14 May The Mysterious Death of Rabbi Akiva’s Disciples (Part 2)

How is it possible for a mortal human being to cling to Hashem? The Rambam answers that by cleaving to talmidei chochomim, you are fulfilling this posuk. Why is that? Because a talmid chochom has Torah in him. He is a living Torah scroll because, as we explained, Hashem and Torah are the same. Therefore, when you cling to a talmid chochom, you are indeed clinging to Hashem.

The Gemora tells us of Shimon Chamsoni. Shimon Chamsoni would explain all the words ‘es’ (the often non-translated word spelled simply aleph-tes) wherever they occur the Torah. He would expound on the specific meaning of this mysterious word, explaining what it added to the meaning of the sentence, every time it appeared in the Torah. Then, he came to the posuk, Es Hashem Elokecha tira – You should fear your G-d.” What could that ‘es’ possibly come to tell us? What could it possibly include? What could be put on the same par as fear of Hashem? As a result of being confounded by this posuk, Reb Shimon wanted to discard all his work and to conclude that all the ‘eses’ in the Torah do not come to teach us anything. Until, that is, along came Rabbi Akiva and explained, “Es Hashem Elokecha tira: L’rabos talmid chochom – The ‘es’ is coming to include a talmid chochom.” You must fear a talmid chochom like you fear Hashem.

How could Rabbi Akiva equate fear of a talmid chochom with fear of G-d? Because, as we’ve explained, the Torah of the talmid chochom is a chelek of Hashem. When you show fear of a talmid chochom, you aren’t fearing the man. You are fearing the Torah he has within him. And this was the mistake the students of Rabbi Akiva made. They felt that each one had exactly the same as the next, so why should they honor one another?

Now, if the point was to honor the person, they could have had a valid argument. However, it’s not the person that has to be respected, but the knowledge of Torah that he possesses. So even though they all had the same amount of learning and the same amount of Torah in them, each and every one of them, nevertheless, contained a chelek of Hashem. And, therefore, they should have honored one another. This was indeed such a grievous mistake that they deserved to die a horrible death.

Again, we can see our concept in the posuk, “Mipnei seiva tokum, v’hadarta p’nei zakein, v’yareisa m’Elokecha – Stand up for an elderly person, and stand up for a zakein, and fear your G-d.” Isn’t a zakein an old person? Isn’t the posuk being more than a bit redundant? However, when the Gemora defines zakein, it says, “Zeh sh’konoh chochma – One who has acquired wisdom.” In other words, regarding a talmid chochom, it isn’t a matter of age, young or old.

Why should we stand for a talmid chochom? Because, the posuk continues, you should fear your G-d. When you stand up for a talmid chochom, you are illustrating your fear of Hashem. A talmid chochom has Torah, and Torah is a part of Hashem. So when you stand up for a talmid chochom, and when you show you fear him, you are showing that you fear the Torah that is within him, and you are showing your fear of Hashem.

Koheles [perek ches, posuk yud-gimel], says “V’tov lo yehiyeh l’rasha. Lo ya-arich yamin asher einenu yarei mipnei Elokim – It will not be good for the wicked man. He won’t have a length of days, because he does not have the fear of G-d in him.” What exactly is Shlomo HaMelech referring to when he says that the rasha will not live long because he does not fear Hashem?

The Gemora in Kiddushin states (by principle of substitution) that the rasha will not live long because he does not stand up for a talmid chochom. Because, in the posuk of ‘V’hadarta p’nei zakein,’ as in this posuk, the idea of fearing Hashem is mentioned. So now, we can read the posuk again and translate it in another way. “It will not be good for the wicked man. He will not have a length of days, because he does not stand up for talmid chochom.” He does not show them the proper respect.

So here it is clearly spelled out for us. A posuk with the wisdom of Shlomo HaMelech foretold the fate of the disciples of Rabbi Akiva. Because they did not honor one another, because they did not stand up for each other, they did not live long lives. They all died young.

