He Lost 24,000 Disciples; Then He Started All Over Again

the yeshiva dotnet the Gemara tells a famous story in tractate Yvonne mice DAF Samaha base ahmad base page 62 B but the story is preceded by an introduction the Gomorrah says that Ribeira schewe Eimer the great sage rabbi Joshua Revere schewe said no saw Adam I shall be all do soy Issa isha Vizcaino saya which means if somebody was married when they were young they should still try and then for whatever reason whatever the circumstances were god forbid our death or other circumstances the marriage is terminated there is still great value and great meaning for a marriage that happens later in life how you like bond and be I'll do you like born in Mississippi no saya even if somebody already has a family with children as they get older if they can there was a tremendous value and blessing to have more children shan mr he quotes a verse and the posix says a verse from a ellis Ecclesiastes pay Ecclesiastes catalyst chapter 11 Kahala Soloff baboy ker-rah as erica hula era of al cana yoda ho in the morning so your seeds plant your seeds Zara as erica but in the evening don't let your hands go idle which is of course a metaphor for life morning represents the early stages of life the Sun has just risen there was a certain vigor and a stamina and cream pivot you know when a person wakes up it's a new day I'm fresh I'm alive I have the most energy and alacrity and I want to get going but then there's laravel or Erev is as the day wanes and the Sun sets and fatigue sets in monotony sense sets in a sense of boredom it's true every day sometimes you know the afternoons and the evenings become difficult but it's also true in a person's life there is the morning of life when all of my faculties my limbs are working in a youthful vigorous fashion so then I have to plant my seeds but he says Willa Erev as evening comes out Hannah hidaka don't become a couch potato don't just sit and let your hands do nothing continue to live continue to plant seeds continue to grow trees continue to to live in the most powerful way cane hadeya as a user has their eyes they're finished am cafetorium sometimes you're looking to say what I do when I'm youthful will certainly be worthy what I do when I'm older is already not going to have the same effect you don't know sometimes it's the other way around and sometimes both of them are wonderful and beautiful and great and therefore every Ashura maintains he says don't be legitimized the value of a marriage as it happens later in life and never ever think that I have children but if I can have more children they constitute a tremendous new blessing Rabbi Akiva Emer rabbi akiva says Lama terribie I'll do so you matter Abhisek no sign a person learned tyre in their youth they shouldn't stop they should continue to learn and grow as they become older how you Lloyd tell me didn't be I'll do so if a person raised students in their youth yeaaaah light or medium basic no say the person should not be content but rather continue to raise new students as they get older shann mr because the verse says oh now it's working but boy cares rise Erich Avila area of Altana hidaka in the morning again so your seeds but in the evening don't let your hands go idle continue to learn continue to teach continue to raise new students what Riviere schewe is addressing from a biological point of view term is a family and children Keva is addressing from a spiritual point of view in terms of disciples pupils and students as hazael say vision anthem Levana a loja talmidim teach your children children refers to biological children of course but it also refers to all types of children people we have an impact on our called children the Gomorrah says kala Malamud has been Coverity ramai the lava castle key Louie Alden when somebody teaches terror to somebody it's like we have given birth to them sometimes there is physical birth but sometimes his emotional birth there's infusing a spirit into a person's life if I can infuse a spirit into a person's life if I can infuse meaning into a person's life if you can infuse inspiration love into a person's life it's a form of giving birth to them giving birth to them giving them so to speak a new soul or new vide ow vitality sometimes a new lease on on life that's the statement of rabbi yehoshua and his colleague Rabbi Akiva these were two of the greatest Talmudic sages who lived in the second century after the Common Era right after the period following the destruction of the second temple of the second base a mixture of which happened the second base time eclipse which happened in the year 70 after the Common Era where they're 68 69 71 over those years still debated and a few decades afterwards shine there was the light of rabbi Yeshua and his colleague Rabbi Akiva two of the great Talmudic sages of the time who lived in the holy land following the destruction of the temple by the Romans and the Gomorrah continues now to tell the story as a follow up as a Sikh wealth to what Rabi Akiva just said um room they said now you have heard this story but usually the story is plucked its plucked out of the whole the whole context the whole the epilogue and the prologue and the backdrop that's why I'm introducing the whole context um Roo they said which means they told the story Seamus rlf xub um talmidim Holliday rebbi akiva mikvah sod anti Faris Rabban Gamliel be Akiva had 12,000 peers of students from a place called kvass which was one city another city called anti Faris between these two cities in the Holy Land were dispersed all of the many disciples and pupils of her vehicle over so many years who number to 12,000 peers the coulomb a super peyrac occurred and they all passed away during one period rip nation lay know how goo coverage Eleazar because they did not behave with respect to each other for hire ha olam Shamim and the world was desolate Chimay means barren infertile mama is a place of absolute destruction and desolate Ness ha ha eylem Shamim Rashi inserts two words Shanna Shaw Tyra because Tyra was forgotten so the world Jewish world the world of the Jewish people was Shamim it was desolate this is the story that the Gemara quotes it teaches us llevamos 62b if we open up a solution or a code of Jewish law the laws between pacer hench Lewis IRA Khayyam section Tufts are the gimel 493 the Shulchan Aruch tells us that this story has been immortalized in Jewish life in the Jewish calendar the reason that there are some traditions of mourning of grief of availeth in the period between pacer and sure huis the period of severe assignment accounting of Daimler is because of the event that happened with the 24,000 students of every Akiva the 12,000 peers the Gomorrah here doesn't specify which chapter of the year it happened it just says it happened to pay Rick haircut but commentators quote the tradition that this happened between Pesach and true was during the days of Spira and therefore they instituted traditions and customs of grief to commemorate this great tragedy in Jewish life the Jewish calendar as you know is a calendar that operates on two levels horizontally and vertically horizontally means it connected Jews all over the globe or Jew living in Melbourne or in Moscow or in Jerusalem or in Brazil or in Los Angeles or in New York or in Johannesburg or in Warsaw or in Paris the night of Pesach will eat matzo that's the connection on a horizontal level but the Jewish calendar is also vertical vertical means it's generational it connects generations to each other so much of our calendar all of our calendar really represents the link of generations you talk about for example Pacer basic has celebrated not only between Jews who live in the world today it's a celebration of Jews throughout all of history as I take my matzo and I eat it and you could still taste when you taste the matzo you could sense that it's around 3,000 years old usually the way it tastes admonish has that tastehh and even though around to say the tail people love saying the matzo this year is delicious but sure you know how sincere you are I would like you to make it the main feature at your daughter's wedding on the smorgasbord the main centerpiece where the flowers should be matzah but there's something unique and special about it because it's literally the same food or or the murderer or the crisis or the kiddush so that's why in every condition of Shabbos we will say Zach I love my separations a halide CSM is right it comes three weeks and there's certain things we don't do during the three weeks certain things we don't do during the nine days and very often people feel very negative towards these customs it's because something happened nineteen hundred years ago therefore I can't eat my chicken and make a barbecue for nine days what does it have to do with me but the truth is that there is a very powerful and also even inspiring component here because it's paying tribute to the fact that I'm not living in a vacuum that there is a chain that continues for literally thousands of years and that the story of my father and my mother and my grandparents my great-grandparents not just fifty years ago not just 100 years ago but a thousand years ago two thousand years ago three thousand years ago it's still part of my story it's still part of our story I recall it just came I wasn't planning to say this but it came to my mind my father's yard site is this Shabbos coffee R in the 20th year and he passed away in 2005 14 13 years ago some 14 years and the next Shabbos or the Shabbos afterwards we got up from Shiva I was making kiddush in my house Friday night and I picked up the Goblet of wine to make conditions say yeah I'm Hoshi she and my family was there some guests were there and I found myself getting