Lag BaOmer - R' Akiva | Rabbi Yisroel Besser

The Gemara in Mesechta Avoda Zarah tells us such a dramatic story, such a moving story about a person named R’ Elazar Ben Dordaya. He was a person who was very promiscuous. He was pulled this way and that by his own instincts, by his own desires, and he was a very lowly person. There was not, the Gemara says, a house of ill repute, a zonah in the world that he didn't visit. Whenever he heard about a new experience that he could have to satisfy his lowest cravings, he went after it. And there was a particular zonah, a harlot, who lived, the Gemara says, she lived out by the ocean, and he went to her. And as they were engaged in the d’var aveirah, in a forbidden act, she mocked him. She said: “You're never coming back to teshuva. There's no repentance for you. You've sinned so grievously.” And her words struck him like a thunderbolt! And he looked up and he said: “What am I going to do? I need help! I need to come back! I need to do teshuva!” Heaven and earth, he asked the stars and constellations. Mountains. He asked everything and everybody to help him do teshuva. They all said: "We have our own things to worry about. We can't help you with your teshuva" And he said these words: "אין הדבר תלוי אלא בי" “It's up to me. No one's helping me do teshuva. If I want to make that climb back to the Ribono Shel Olam, if I want to climb back to purity, it's up to me.” That's what the Gemara says. When Rebbi heard the story, the Gemara concludes: “בכה רבי”, he cried and he said these words: "יש קונה עולמו בשעה אחת” There is one who acquires his entire world, “בשעה אחת,” in one hour. That means people toil. They work for decades, for years. They give themselves away to be close to the Ribono Shel Olam. And this person, in one hour, in one moment, שעה אחת, he earned his entire world. But there's another understanding to the word שעה. שעה doesn't only mean an hour or a moment. שעה also means to turn, like the Pasuk says: "ואל קין ואל מנחתו לא שעה" Hashem did not turn. Or we say in davening, in Ritzei: "ולתפלתם שעה" We ask the Ribono Shel Olam: Turn Turn your face towards our tefillos. Turn towards us. שעה means to turn. “יש קונה עולמו”, a person could acquire everything, "בשעה אחת", by just turning their head in one direction at one time. They see something that they shouldn't see, look away! You see something that you do want to see, stare at it, be fixated. The power of vision is great, and the power of being able to turn your head is so great! What's an example of positive turning your head, of positive vision? Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva was walking. He was an Am Ha’aretz. He was a simpleton. He didn't know anything. He was an unlearned person. And he saw the water dripping on a rock. Now, other people, ostensibly, also saw that. But they didn't stop and look. He did stop and look. He said: “Whoa, what's going on here? The water is boring a hole. And how is that even possible? Must be that with persistence and stamina and dedication, even water can forge a hole in a rock. So Torah could do that to me as well.” And he changed his life. On Lag Ba'omer, we celebrate Rabbi Akiva, the legacy of Rabbi Akiva, the vision of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva who lost all his Talmidim, and who was still able to rebuild that way of seeing things. If vision could have such a negative effect, it could certainly have such a positive effect. Rabbi Akiva was able to look and see something holy. "יש קונה עולמו בשעה אחת" - With one turn, Rabbi Akiva turned. Akiva is Roshei Teivos. The word Akiva is Roshei Teivos: because that's what he taught us. On Lag Ba’omer, which is a yom tov so connected to him. The way we could remember that is by turning away a little bit from that which we shouldn't see and turning towards that which we should see.