goal it's an identity and there's a very profound difference between goals and identities if Judaism is just goals checklists things I need to do so when I get knocked off course it it's very hard to get up RAB yiva internalized Judaism as an identity he was thirsty for it he he became a thirsty person it's somebody who he became he internalized in when Judaism becomes part of Who We Are are not just a checklist even when we're knocked off course even to God forbid the magnitude that rabie AA was we're able to pick ourselves up and we're able to just keep on going we're able to keep on soaring it's no coincidence that LBA also celebrates the yite of rabi akiva's student rabish Shimon celebrates the mysticism of Torah the kabala of Torah the fire of Torah which helps us not only do what God wants which is what the hak teachings of Tor does but helps us become who God wants us to be become who we're supposed to be become aligned with our potential become aligned with our creator become aligned with the part of ourselves that is created in the Divine image become aligned with our souls that's my story and I'm sticking to it and