there very emotional and crying in middle of the kiddush so one of my children asked me why did the kiddush make you remote so deeply so I told them afterwards that when I was a child my father once shared with me the following story he grew up in a town near Moscow called mom and tough guy I don't know if anybody here heard of mom and tough guy mom and tough car was a place of data you know what that says Duchess in Russian a resort a resort area it's a smaller like smaller suburban type of city not far from Moscow and that's where he was born in Moscow and near Moscow lived in mom and tough guy these were the dark dark days of the Soviet Union when the Communist Bolshevik regime exercised unbridled power and the levels of oppression of the Jews living in this former Soviet Union was horrendous the leader of the USSR was a Georgian man named Joseph Stalin during his tenure thirty years from 1924 to 1953 murdered one number is 20 million people and some put the number at 50 million people which means he murdered more people than Adolf Hitler Omashu mom murdered and the Jews in the Soviet Union suffered horrendously my grandfather his name was Simeon rip Simon Simon Yacouba shrilly my name is not Jacobson that's a fictional name my name is Jakob a Cheveley rabbi why why Jakob a severely just for the sake of honest history he was a Georgian drew came from Kota yes and the Georgians usually have the surname Sevilla shrilly means son in Georgia and in 1937 and 38 Stalin did what's known as the purges the purges purging of Russia he basically purged his country of all counter revolutionaries which for Stalin was almost everybody if he had a mind if you had a heart if you were talented if you're a resourceful if you're a skillful the accusation that you're planning to assassinate either Stalin or undermine the Revolution was a given and literally millions and were shot sent to the gulag died from hunger and my father is a colonel of Russia shared he was four or five years old it was Friday night and his father picked up his cup of wine to make kiddush and he started to make kiddush over this cup of wine around the table was my grandfather Epsom and his wife prayed that my grandmother my father who was a little boy and a younger brother who was a very little boy and the middle of kiddush they heard heavy pounding on the door and it became heavier and heavier and heavier until they broke the door open and these were representatives of the KGB which was the police the secret police employed by the Soviet Union who took his father away that night Friday night to prison and he was sentenced to death by a firing squad which he was saved from by feigning insanity and exiled instead to 25 years in the gulag in Siberia and this happened all while he was making kiddush on Friday night and as I was growing up from time to time my father would share that story of the kiddush Friday night and how it was interrupted suddenly and then he didn't see his father for many many years until they were reunited years later towards the end of the Second World War and ultimately made it out of Russia because Stalin gave permission to all Polish refugees who escaped Hitler by running into Russia to the parts of Russia that were not under German occupation and if they could prove that they were Polish citizens they could leave Russia so my for my parents family as many other Jewish families forged passports maintained claiming that there were Polish citizens and that's how they made it out of Russia in 1946 or 1947 so when I picked up that kiddush cup the Shabbos or two weeks after my father's passing that story came to my mind just came just emerged into my mind and I thought to myself at that moment just I had this internal experience that my grandfather is gone he passed away shortly after he left Russia he was tortured quite heavily in the prison's of Russia and he died in 1953 in Toronto he passed away I never even knew him but none of my siblings norm because he died before my father got married and his wife died shortly after in 1954 so I thought you know he's gone he passed away and now my father is also gone also passed away I thought but the kiddush the kiddush still remains and as I'm holding on to that kiddush cup I remembered my father making kiddush who remembered his grandfather making kiddush and the kiddush was interrupted and it came to a brutal end but apparently it didn't come to a brutal end because eight decades later a grandson living in America is holding a kiddush cup with wine and literally making the same Kadesh and it was a very powerful moment of awareness awareness not just of the horizontal nature of Judaism but also of the vertical the vertical nature of Judaism that literally is maintained from generation to generation not just as memories but literally as continuing the life of the people and I have once said or more than once that in Judaism the word for cemetery has three different names which is strange in English we have something called the cemetery in Judaism we have something called a base hoc Voris a home of burial but there's another name a base toyline there's a third name base a high in a home of burial a home of eternity and a home of life why three different names because each name really represents something very profound about how we look at life how we look at death always depends on how look at life death is really a commentary on life so the different names for a cemetery are really different names of how Judaism would describe life sometimes a person could come to a cemetery and look at it and some of us have been at cemeteries some of us often not always for very happy reasons and you look at it then there is a silence there the silence of cemeteries is very eerie especially when there's nobody else around and on the surface it's a basic chorus it's a place of burial today in my morning class I know it's not funny but I just somebody said something very funny in my morning class I spoke about people who are in the box and people who are out of the box and sometimes it's very hard to deal with people who are out of the box so somebody says I'm not going into a box till I die I am NOT going into a box till I die I said okay hopefully even afterwards on one level it's a home of burial what's buried what's buried is a body which is a corpse which has become lifeless but that's only one definition of life there's a deeper definition of life and then you look at a cemetery and you know base eylem it's a home of eternity because the soul never ever dies illness or old age or a bullet or any other circumstances that create the separation of the soul and the body do just that they separate the soul from the body so that the body can't inhabit the soul but the personality the life the consciousness the ideals the spirit and the self of a person lives and it lives eternally it lives on as it says I'm so many Jewish tombstones day now Hydra but Sirois Hawkeye and the soul is bound up with this source of life a soul never dies in fact life never dies that which is alive is alive and it's always alive it is life and life is life life is not death so that is eternal it's timeless it's a base eylem it's a home of eternity and we all understand this and we can relate to this from every vantage point of perspective because when you love somebody in this world and when you connect to somebody in this world obviously it's not just I love the nose or I love the cheeks or I love the eyes or I love to hear I love the arms and that's part of it of course but I love the you and who is that you that you is that inner you and that you doesn't just die because the body can't express it or manifest it so despite the sadness and the grief in the morning which is very genuine and authentic because we missed that physical tangible connection there is an eternity that lives base eylem but then there is even a deeper definition to a cemetery base a high a home of life because there are not justice soul lives people who live and especially certain people who live have such an impact on other people who continue to live and when you look at these graves you look at a grave and you say this is not just a home of burial even though it's a home of burial and it's not only a home of eternity it's also a home of life because there are so many people alive physically on earth who are continuing the dreams the love the values the ideals the sacrifices the commitments the passions that these people influenced and impacted and molded and inculcated and so many others so that it's literally a basic Heian it's a life that continues which is why the Gemara says the mis'ess's tinies tinies page 5 Yaakov Avenal I'm ace Moz Arabic I am a few bhai Yaakov didn't die because just as his seeds are alive his descendants are alive a descendant is a seed like a seed that you plant we just learned about this era by Baker Zahra as Erika it's literally the seeds that we plant and even if we don't see them they really real will emerge and they will emerge and sometimes there you know there are trees that are alive for three four thousand years and they may have been planted four thousand years ago and that's what the Jewish people are we weren't planted today we were planted literally thousands of years ago and each tree reproduces and recreates so when you look at this person today who do you see alive Yaakov is literally still alive and this is where Jewish history happens not on a horizontal level only but literally also on a on a vertical level in fact and I say this in parentheses but I think it's worth mentioning it's one of the reasons why Judaism is so adamant about burial versus cremation whenever we can of course there was a whole generation of Jews who were cremated not by their choice