The Soul of Israel:How Rebbe Akiva Changed the World

[Music] hi everyone Shalom Aleichem this is Ashley mo Katz and you're listening to the soul of Israel calm on the Land of Israel Network it seems like every single week between PSF and Chev would we come at you with Owen this week this expect spectacular thing is happening that's because it really is weeks of spectacular isms that a right word are you about notice no it is spectacular is spectacular it's a Webster thank you we should get a patent anyway we we have these these days that show up almost every week of sirata armor which are just powerhouses atomic energy and this week this Wednesday night we have Wednesday night and Thursday we have the privilege of tapping into lakpa Omer the 33rd day of the Omer which is the day that Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai revealed the most tremendous secrets of the world and then left this world and went up to the heavens and everyone knows that Lag Ba'Omer in mehron where he's buried is probably calling it a Jewish Woodstock you know lessons from all levels of what happens over there but on a quantity level there are nearly a million Jews nearly a million people million about 800,000 throughout the two days of you know day before they they have maybe the day after even there's approximately a pilgrimage of close to a million people that go up there have you ever been there I'm like bombing I have what was it like it was like a mosh pit of holiness you have to just let go of any expectations guys yeah whether you say yeah just Lisa Rome just to flow like you can't you know you can't do anything but but just submit to okay I'm here and rebbi shimon is gonna show me what i have to be so yeah are you going up so i haven't i go up not unlock Bourdain I go up I'm gonna try to go up around the time of like warmer but right now in life with my family and other stuff in the community I stay here but today what I wanted to discuss was some that we just learned because I felt it very strong in my heart as we were learning it there's an unspoken hero and of Lag Ba'Omer the focus is always on rebbi shimon bar yohai but the main question is well how did it be shown bioscience become a bichon bar Yohai usually you say behind every great man is a great woman but in intolerably saying behind every great Rebbe there's a great ready it's true Rebbetzin but there must be also a great Rebbe behind every rabbi meaning we are we are people of the book we are people of tradition we are people of Messara how did we be shown by your high become Robuchon Boracay where did he learn who was the main focus guidance and pillared you know of a chariot of fire in his life so the kumara tells us something else about luck Ballmer and it doesn't speak about rabbi Shimon bar Yohai the kumara I'm speaking about does not speak baby shown by your thighs they have departure from this world rather it speaks about something else that happened unlike Ballmer many years prior to that we all know that Rabbi Akiva had 24,000 students 12,000 pairs pretty big yeshiva today thea shiva has like 60 kids they're flying and are overjoyed by an overflow of students can you imagine having 24,000 students and the most saddest thing in the world this heartbreaking devastating thing in the world happened the Chimera says they all died in one chapter of time between Pesach and Shevat but they they they stopped dying was the day of Lag Ba'Omer the 33rd day of the homer but the way we learned it today and and just friends I know I just like ran through a very big chunk of history that is very hard to swallow maybe for another time we'll get into the depths of what caused their deaths cuz the Chimera that our sages do detail to us what exactly brought upon their death however what I want to focus on is the day that they stopped dying the kumara that we learned this morning teaches us that they stopped dying because there was no one left to die they all died so what was the what was what's the what's the celebration of Lag Ba'Omer the fact that they stopped dying because no one else was left to die so is the analogy of the car accident right and I think drilled the point for me that was it last one of the philosophies of life bio mares there was a family on the way down I think that everyone remember I remember this that the entire family right the entire family was killed in this car accident doesn't want one of the windy roads on the way down from the north yeah and you said earlier you said so are we celebrating that the death stopped no the whole family was gone and we're gonna celebrate so it was like a really good question and that's the same question over here that the our sages were asking what's the great sense of the day that they stopped dying so let's go now into the mindset of Rivia Kiva following the next part of the Gemara the kumara says that on that day there'd be a queue of finished going to 24,000 funerals which we calculated comes out to approximately going to 800 funerals a day in this period of time between Pesach and Lag Ba'Omer 800 funerals a day he buried 800 students a day unfathomable but a person that wants to introspect and look at life what kind of sign was should he read when 24,000 of his students died what would be a legitimate change of direction if a person looks at the fact that he's ahead of a yeshiva and all his students die you would think maybe change professions maybe being the Russia Shiva is not my thing it almost makes me think of you who'd an Tamar write two sons died as husbands to Tamar and he's like you know what let's hold off on the third okay you know maybe there's something about her so Russia Shiva I can imagine a similar type of thinking maybe I shouldn't you know switch professions so so you know don't let's hold on to that cuz I want to go back to what you just brought up is because it really fits in with what we're going rebbi akiva could have rightfully legitimately just released so saying listen this is not my self this is not my bag is I should not be I should not be involved in this rain but that's right be Akiba thinking about himself but a jew thinks about the Torah before he thinks about himself and the commonness says because I'll say that rebbi akiva said but what's gonna be with the Torah me I could find another profession I only got into this at the age of 40 I have a tons of history I have a lot of different arts and you know whatever it is in different things I could plug into but what's gonna be with the Torah and on that day to be Akiva travels to another region in Israel to the southern district and he goes and he finds five students and he starts teaching the Torah from scratch one of those five was reassured by a high Yehuda and Tamar if they would have just thought about themselves they'd be like you know what maybe Mark right if tomorrow would have thought about tomorrow so she'd be like you know maybe chacha childbearing is not my thing but she's thinking about she knew prophetically that something great supposed to come through her for the sake of our Misao and who comes through her machine you see when we are faced with challenges and have to read signs a tricky and usually disappointing way of reading science has to do with when you put yourself first but if you put the Torah first if you put God's Word first you end up making the decisions that are everlasting and that you who knows maybe you're giving birth to mushiya who knows maybe you're paving the way now for the secrets of the Torah to come out into the world by finding new students setting up shop and teaching these five students from the beginning it makes me think about Rabbi Jonathan Sacks quoted before he said humility is not thinking less of yourself it's thinking of yourself less thinking less about yourself right yourself less you're not it's not this isn't about me right now it's something less of yourself it's just right let's take me out of this does the Torah need to go on exactly so then let's just do that that was rebbi akiva makeva did not go into despair because despair had to do with him right he can go into despair over himself and over the fact that what he's trying to do isn't working out that great so we see here that one of the main reasons why lack bomber is such a good father such a deep and powerful day it's because it's the day where we celebrate someone who could have legitimately only be thinking about himself and yet and yet he doesn't at all he thinks about the Torah he puts the Torah first and when you do that look at omnisphere out celebrating unlockable oh man so it's really he's really an underrated hero of the day because the focus of like Vollmer is generally kheema almost always rebbi shimon rebbi shimon rebbi shimon lucemon but who is rebbi shimon without rebbi akiva whose ritual that Rebbe Aquila we don't know we don't know who we'd be so anyway I want to bless you re and I bless myself to tune into this energy of how we read signs to understand and ask Hashem to become people that know how to put the Torah first and to learn uh Nevada to learn humility in a real way to not not not this distorted way of thinking less about myself but that I learn it the way Ruby Akiva did it that I put the Torah first and this maybe there's rata Shem disliked by oh man all of our me sir L will get together by putting the Torah first before all of us on a cloud level and hopefully through that will result I will be married also what you wouldn't a minded and finally receive the chef Tina the whole world and to bring them home to Zion speedily in our days are made I did Oh [Music] you [Music]