We can all learn a very important lesson from this incident. When it comes to honoring a person, a kollel man or even a talmid chochom has to show proper respect for someone who learns Torah. It makes no difference if that person didn’t learn as many mesechtas or if that person learns ‘only’ Chumash. We are not honoring the person’s prowess in learning. Rather, we are honoring the fact that the person is learning and, as a consequence, he contains a part of Hashem.

The Derech Chaim, the Sanzer Rav, Zt”l, would always honor people who knew far less in Torah than he. Rav Moshe Feinstein, Zt”l, would even partially stand up for people who were much younger and certainly not as great as he in Torah. These two tzadikim did not look at the person’s accomplishments. They respected people for the Torah that they knew, no matter that it was so much less than what they themselves knew, for they understood that that person contained a chelek of Hashem.

In Masechtas Megilah [27b], the Gemora tells us Rebbe Elazar Ben Shamua enjoyed an extremely long life. When his students asked him why he merited such a long life span, he replied, “Mi’yamei lo pasati al roshei am kodesh – In all my days, I never walked over the heads of people that belong to a holy nation.” What does this mean?

In those days, the talmidim would sit on the floor around the Rebbe. Rabbi Elazar had a great many talmidim and, if he would come late, he would have to step over his students in order to get to his place in the front. Rabbi Elazar always made sure to be there early, before his students arrived, so that he would not have to subject them to that.

So here we see how a Rebbe went out of his way not to dishonor his talmidim. Rabbi Elazar respected his students, not for what they knew, for he was their teacher and thus, knew much more than they. He honored them because they learned Hashem’s Torah. They were living Sifrei Torah, each containing a piece of Hashem.

That is the reason Rabbi Elazar merited such along life. He was mechabed (one who honors) the Torah. We can see from here that, not only will one who does not respect the Torah not live long, but the reverse is also true.

Indeed, this was the derech of Rabbi Elazar’s life. In Pirkei Avos [perek daled, Mishna yud-gimmel], it says that Rabbi Elazar used to say: Yehi kavod talmidcha chaviv alecha k’shelach – Let the honor of your student be as dear to you as your own honor. Here he is espousing the principle that you should honor your talmid. Why? Because of the Torah he is learning.

We know now that if we don’t show the proper respect, it is deadly. The talmidim of Rabbi Akiva reasoned logically that there was no need for one to honor the other. One has just as much as the other. However, they should have realized that they had to honor the Torah inside the person, the chelek of Hashem that is contained within him.

This is why, during this time of year, we observe a national mourning to engrave this lesson upon our hearts and minds. During these days of sefira, these days of hachana (preparation) for Kabalas HaTorah, preparation for receiving the Torah anew, we have to ask ourselves: Do we practice this very important concept? Do we give honor to all those who learn Torah? Or do we honor only those who are outstanding in Torah? And of course, if we do find fault with ourselves in this aspect, now is the time to correct it, during these days of mourning.

The Rambam in Hilchos Talmud Torah [perek vav, halacha yud-alef], states, “Kol hamevazeh talmid chochom, ein lo chelek Olom HaBah – One who embarrasses a talmid chochom does not have a share in the World to Come.” That’s a pretty final punishment: To lose forever. To lose eternity.

But now we can understand why. The person who embarrasses a talmid chochom is not only embarrassing the flesh and blood, he is embarrassing a part of Hashem. And that deserves the most severe punishment. We have to realize that Hashem went to great lengths to teach us this concept. “Yakor b’einei Hashem, ha’mafsa hachasidov – It is very hard on Hashem, the death of his righteous ones.” And Hashem had to part with, not only one tzadik, but twenty-four thousand tzadikim. And the world was left devoid of Torah.

But Hashem did this in order to impart to us this very crucial lesson. Let us take it to heart and pass this all important message on to our children. And in the merit of the honor we give to Hashem, our Kavod HaTorah and His Torah scholars, may we be blessed with may we be blessed with long life, good health, and everything wonderful.

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