by the choice of the Germans who chose not to bury the six million but to actually burn their bodies after they gas them and cremate them so there was nothing left from their bodies besides ashes I once heard myself in the lubavitcher rebbe in 1991 and he was once talking about the Jews who were killed were murdered in the Holocaust and he says that they went up to God like a carbon Eila a carbon Allah was a sacrifice that there was nothing left usually the fat were burnt on the altar and the rest were eaten by the cayenne M oh by the by other people but a carbon eyelid there was nothing left just ashes on the altar because the entire sacrifice was consumed so that's one type of cremation where everything was burned but generally when somebody passes away there's a mitzvah or ferrata they'll offer Tosh off it's a great mitzvah of burial some people today in different parts of society cremate but Judaism opposes cremation and one of the ideas behind it not the only one but one of them is that actually when we cremate something we destroy it when we bury something when we take a seed and we bury it in the ground it gets disintegrated but it doesn't disappear it becomes nutrients that feed the soil even old fossils in the earth they are converted and they become new sources of growth when we bury a loved one it looks like the end but it's really not the end it's a form of planting if somebody takes a seed and buries it in the ground in the earth and so he says what are you doing it was a nice seed why are you destroying it I'm not destroying it I'm covering it up and you may come back in a year you may come back in ten years the Gemara says to our trees it takes 70 years for them to grow and suddenly you will see something emerging from that seed everybody that is buried in the earth is planted in the earth because by theas a Mason after the Googler by the time of the resurrection the very body reblock Sims and re-emerges so it's not just disposing or getting rid of the body it's actually planting the body it's not only an end it's also a beginning it's the planting of the body as a preparation for a new produce for a new blossoming for a new emergence in the future in the 13th principle of Jewish faith he is amazed him the resurrection of the dead and thus there is basic for a space oil 'm and they sahayam so what I took that kiddush cup I guess what I was experiencing is there is burial there is eternity and then there is also life life that continues basic I am you know when the Holocaust was over Jews all over the world felt a passion to remember not to allow a whole generation a whole world just be forgotten and their descendants and survivors have done an incredible job but you'll see the different segments of the Jewish community invested most of their labor and different things some were very dedicated to build museums which is an incredible contribution some to create documentaries films write books record videos tell stories build monuments create Holocaust curriculums and so on and so forth which are all vital important indispensable and are included I think in the mitzvah of Zucker ace uh sure oh so llaha a Moloch remember what a Moloch has done but a huge amount of them actually spent much of most of their time doing something else and that is recreating the lives of all those people by building families communities and living institutions so that when one when one sees the piles of ashes and my donek they're not only looking at a place of death and destruction but also they're looking at souls who literally their lives dreams and values continued and continued in an unprecedented ly powerful and successful way through children grandchildren and great-grandchildren they decided to invest their time in creating a basic I am living monuments this is a very important observation on the entire Jewish calendar when one doesn't understand this it's very hard to understand our calendar our calendar is literally living and linking the past the present and the future simultaneously never just to live in the past but always to be linked to the past inspiring the present enlightening and brightening up and guiding the future and our whole calendar revolves revolves literally around this and all of the traditions of the man Hagen that exists whether in the times of sphere or the nine days of the three weeks or holidays or Chanukah poor and Pesach shrew asuka stupid fat smaller the holidays bigger holidays those that are more know and less known each of them is a part of that horizontal and vertical link of generations where on one level there is the past that is gone and another level there is the past that is right here right here right now so as you watch that little girl or older girl waving her hands a few times and covering her eyes and making the blessing Lahab look Nair shall Shabbos Kadesh as the Sun is about to set in a few minutes over the horizon of Shabbos on one level it's a little girl standing in Muncie or wherever she is in the world lighting a candle and making a blessing a mother a daughter a grandmother sisters whatever age it is and that's the fact but on another level if you open your eyes and you expand your lenses and you give a vertical gaze at history you can also see thousands and thousands of Jewish mothers in Poland in Hungary in Russia in Ukraine in Lithuania in the East in the West and the north in the South a hundred years ago 200 years ago 2,000 years ago lighting the candles and you can go back and watch sorrow who lit candles Friday afternoon and as our sages say it burnt May Erev Shabbos layer of Shabbos the flame continued to burn which is not just physical it's also spiritually emotionally the flame that she ignited continues to burn from Shabbos to Shabbos from century to century and from millennium to millennium throughout the millennia from Shabbos all the way to Shabbos which is like seven days but also seven millennia of history to leave a cooler Shabbos oh man ooh hallelujah Holliman so the Shulchan Aruch we go back tells us that the period between Pesach and schwas actually allows us to connect horizontally and vertically with Jewish history and that's the source of the traditions of a valence of grief no weddings and similar traditions between the time of of pacer and shrews but then the so generic the halacha tells us that unlock bomber on the 33rd day of the armor which is always the 80th day of ear which is also this week is the day of the day of Simchat a day of celebration we don't say tackling on that day we don't do the confession for sins on that day it's a day when the many of the traditions of mourning and grief of Spheeris armor cease some people even stop it completely on memoriam or some resume it after that different traditions however Lag Ba'Omer itself is that day of joy why so the traditional reason that's brought in chef Canora has commentators and simin tufts are the gimel is that Paschal meal ammos that these students that we just learnt about stop dying and the pre huh - one of the greatest commentators on the Shulchan Aruch one of the great rabbis of italy and then of jerusalem asks the big question he says what's the simcha why is that a cause of joy you know why they stopped dying because there was nobody else to die what is the simpler 24,000 disciples 12,000 peers passed away they stopped dying you're gonna start dancing now light fires everywhere in mehron 600,000 Jews are expected cani in hurricane year but to come to me run to the graveside eruption by a koi I don't know if there's another physical gathering kibbutz of Jews as the Jews who come to me run whatever Jews are they gather children gather they have the luck boy I'm a praise aren't boy imma gatherings and communities gather and light fires and celebrate and sing and dance Paschal meal almost the students died yeah there was nobody left unfortunately at some point there was nobody to die so they stopped dying that's the question of the pre huh - quite a fascinating quite a fascinating and intriguing question but I want to focus now on the continuation of the story in the Gemara you remember how it came in rubio schewe said don't deal ejido mais a later marriage and don't ever think that having more children is anything but a blessing of course we should always qualify we're talking about if one has the health capacity and so forth which people have to consult their own Maire here are they competent ruff about this issue but it's a great blessing and one should try an RBI Akiva says as much as you learned continue to grow as many students as he had continued to have students and that's when the governor tells the story about rebbi akiva students who perished and then the gomorrah says the world was desolate and i go back to the story now harlem action Berube Akiva a surah by say no shabad or i'm terribiy Akiva arrived to our teachers living in the south all of this happened apparently in centre israel or north but he came down to the teachers living down south of the Land of Israel for shinola ham and he taught them Tyra what were their names Reb mayor Reb you who dare abuse e-rep Shemin and rebel ahzab in samoa Ramaiya was one student Reb you Huda Rebbe I see women and rebel aza Ben Samoa was the fifth student the hame hame and me do Theresa Shaw they are the ones who at that hour that critical our reestablished tyra after the world was desolate and the gomorrah continues finishes and says tania we have a tradition coulomb a silly pace of audits aris suddenly we're now given the period i said earlier we don't know the period but now we know the period between pacer and shrew is that's when it happened the Gomorrah then discusses the biological causes of death and then says hello is like Ramiro schewe and then the Gomorrah