- Abraham ibn Ezra provides us with a valuable insight in understanding how we can come to transcend our own narrow perspective and ultimately to connect with God. In the beginning of Parashat Kedoshim (Vayikra 19:3), he explains the order of mitzvot presented (i.e. fearing mother, fearing father, observing Shabbat) as a chronological one in the life of a child. One’s first sense of concern for another is toward one’s first caretaker and only thereafter toward the father. The human creators of the child then inculcate a sense of the ultimate Other. They do this through the mitzvah of remembering our prime Creator by teaching observance of Shabbat. Thus, we see a natural progression outwards: by first putting parents before self we are able to reach a mind frame that allows one to put the more abstract God before self.
Pushing ourselves out in the practical world goes beyond parents. God creates all people in such a way that they need to combine in marriage. In halacha, this is expressed as an obligation to procreate. Beyond family, halacha forces one into community – one must endeavor to pray in a minyan and seek out functionaries for various legal and ritual situations. Presumably, such an orientation is not meant to complicate our spiritual journey, but rather to facilitate it.
We are given the ability to learn empathy step by step. Starting with the person who does the most for us as children, the Torah reinforces the natural propensity to want to do good to those who do good to us, by commanding it. This forces us to start thinking about how our actions are viewed by other people. In turn, we eventually start trying to do this with all Jews. Loving fellow Jew is about looking at the world from the perspective of the other. Thus, Ahavat Yisrael is transcendence of a practical kind.
One thing we may learn from ibn Ezra’s comments is that there is no short-cut to transcendence and true communion with God. Such a lofty progression must develop in incremental steps, building organically from one’s appreciation of, respect for, and connection with their parents, their community, their family, and their peers.
Perhaps this perspective enables us to better understand the troubling loss of Rabbi Akiva’s 24,000 students, which we commemorate at this time of year through our observance of the restrictions of Sfirat HaOmer. The Talmud tells us (Yevamot 62) that Rabbi Akiva’s students died because they did not properly respect each other. It may be that, as students of the Gadol HaDor, Rabbi Akiva, these young men were fired up with a passionate enthusiasm to try to reach the kind of transcendence that their teacher experienced. Yet they failed to take the necessary and proper steps to get to that level and, like Aharon’s two sons, tragically lost their lives in the hastiness of their passion.
{Adapted by Harry Glazer. The entire essay can be viewed on Rabbi Nataf’s website, at francisnataf.com}