A story is told about Rebbe Akiva in tractate Menachot (23b-24a). He was traveling among other sages to Jerusalem around 130 CE, after the destruction of the second temple. They arrived at a vantage point on Mount Scopus which currently hosts Hebrew University. Upon seeing the site where the temple had so recently stood, they tore their clothes, the time honored ritual of Keriyah expressing mourning. When they arrived at the Temple Mount, a fox emerged from the site where the holy of holies had previously stood. The other Sages began to cry, but Rebbe Akiva began to smile. What was it that Rebbe Akiva saw that the other sages did not? What was it about his worldview that allowed him to see what others didn’t. What was his unique perspective?

In discussing the philosophy of Sefirat HaOmer, Rav Soloveitchik asserts the following:

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik - “Counting Time”

We may state that Judaism has formulated a unique philosophy of time. We ought to experience time simultaneously in its two dimensions, as recollection and anticipation, as review and meditation, and as quest and search. Time is the experiential memory that reaches out for the as yet non-real future…the Jew is aware experientially of the past and committed to the future, which is a reality to him. To exist as a Jew, means to be at the junction of past and future, of that which is no longer real and that which is not yet real. Our mission is to live in both dimensions.

He goes on to explain that many mitzvot prompt us not just to remember the past, but to re-experience it. On Pesach we say, “In each and every generation we are obligated to see ourselves as we personally left Egypt” (Pesach Hagadah). On Tisha B’av we personally observe the mourning customs as if the temple was destroyed in our own time. Avraham minted coins depicting a young man and woman on one side, and an elderly couple on the other (Bava Kamma 97b). This represents the idea that youth and old age, past and future, are two sides of the same coin. Jews have a very close relationship to the past. We also have a deep conviction about the future. We wait, we anticipate, tomorrow is just on the horizon. We support the State of Israel even if we don’t live there, we invest emphatically in education, we are dedicated to passing down our Mesora Tradition from one generation to the next. The Jewish people experience time simultaneously in two dimensions. The present is fleeting, while the past the and future loom large.

The Rav goes on to note that counting takes a pre-eminent role in halacha. We count and quantify many things. “This experiential merger of past and future, of recollection and anticipation, is symbolized by the process of counting” (p.177). During the time when we engage in counting the Omer, we observe an interesting custom:

שולחן ערוך אורח חיים תצג

נוֹהֲגִים שֶׁלֹּא לִשָּׂא אִשָּׁה בֵּין פֶּסַח לַעֲצֶרֶת עַד ל"ג לָעֹמֶר, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁבְּאוֹתוֹ זְמַן מֵתוּ תַּלְמִידֵי רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא

Shulchan Aruch 493

It is our custom not to marry a woman between Pesach and Shavuot until Lag Ba’Omer (Day 33), because during that time the students of Rebbe Akiva died.

While the Talmud (Bavli Yevamot 62b) faults Rebbe Akiva’s students for not treating each other with respect, and a further discussion indicates they died a bad death including a plague or disease, Rav Sherira Gaon adds an additional element:

איגרת רב שרירא גאון כיצד – נכתבה המשנה – י

ומסר רבי עקיבא את עצמו להריגה (ברכות סא, ב) אחר שנפטר רבי יוסי בן קסמא, ונהרג ר' חנינא בן תרדיון ונתמעטה החכמה אחריהם. והעמיד ר' עקיבא תלמידים הרבה והוה שמדא על התלמידים של ר' עקיבא, והות סמכא דישראל על התלמידים שניים של ר' עקיבא, דאמור רבנן שנים עשר אלף תלמידים היו לו לר' עקיבא מגבת ועד אנטיפטרס וכלם מתו מפסח ועד עצרת והיה העולם שמם והולך עד שבאו אצל רבותיהם שבדרום ושנאה להם רבי מאיר ור' יוסי ר' יהודה ור' שמעון ור' אלעזר בן שמוע והם העמידוה באותה שעה כדאיתא ביבמות (סב, ב).

Rabbi Akiva sacrificed his life after the death of Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma; and then Rabbi Channina ben Teradyon was executed. The wisdom of the sages decreased after the passing [of these great men]. Rabbi Akiva had trained many students, but there was a persecution against the students of Rabbi Akiva [and they died]. Thus, the authority over Yisrael was entrusted to his latter students, as the sages teach: "Rabbi Akiva had twenty-four thousand students extending from Geves to Antipatris,* and all of them died between Peach and Shavous. The world remained desolate until the students came and studied under the sages of the south who taught [the Torah] to them. And it was they who revived [the Torah] at that time.

What is the connection between R’ Akiva and ספירת העומר? Rebbe Akiva was the religious leader of the Jewish people following the destruction of the second temple. He was a proponent of the Jewish’s people’s independent sovereignty in Israel and a supporter of Bar Kokhba’s revolt. The Roman’s targeted Rebbe Akiva and eventually executed him. Rav Sherira Gaon indicates that his 24,000 followers were persecuted. Thus emerges a picture which closely ties the death of Rebbe Akiva’s students to the failure to rebuild the temple, and the institution of counting the Omer as a commemoration of the temple (see last week’s Counting and Remembering the Mikdash).

Thus during the period between Pesach and Shavuot, we mourn the loss of Rebbe Akiva and his students. Rebbe Akiva personifies our unique time awareness, a perspective about our shared past and future. Counting time can remind us to see the world through the eyes of Rebbe Akiva, as a reflection of our rich, deep, and at times tragic past, and with eyes towards our promising, beautiful, and emerging future.

When Rebbe Akiva reached the Temple Mount, the Sages who were with him cried, while he smiled. He was clearly seeing this scene from a different perspective. The Sages asked him why he smiled. He asked them why they were crying. They replied “a place which the Torah writes ‘one who is not a Kohen and approaches shall die’ and now a fox prowls through this holy place. Should we not weep in response?” Rebbe Akiva replies: There are linked prophecies about the destruction and rejuvenation of Jerusalem. This level of destruction was indeed previously almost unimaginable. But just as I see this incredible level of destruction with my own eyes, I can also see the vision of the future which would otherwise be unimaginable. The Sages saw the scene only in the present. Rebbe Akiva saw it in light of both the past and the future.

Rebbe Akiva embodies and exemplifies this unique perspective of time awareness. He is able to see in the present, both a reflection of past events, and simultaneously an image of the future. He is a Jewish visionary, deeply enmeshed in the past, focused passionately upon what lies ahead on the horizon.

יהי רצון…שיבנה בית המקדש במהרה בימנו ותן חלקנו בתורתך, ושם נעבדך ביראה כימי עולם וכשנים קדמניות

May it be Your will to rebuild the temple speedily in our days, and give us a portion in your Torah, and there we will serve you in awe, as in days past and in previous years.

References

Soloveitchik, J. D. (2006). Festival of freedom: Essays on Pesah and the Haggadah. New York: KTAV Publ. House.

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