continues with the famous statement of rabbit and home in the name of Robbie honey Lloyd column Shana Isha a human being without a wife shahru evil eye similar ballet brache a Beloit over a man without a wife is a man devoid of joy blessing and goodness in area to stroll they said a man without a wife is a man without Tyrel and without a fortress of protection and the Gomorrah continues to discuss marriage relationships and this is where the famous quote comes from that one has to love his wife as much as he loves himself and respect his wife more than he respects himself iovis Easter kagu Foy Omaha Buddha yo sir me GU fight all Yama is 62b and then the camera goes on to say that a person without a wife actually is not only missing goodness joy terror wisdom fortress blessing but he's actually not a human being colada I'm saying Louisa ain't no other meaning doesn't mean he's not a human being it doesn't mean it means the wholesome experience of being a human and Adam is only soccer on a cave Adam can only be other than when he was together with Carver vyi Kirsch mum Adam it's only together that the title Adam is free the title autumn is created this is one of those powerful sections in the Talmud that highlights the eternal and immortal value of the relationship created through a family through a marriage so rebbi akiva came to the south he discovered five Jews remain of you who the Rebbe of shimmery bilasa description of course is who stammer up Shimon rip Shimon bar Yohai rips women the son of York ie was one of the five students of Rabbi Akiva who he taught Tyra after the demise of the other students and Judaism came back to life through these five students one of them was written by a hyah this is the story in Gomorrah as an I said intial tomorrow we have the tradition of grief during this period that the Gemara highlights and the joy of luck by which the camera doesn't mention the joy of luck boy Manny we're because according to the tradition that the students stopped dying and we asked the question what's the big deal this is all in terms of Gomorrah and halakha it was the world of Kabbalah that introduced another dimension of laga a mer which is not discussed in the original halacha quirks this comes from the writings of the Ariza that Lag Ba'Omer has another story to it it's also the yard site what's known as the he Lula of a student of Rabbi Akiva reprimand by acharya but he was one of the survivors but years later his join me lula the day that he passed was logged by him and he asked desire says that before he passed away he asked that they should celebrate that day and that day indeed became our your him simcha and they call it Yom simcha shall Raj be the day of joy of reprimand by Yahoo was one of those five students of Rabbi Akiva who died led by Omer many years later the 13th the 18th day of ear and that's the tradition to go to mir on his resting place where a rest room where he is buried and we have the story of messiah Shabbos page 33 are we ran away to the cave and he was in the cave for 12 years 13 years escaping the Romans and Lag Ba'Omer there's a whole other dimension of the student one of the students of ibraheem who passes away years later and wants his day his yard site to become a tremendous day of festivity and celebration and inspiration among the Jewish world and you see that his last will and testament was indeed implemented it's fascinating it's fascinating how was implemented we're dealing with something that happened he passed away approximately 1,800 years ago give or take a couple of years a little more than eighteen hundred years ago or approximately eighteen hundred years ago and his yard site Lag Ba'Omer was celebrated that Rizal used to go to me run and Jews go to me rod and have all different types of celebrations wherever they are in the world on Lag Ba'Omer the pre hubba who was quoting the Shilka Naru and the commentators who explained that the students of rebbi akiva cease to die without that piece of information about Rashmi wants to know what the great joy here is what's the great joy as I said there was nobody left why the celebration there's another story about her be Akiva also a very well-known story this comes from others durab Nasim story is remai Akiva was a shepherd who worked for a rich Jew named Kalba Sawa the Talmud says this in tracted service also 62 I think and he was a very simple but god-fearing Jew but an illiterate and Kalba had a daughter her name was Rocco and she took a liking to her be Akiva she appreciated him she really wanted to marry him but she came from such a prominent family would they like to call in Muncie yes and Rabi Akiva really did not fit the bill which is why when she married him her father excommunicated her excommunicated him and made a vow that he would never ever give them what we would call today a dollar then I guess they called it a shekel he would not give them a thing not share his wealth with them because they are not part of the family because of the betrayal that he felt that such an extraordinary young girl like Rahul should end up with a peasant like a man named Akiva of course hindsight is always 20/20 and if poor cowbo would be standing here today he would have a different perspective as indeed he learned many years later but that's hindsight Ruckle the bride the girl had hindsight before it happened right and that's always the hakama in life to be able to have hindsight before everybody else has hindsight azo Holcomb Hara is an island you see the future she saw this a cave and she knew exactly what she is getting it takes a certain person usually a woman to have an eye and a vision to be able to see what others don't see in a person basically Rahel saw potential where it was very hard for others to see not only for others even for a Kiva himself he didn't know it she brought it out at him and she married him but there was a condition he has to go learn he has to develop his potential spiritually emotionally and intellectually and indeed because of her influence he became literally the greatest sage of the generation and raised 24,000 students and when he came home from the Shiva with these students the Talmud tells us that great moment when she comes out to greet her husband and she comes close to him and the students are getting a little what's the word ah uncomfortable thank you and Ruby Akiva says four words to 24,000 students at one of the four words Shelly Rochelle ahem shallow what is mine and what is yours belongs to one person it belongs to her there's nothing that I have and that you have that she does not own because her be Akiva knows the full truth that it was the vision the sacrifice the commitment and the confidence and the faith that she had in him the vision that she had in him the possibilities that she recognized in him that he didn't recognize in himself that were actually responsible for everything that was observed in the Jewish world at that time and remember raka wasn't only thinking about herself she was thinking about herself she would have planned a whole different life for herself having a husband with 24,000 students is not always the most private lifestyle that a woman may enjoy with their husband but Rocco and people don't realize this lived in the time when Judaism it seemed was about to die the Romans did whatever they can to approve the vestige of Judaism especially after the Bar Kokhba revolt Adrienne the emperor Adrienne completely outlawed every act of Jewish learning or teaching that sera rougane mouth lose the ten leaders who were murdered was because of this crime including uninhibit tragedy when he was caught teaching and he was burnt with us safe attire the camera tells us a novel dessert page 17 and the other nine great leaders who were martyred during that period over a few decades after the destruction of the Second Temple raffled saw this and when she saw a man a human being who would single-handedly be able to rejuvenate and resurrect the Jewish world and guarantee its continuity she did what she had to at that moment I revere Kiva therefore puts it in four words what is mine and what is yours and we could say today what is ours is hers because as the Gemara says cool who are Liberty rebbi akiva and sinneth the whole tradition that we have comes from one person Rabbi Akiva but now think about this he is an illiterate he's 40 years old he never learned a love bass so the Madras tells us the moment of transformation now your wife canoed you and trust you and believe in you but if you don't got it you don't got it they say in order to succeed you need two things you need a will but you also need ability in encamp they used to do you disagree Raman to make fun of the head councils and learning directors you know so they had a huge grammar I remember I'm a chemist and people people who taking jobs and they're incompetent so they had an expression as mechanics Tomer vase nearest neckman's they finished on there if you don't know how to do it don't accept the job I could want a Bosma Kennish if you can't again success comes from two things will and ability there are people who want but they can't are people who can you just don't want you need the wrought sign and you need the ability and sometimes learning the ability cultivating the ability takes time Rahul wanted she inspired to me I keep it to want but he has to be able to yes to believe he nails too so the Madras says one day he's walking and he comes you know that story and he sees the source of water very small trickle a very fine trickle of water a little tiny waterfall a current of water and drop by drop by drop and he looks at the rock on which this water falls and there is an indentation in the rock and he understands that after so many years one drop accumulated after another drop in another drop and it created this dent in the record be Hakeem he says to himself if a rock if a rock can be impressed by the water if a rack can be indented by the water I may be a rock my mind may be made of rock my heart may be made of stone but the waters of terror can create an indentation and the rest as we say is history or in this case I should say not history but her story pun intended but I ask you a question everyone sitting in this room knows that water if they flow long enough create indentation and rocks what did Ruby Akiva discover at that moment was it a truth about nature that he didn't know about he wasn't 2 years old he was 40 years old and we all know that he had a mind you could see from what happened afterwards what exactly did this teach him and why would he compare the physical rock to the intellectual rock the cerebral rock or their emotional rock he saw something over there that changed his life we all see water flowing and if you have a leak in your house you've seen it and the water flows and the water has an impact doesn't only create puddles it ruins the wood it ruins the house it ruins the floor and if it stopped it doesn't stop and it doesn't see it can be a very very tiny flow it has an impact and if it's on a rack and it happens not for a year but 10 years 20 years 50 years 100 years ever went in Israel to a marathon it Tiffin what is it called ah my return it to fame right quite quite a phenomenon of what the water has done over there all those extraordinary formations what did you be a Kiva discover here that literally literally transforms completely transforms his life there is a famous song that song and Jewish communities everywhere lager bomber you've heard the song it's a Mishnah the Mishnah comes from track Takuma Oh Mary Burke IVA ASHRAE famous role Ruby Akiva said you're so fortunate listen Amiata me tired him a minute IRS come look before whom you are cleansed and who cleanses you I've become Shabbat I am your father in heaven you're so fortunate your father in heaven cleanses you and you are cleansed in front of his presence and I'll prove it he brings two verses one from Ezekiel it has got one from your mia this Iraqi alaykum I am to him I will sprinkle you with pure water and then a second verse from your Mia McVeigh yes Rael Hashem literally it means the hope of Israel is God mikvah like tikva caviola Shem rightly Cavitt Lusaka vena cavae means to hope mcveigh the hope that tequila of Easter all is a shell but rocky verse says no mikvah also means something else nickimja means a mikvah mikvah maya member a she's a gathering of waters called mikvah what we call a mikvah today a gathering of water natural water rainwater or well water McClay my mikleo wash that means who is the mikveh visceral the Jewish people have a mikvah who's their mikvah Hashem mom McVeigh met iris at million African is Morocco mataira sister all just as a mikvah purifies the impure person immerses himself or herself in a mikveh van they emerge pure or new full of purity Hashem Matai Rizzo he is our mikvah it was once a great Hasidic master by the hidden is a minute to go to the Mick for every morning and there was no milk available in the town he count he comes into shul and there was a big oil mom that came to Davin and was packed and suddenly he goes into the in the middle of the of them of the chavant and he's pushing between the people he's pushing and as they say wrapper what are you doing he says mikvah yes royal hashem isn't i want to be as a joyful among the jews I want to be I want to go into the mikveh of Jews I want to be this material Jews this is the song that song and McVoy me I'm worried about give me Rebecca ASHRAE some Israel it's a mission er from tracting humans the end of tracked accumulative kip retrouver chapter 8 why is it song on like volume er it's a statement of rebbi akiva it's a nice song it made its way to like boy but it's like the song like one of the the highlighted songs of lag poem in iran and everywhere else around the world but if we think about the mission it's strange what's rebecca miss a fortunate are you jews look who cleanses you our Father in heaven how long did Ruby Akiva live after moisture a banal Jewish people went into Israel after 40 years in the desert till they were exiled from the first Exile the first exile was close to 900 years approximately 900 years they came back they rebuilt a temple another 420 years but even lived afterwards but Kim who lived around 1600 years after the beginning of it Soviet see as mister I'm at entire it's a long time 1600 years it sounds like he's telling us something novel you're so lucky look who cleanses you God you we need to be a Kiva to teach this to us the whole time math the whole image is based on this there are scores of verses where moisture remain when the prophets tell the Jewish people God cleanses you God wants to cleanse you you can always return God and Rabbi Akiva discovers two verses from UNESCO and year Mia McVeigh is strong-ass M&E we interpret sniffle from hope to a mikvah why can't he quote a verse from parshas after a moyes key by yuri mozzeria copy relational attire escameca cotta shaken with may Hashem T taro on this day God will atone all your sins you will be cleansed before God a verse that moisture are being eroded sixteen hundred years ago I'm gonna be Akiva as though he's giving us a new inside of my eyes rate him you so lucky and he simply reiterating a basic idea of Judaism God wants every Jew to be clean II always accepts a person's repentance and clonus and he finds two verses from your Haskell and year media and he has to interpret mikvah to me not hope but I make you have clear sukham little a harsh empty Torah where do you get better than this what does it be Akiva teaching us truth is teaching us something very profound and here you have to tune in for a moment this right brain and left brain okay so tune in I'm gonna make you do a little shift well just be for two minutes it's fine but please don't check out emotionally in Mishnah every word is precise there's no superfluous words if you read a mission every word has to be accounted for if it would have been understood on its own it doesn't belong there that's how meticulous every word is look at the words I quoted from the mission and you will see two words that really are superfluous they're unnecessary rebbi akiva says mikveh Israel Hashem the mikveh of the Jewish people is Hashem mom mikvah Matthias at Mayo Africa there's berroco material just doesn't make for cleanses the impure Hashem cleanses the Jewish people why does he have to put in those two words assets may him we all know that a mikvah cleanses those are impure he should have said mom make firm attire the only reason you have to cleanse something is because it needs cleansing cleanse something that needs cleansing recuperative said mom mikvah Makaha just as a mikvah cleanses we all know what it cleanses it cleanses anything that needs purity that needs cleansing alpha condors Buraku Matthias is wrong McVeigh is wrong wash em the myth of the Jewish people is our chef what is a mikveh a mechanism a time we know who it's me tired if somebody is not Tommy they don't need power up they're not impure they'd only purity they're going to the mccormick mom mikvah mataira mikvah cleanses we understand it cleanses somebody who's imperial needs cleansing it's obvious these are two words that seem superfluous mama climate tired Africa there's Burakumin tired su syrup it's true for the song it wouldn't work because the song needs that beat mom McDermott is at Miriam Africa Debora whom attire is is so if you delete the two words us at mayhem the song is gonna get stuck however if I'm not mistaking the Mishnah was written before the song and if that's the case these two words seem superfluous now this seems like a very technical detail but these technical details allow us to understand the Mishnah the mission of putting those two words in order to teach us what Rebecca's saying and here is how it works here is how it works there's a mitzvah and South American Jewish men to go to the mikveh Erev Yom Kippur Jewish men go to the mikveh Kippur some women also do but it's a custom in a locker to go to the mikveh Erev Yom Kippur to cleanse oneself for the holy day now one may ask we have a principle today : roots may mason we are all considered defiled by death that's why we don't go to the Hara by use to the place of the base i mukesh we have the tomb of mace so when I go to the mikveh what's the point i anyway remain impure the answer of course is and one can ask this about any time a person goes to the mikveh for any reason when one goes to the microphone purifies themselves from a particular impurity we still have a tumor that we're not getting rid of we don't have a red heifer now we can't sprinkle the ashes in the water of the para Duma to cleanse ourselves from the impurity of death so when I'm going to the mikveh what's the point I come out pure from one impurity but I'm still defiled the answer to this is it doesn't have to do with each other a person can go to the mikveh become pure even though they still remain impure on another level it's not a contradiction the mission that tells us in tractate bravas the sages instituted this was later nullified because it became very difficult that about carry somebody who who has an emission of seed there's an impurity there they have to go to the mikveh there was one some it's a tack on an institution by ezra of the generation after that this person can't Davin and can't learn till he goes to the mikveh later they nullified it because it was very difficult what happens if somebody touches a corpse so their tummy for seven days and then a person has an admission should they go to the mikveh so the mission says go to the mikveh is still gonna be Tommy because he touched the corpse you still gonna have another impurity but this impurity you got rid of mom Mick vomit is at Mayim doesn't mean a mikvah cleanses the impure and they become pure mama Kermit iris at maiya means a mikvah cleanses those who remain impure even after the mikvah I may still have an impurity after the mikveh but it doesn't take away the fact that the mikveh cleansed me from a particular impurity so I may go to the mikveh air of Yom Kippur every Shabbos or ever yom tov i may emerge cleansed are there still other impurities and me of course there are everybody today has a status of tommy mace of having a contact with the corpse through touching or caring or through covering it however it doesn't cancel out the purity that the mikveh can accomplish that's what rebecca is saying mikveh Israel Hashem Hashem is like a mikvah a mica purifies that one who's Tom a Eve when there's a tumor that remains afterwards at the mikveh can that can tackle you need the red heifer well you need something else but what the mikveh couldn t refine it purifies it doesn't say oh you're anyway impure just forget it no no this impurity gets removed what does Ruby akiva saying here should I come you sure all he's saying something profound to illustrate it with people say I need a down payment for a house so I come to you and I borrow $80,000 for a down payment I know in Brooklyn you could it's like six dollars but in some places it's worth something so you give me $80,000 and there's a I have to pay you back in two years two years later you never get you never get paid back of course like the Minich by many people you take you don't give back the reprehensible minica I should say nope you call me up and you say I need the money you know and I say to you I don't know you what's your name say oh my name I lent you $80,000 I don't know you I don't owe you a penny it's very very aggravating Erev Yom Kippur I call you I say I want to meet you you're excited I come to your house I say listen I know you want $80,000 but that's not sure I don't owe you that money you're never gonna see it it's a blood libel I do owe you ten thousand dollars here's a check for $10,000 let's call it let's let's declare peace have a good day have a good year most people would say stop playing games with me either you want to come clean you don't want to come clean don't lie in my face you know the mayor's part of you want to make a payment plan make a payment plan don't tell me you only ten and the seventy got cancelled out this is unacceptable this is obnoxious this is rude this is unethical and this is immoral you could leave my house now that's a very normal reaction don't play such games sometimes a Jew comes to God says listen accomplished çankaya an accomplished can sight I don't have energy I don't have time I don't have mental space I don't have the courage I don't feel I have the ability to come clean but there's one thing that's bothering me there's one thing in my life that's disturbing me it's it's on me it eats up my conscience I really don't like it this is what I want to do true Vaughn this is what I want to change everything else it's not for now I'm really not interested but one thing bothers me you might think God would tell the Jew listen don't come and say I'll pay you five grand when you owe me 80 you want to make a payment plan make a payment plan but be beer be honest about everything don't talk about one detail i'm arabic eva ash ready come you sir oh look how fortunate you are Hashem is like a mikvah mom mikvah my tire is at maeín sometimes I go to the mikveh I still have a lot of impurity but the mikveh still accomplishes a certain dimension of purity even though there are other things I still after affixed doesn't take away from the fact that I just became pure in one aspect or jus comes to our shame and says there's one thing I want to cleanse ah wonderful awesome he embraces it with passion why ash ratio miss olefin AIMIM after metonymy meet iris come a vegan chef ashram I am its your father in heaven imagine a child is not on speaking terms with his father for 20 years not on speaking terms the father has a lot a lot of complaints to how this child behaved and what he did one day the child calls up the father and says Tati let's meet in a cafe over a cup of coffee I'll see you tomorrow at 3 o'clock in the afternoon the father with great anticipation comes to the cafe he meets his son season as a seeing him in so many years as instead of wertham never called never wrote a letter no text no call garnished the boy looks at him and says Tati I know that you have a lot of complaints to me you have a lot of tightness to me a lot of grudges on me and you think I did terrible things to you when I please leave misbehaved etc but you know what I really disagree there's one thing I feel that I have to apologize one thing I have to apologize that's it and I want to say I'm sorry for that and for nothing else now tell me what does a father do or what does a mother do one father a mother gets up and says no no no no no it's not gonna work this way this world that'll be a world of justice either you apologize for ABCD efg hijk m and all the way to Z and then do it again and again and again until you come clean and then I'll forgive you and if not have a good day I'll see you in 20 years a father or mother don't do this what do you do of course of course I forgive you why because the relationship is more important than anything else and if there's something to build a relationship from you patch onto it and you hold on to it is it perfect no is the kid making a lot of mistakes and wrong and subjective and bias yes but I want to hold on to this relationship so whatever you give me I will embrace and I will embrace it with love and knowing once there is a relationship we can build from it the relationship can become deeper stronger more powerful it's the greatest mistake in the world when parents forfeit the opportunity of catching those few opportunities sometimes fleeting to hold on to that relationship some parents sometimes get advice from people who mean well to cut off the relationship with their children I would say that in 99% of cases that advice is wrong wrong advice I have spoken to parents who have shared with me the following at some point in their life their children's really chose a different path and the path caused untold pain and anguish to the parents and they were advised to cut these children off to sever the cords and end the relationship and I'm sure the people who advised them had good intentions these mothers and fathers shared with me that 20-30 years later there's a part of them that is dead that a part of them that is lifeless the pain that a child causes a parent by doing things that are sometimes so painful to the values and the belief system and the passion and the life stone the sacrifice of the parents pales in comparison to the pain that comes from cutting your child out of your life unconditional love doesn't mean love that doesn't have pain it also doesn't mean that you always agree but it means that you maintain the relationship when I call the relationship dead and I say you're not my child anymore whether I say it or I behave that way I'm not cutting off only a child I'm cutting out a piece of - Shama I'm literally amputating my heart my arms a part of my brain a part of my soul and I will find a piece of me dead for many many years and therefore the relationship may sometimes be very incomplete but you don't let it die and when your child is going through a difficult stage you don't cut off your relationship that's all needs you more the child is going through a difficult journey needs their mother more needs their father more not less sometimes children are in a very difficult stage of life and choosing things that may be very counterproductive so the father runs away to Mars I know fathers son comes home in middle of the night and he runs up still he doesn't want to look at him that child needs you much more than any other child not less that child means your love needs your attention needs that relationship even if it's fraught with challenge with pain with anguish I'm gonna be Kiva ashrae them you sir all make me you're all a sham I you'd come to the rebut initial element says listen I have a lot of issues with you but there's one thing I gotta come clean one thing I want to change in my life and God says give me a hug mommy Kermit is at me I go to the mikveh the me could say yeah you still impure forget forget the machlin oh come in I cleanse myself I come out a new person are there other things I have to grow in the flesh there are other things but there's now a strong foundation of purity this is what your be Akiva Paul the Jewish people are shrinking Easter all we did he experienced this when did he learn this he learnt this in his own life when he saw those drops of water on the rock he wasn't now giving a getting a lesson that you can get in third grade if you have a good teacher of science or nature or you could sometimes see in your backyard if you have a brook of water and a little current of water if you if you live long enough or you have traditions from the previous generations rebbi akiva saw something that touched him very deeply it wasn't that if water flows and drips for five thousand years it's gonna make a dent that's true whatever be Akira saw was something even deeper and that is if this is what was accomplished after 5,000 years or after a thousand years or after a hundred years what it means is that even the first drop had tremendous power even the first drop of water had unbelievable power because if the first drop was zero then how much is zero plus zero zero plus zero zero zero zero zero zero do it a billion times how much zero nothing would have happened to the rock if you have zero dollars a billion times how many dollars do you have in your bank I once asked my sister Connie how you doing financially she says we started off with nothing and we're still left with most of it not bad you could have a billion zero so coordinates to pull bupkis and you dish somebody once said that yes is like a bunch of zeros after a number if the first number is zero you know what you got you got a bunch of zeros if you're a man if you're a one if you have to if you're a three if you're a pen okay the zeros can increase some nice revenue but don't look at those zeros you got to look at the number on the left what W Kevon understood was that the first drop of water made the difference and therefore the second drop of water made more of a difference the third drop of water had what to build on how do we do spirits armor we should say hi um I'm Rochelle I'm high uranium Shanee Lima how you're immune sleazy la jolla or boy we don't do it how do we do it hi I'm snail men slice our young men our boy Yaman right s women why slice them you and why today is the 30th day today is the second day we don't say today is the second day we say today is two days it's never a second day it's two days it's three days life is accumulative Rabi Akiva understood the one-drop that's where it's at and that's where most of us or many of us lose the plot I'm 40 years old my wife tells me I can change the world right my wife tells me I can change the world I once met rocky we had a good wife I once where a kiva says in Gomorrah who's a wealthy person called me she Ashley ish Inaba my son you have a good wife you're a wealthy person I once met I once went to meet Bernie Landers you know Bernie Landers was he was 92 years old almost completely blind he used to dive in chakras with a tape recorder then there was still a tape recorder you remember all of our Shalom the tape recorder you pressed play somebody used to come here with a tape recorder every week you became modern huh oh you still have that kaval good you have to put this somewhere in a museum for all the kids to see a tape recorder and see how to roll up a window remember you and you rolled up a window yeah and when a telephone was attached to the wall and you couldn't go further the wall right and you had to wait to speak to mell bring it away ten minutes online and of course you have your income in any case oh so I went to see Bernie Landers he was blind he was running 23 institutions Toro college at 23 institutions he was running a blind man so I asked him how did you come to this he told me he was a professor of economics in your sheever university tenure he had a great job great position for life great fine great income he said I was already in my mid-50s and I came home one day and I told my wife Bernie told me I told my wife I have a great job but I'm unfulfilled and I have a dream I have a dream that religious young men and women should be able to learn a trade in an environment of years shamayim it's hard today for people to understand what it was then like you wanted to learn a trade yet to go to college that didn't respect him and didn't respect Shabbos the environment was one of a lot of challenges and difficulties is not the place to elaborate I want to do this but this is a new dream it's a new reality and I said I'm in my mid fifties he says my wife looked at me and said Bernie you can do it you'll do it I said but I have to quit my job quitter quit your job and do it today he was in his 90s he says today I have twenty three twenty three full-time schools from from Moscow to your shall I empty Manhattan the Flatbush etcetera etcetera around the world I'm 40 years old Rebecca versus Alice bays it's not that I'm 40 years old and I'm gonna learn you know I'm gonna learn the next level a love base I come to a pre 1a school yeah three year old kids no holidays some two year olds no five year olds four year old they're reading fluently and a know a love base forget translation forget thinking forget information and what does a person do you're 40 you're on your way to retirement 65 okay just call it a few years dandak Rahul talked about Kiva you'll change the world I can't believe this suddenly saw the water and what did he see one drop it's the one drop that means everything you don't start with a million drops you don't start with a billion drops you start with one drop and that's where it's so hard for people one drop it's a joke one move one change one element in my life one telephone call one relationship I'm going to rekindle one habit I'm going to confront one thing I'm going to add come on what are you a joker do you know how many issues I have as somebody wants talking I could sit in therapy for ninety five years and nothing will happen I got issues after issues after issues after issues like an onion you know how many layers there are like an artichoke ever eat artichoke and then years get to the heart it's a process not for me so you give up or be a Kiva understood the power of one drop of one drop my McClure met iris at mayhem he can teach the people don't look at it ever everything nothing I go to them it's worthless no no I'll remain impure afterwards yeah but there's one there's one drop I'm embracing that has unbelievable value Oh ordinary value because it's that drop upon which everything else is based and even before the second rap comes there is something mystical and there's something potent in that one droplet of water and that changes not only his life it changes the future but then rebbi akiva faces that greatest challenge and that's greatest test he was 40 he knew nothing and he decided to start with one drop and the one drop produced a second one and a third one and before he knew it the rock was transformed into a mikvah the rock like in the desert ha ha ha surah gomorian the rock of Rebecca was sold his brain his heart suddenly became a waterfall a source of wisdom of inspiration he had 24,000 students how many years did it take him to raise those 24,000 students this is what you call by all accounts a success story and he knew exactly who inspired that success story his wife Rahel and then this great man watched all of this literally get destroyed in front of his eyes all of this so after his own complex and tumultuous journey and understand how tumultuous this journey was we look at trivia Kiva great family Rebecca came from non-jews her back even was a bengay room his parents were not Jewish Rebecca's ancestors weren't Jewish either his parents converted to Judaism or he converted to Judaism which is why in pre-clovis Rebecca says three statements in one Mishnah hava vada machine every B'Tselem hevene distortion Nakuru bonham hevene distortion little m clay hem de every human being is beloved in the image of God and then he says Jews are beloved as God's children and Jews are beloved because they got the taurah arabic Eve was describing his own life Rabbi Akiva understood what it is to be a human being who is not Jewish and every human being was created in the image of God rabbi Akiba understood what it means to be a true without Tyra and there are B Akiva understood what it is to be a with tyre he was describing his own life Arabic he was great-great-great-grandfather was none other than a man named Cicero sister was the arch enemy of the Jewish people sister is the man confronted by Devorah and Barak and ultimately the peg in his forehead by Al who killed his grand tyrant who wanted to decimate the Jewish nation as a representative of Yavin the king of Canaan Rabi Akiva came in a bond of so Cicero our sages tell us in son hundred ninety six in the Duke a sari frame and some of the versions me blade borne off so Cicero basically from a genetic point of view no hope Cicero that's called bad genes talking about yes I understand why Rocco's father was upset Rocco said our kids won't be led into any seminary no semmen a who's to say that Oh Cicero really that's disease we did is a delivered and slaw bought together in brisk and meal and should be the Lakewood where we did Oh sister very nice go find another seminary but Ruckle didn't look at life that way she looked at life from God's perspective she understood her abhi Akiva was but understand the journey of a man and now at last he can say the Don Knotts ah I have triumphed my wife and I have triumphed and what happens everything gets destroyed there's nothing left not one student ten students are it's a number that's unfathomable that's why they enshrined it in the Jewish calendar if it would have been a small tragedy I wouldn't have been something that we do that we commemorate till today obviously its impact was devastating which is why the Gemara says the world was desolate Shamim they felt the spiritual who was spiritually depleted this was a nightmare and when did it happen didn't happen after a century of Plenty it happened after a century of destruction so the levels of the spear that could have set in in terrible Kiva's life were horrendous what does the Gomorrah say whether to achieve it he traveled down to the south and he found five people now what would most people think imagine a person used to give a daily lecture or a weekly lecture a monthly lecture to twenty four thousand people who sat mesmerised with their open mouths and they're gone he comes down to the south and he has five people what's the feeling what's the experience what's the emotion one might think Herbie Akiva would say it's time to retire with a deep sense of despair and resignation and sadness and melancholy the world he built was obliterated and decimated in front of his eyes with him to watch it instead what did he do he took these five students and he molded them and he crafted them and he taught them and what happened with these five students here's a fascinating thing we don't know the names of the twenty-four thousand students we don't even know one name the names of the five we know not only we know we learn them every day we learn their teachings their traditions their sayings their analysis rip mayor review hood Rebbe I see shimon rebel ossipon chihuahua and the gamora's tells us that they were the ones who transmitted hem me to tear they transmitted the whole miss surah the whole yiddish guy that we have today comes from these five individuals through their mentee rabbi akiva that's why i rebbi akiva said you learnt in your youth don't stop you created students in your youth don't stop this wasn't just an easy statement to throw out don't retire early Rabbi Akiva was describing the story of his life how did he do it how did he have that ability how did he have that capacity how how does a person have that power have that ability where does a person get this from it's hard to answer the question easily but we do have the clues of rebbi akiva with his colleagues traveling to Jerusalem and seeing a fox emerging from the Holy of Holies and they all start crying and he starts laughing and they say why are you quiet laughy's is why you're crying said how can we not cry the holiest place in the world ox foxes are roaming around there how violating how desecrating how disgusting how could you not cry and what does Herbert Hoover say he says that's why I'm laughing what's the cause of laughter look I can't even started this is there two prophecies there's the prophesied seer and saw the tech your media says Zion will be plowed like a field there's another prophecy in scarier OAD a shoe skåne him ask a nice burger Clovis your shall I streets of Jerusalem will be filled with elderly Jews the student laughter and and music and and happiness and life will come back to this destroyed city he said until this prophecy was fulfilled I didn't know if this prophecy was will be fulfilled but now that I see that the first prophecy was fulfilled there are foxes in the place of seeing of Zion I know the other prophecy will be fulfilled so it's from the very experience of the foxes that I gained hope and the Gomorrah finishes tractate Marcos belushin Hauser unruly Akiva nice I'm Dominique I'm Donna they all looked at him and said you have comforted us you have comforted us the Talmud says in tractate Menaka is 29 that when moisture came up to the mountain he saw Hashem painting those little-little Tagum those little looks like a little Zions little lines what you say those little crowns on the letters of this cemetery and he said who is this for and God said there will be a man Akiva ben Yosef I'll call kites with kites acid leaders till they tell him shall Allah kiss on each one of these little crowns little lines that look like little Zions he's going to expound mounds of our lockers but the word kites in Hebrew means a thorn a thorn reversal of a truck once gave a commentary he said God told moisture will be a man a keeper be noise I'll call coitus Macoutes for every thorn that the Romans will use to perforate the body of the Jewish people what will be his response ah sadly Drishti late Ilham shallow occurs whenever Kiba will feel a thorn penetrating perforating piercing the soul of the Jewish people what will be his response he won't sit down and go to sleep he won't surrender he will take the thorn and from it he will build mountains and mountains leaders tili-tili Allah hoist Arabi Akiva then faced personal destruction of the most titanic most monumental and gigantic level his whole life's work literally went under and what does Revere Cuba do at that moment it's one of the most heroic untold stories this great man goes and he finds five people which you may call five drops of water what are five drops of water gonna do how are you gonna replace 24,000 people five drops of water but reckless even is the man who says in broca's called the harbor document on the top of it he never loses hope he never fails to see crisis as opportunity and that's his key in every moment he will look for the seed for the potentiality he will never ever see history as a tragic conclusion and end he will always understand as you see foxes roaming desecrating the most holy areas what it essentially is a call for Renaissance through rejuvenation rebbi akiva therefore will never ever fail to identify his or her power potential and calling right now and what others see thorns he will see new structures and what others see only individual drops of water he will see complete oceans and what other seas dry lifeless bones as the famous prophecy he will see a new life emerging he will invest his whole soul into these five students and start everything over again and one could look at rebbi akiva and say never hallucinations fantasies a hopeless optimist who is completely detached from the realities of life but now 2,000 years later who was right these five students their MBA Akiva created infused a new soul into the people they vivified they brought a whole new heõs a whole new life the Canasta sister all until today the words of Rabbi Akiva are uttered by every Jewish child almost on a daily basis in every school and every Hayden a believer and every time attire in every shoe in every cow on every base Madras rabbi akiva Rebbe you who they represent metabolism and chinois wherever you travel the world you'll hear quotes from rips women from rebel Asura from remain from remuda from rock Eva the statements of Rabi Akiva became the cornerstones of Jewish life and Jewish faith today ah so when the pre hunters asks what's the celebration of one boy a man they stopped dying they were all gone what's the celebration that celebration is a very profound celebration it's a celebration of Rabbi Akiva who at such a moment looked into the present and into the future and instead of closing his eyes and saying the glory gone an era has ended instead he travelled to the south and he recreated history literally with his own bare hands with five people that joy is one of the greatest joys in the Jewish calendar which is why Lag Ba'Omer Shriekers such a deep joy in people's hearts even Jews who don't know exactly why and what and are drawn somehow to the celebration to the fires of laghima what is this fire all about there is kindling a fire that a person Kindles to create light but sometimes you look around and all you see are embers or ashes there's no fire and yet Rabbi Akiva knew that somewhere hidden there are sparks and if these sparks are fanned the embers can be transformed into flames those are the fires of La Guajira it's rekindling those flames of Hope of positivity of light where nobody thought they were possible those flames transformed history I remember I started when I was sitting Shiva I tell my nephew my father was a very interest very colorful personality a very interesting person so I told my nephew I said he was also a father I tell my nephew you know an era has ended and he looks at me and he says why why and a new one has just began and it was very very powerful because in each of our lives we look at certain realities and you have to admit that sometimes an error ends and there's nostalgia and there is pain and one misses the past zest Seifert oldest of them everywhere you were a teenager and you took off three days from school because you wanted to finish that thousand page novel and you don't want the book to finish you remember that and then you come to the last chapter and it finishes and you have to close the book and it's sad suddenly you don't have the flu anymore you don't have an earache you got to go back to school they're so fertile this autumn life is like a book and you finish this book and it was a good book it was a great book it was a great read and you close it and it's very sad but you have to be thankful it was such a good book but now your mission is to continue the next chapter of the book to continue the next chapters they're safer told us of them each generation contributes its chapter to the eternal book on error ends rabbi akiva says it didn't end a new one just began that was the fire that he kindled on that day with those five students and one of them was rip Shimon bar Yochai which is why this greatest swarm Fall Out Boy Ramirez America Kiva ASHRAE um is wrong with Nemea permitorium ami Mehta hey Ezra mama Kermit is at Mayim Africa Desborough who material have a wonderful week Arabic it's about giver yeah so I don't know if we have an answer something to think about another question so it's gonna be a class is what the man gets from the woman is what the woman gets from the man she completes him and he completes her various yeah spreader various if the quakes stopped a lot but only wise they're still available after this yeah that's a good question that's a big discussion is it supposed to be like a dead hold two days above a loss or probably yeah 32 or 33 it's a big discussion oh that's a big one that's yeah cuz you said that the Gemara said from some kind of service like everything else she's been in lower right it's like the plague didn't start again after month on there they were all gone by that's the question it says Paschal be Lama so what does that mean I mean it was interrupted doesn't mean it was over isn't that why some people yes yes yes so some site to lug and some continue after depends when you start I never start Pesach a star crucial after the pace trying to share this class is brought to you by the achieve Annette please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at triple w dot they ueshiba net / donate