Parshat Emor is the second-most “mitzvah-rich” parsha in the Torah (after Ki Teitzei) with 63 mitzvot, 24 of which are positive commandments and 39 are negative commandments. One of these positive/negative mitzvot pairs is Chillul (profaning) Hashem and Kiddush (sanctifying) Hashem.
There are very few people who epitomize the mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem more than Rebi Akiva. As we all know, Rebi Akiva suffered a horrendous death at the hands of the Romans, who peeled off his skin with steel rakes. Just before his last breath, he cried out Shema Yisrael.
In light of the above, the whole story of Rebi Akiva’s students dying because they did not respect one another seems incredulous. How could students of a Gadol HaDor of that stature (Tanna’im all), contemporaries of Rebi Shimon Bar Yochai (whose yahrzeit we celebrate next week), not respect each other?
The major source of the episode in question, quoted ad nauseam, is from a Gemara (Yevamot 62b). There is, however a second source, in the Midrash (Breishit Rabba 61, 3), which describes the story a little differently. Unlike the Gemara, the Midrash does not say anything about “not respecting” one another, instead it says “Shehayta eineihem tzara eilu l’eilu,” they their “eyes were small” to one another. What does that mean? This Midrash ends with Rebi Akiva’s admonition to his five remaining students “Make sure you don’t repeat their mistake. Fill the country with Torah.”
Another Midrash (Kohelet Rabba 11, 6) states this in a slightly different way, “Shehayta eineihem tzara ba’Torah zeh lazeh,” their “eyes were small” in Torah to one another.
From above two Midrashim, it appears that the sin of Rebi Akiva’s students was Torah related. So how do we understand this?
Rebi Akiva and his students were the pinnacle of Torah study in Eretz Yisrael, the top of the top. If Rebi Akiva was learning reams of halachot from every “extrusion” on the letters in the Torah (if you examine the Torah script, you will notice some letters have extrusions above them) then the Torah of Rebi Akiva was not only the 63 Masechtot of the Mishna we have today, but probably ten times that, or more.
If someone wanted to send their son to study in yeshiva, Rebi Akiva’s yeshiva was the elite, the cream of the crop. Only the best students went there, were accepted there, were capable of understanding what they were learning there, were capable of keeping pace with the study there. To be a student of Rebi Akiva, you had to be extremely gifted and super intelligent. There were other yeshivot, other rabbanim, but none matched Rebi Akiva’s for level of study and for number of students.
Aside from yeshiva students, the majority of Am Yisrael were working folk, not yeshiva material.
What are the Midrashim above are telling us is that the talmidim of Rebi Akiva had “small eyes” when it came to their Torah study. After the tens of thousands of his students perished, Rebi Akiva’s advice to his remaining five students was “Don’t follow those that died, fill Eretz Yisrael with Torah,” meaning that the students that died did not fill all of Eretz Yisrael with Torah. They sat in their ivory towers of learning and spearheaded the forefront of Torah study, but this Torah never got to the rest of Am Yisrael – they never shared it, they kept it to themselves.
How could this possibly be? A teacher of Rebi Akiva’s stature and students, Taana’im, of that stature? How could they possibly be so selfish?
Perhaps we can understand it from another Gemara (Bava Metzia 62b). If two people are stranded in a desert and only one has a bottle of water to drink. If they both share the one bottle, they will both die of thirst. If only one of them drinks the water, he will survive and make it back to civilization. What to do? Ben Petorah says “Better that they both drink and both die rather than one seeing his friend perish.” Until Rebi Akiva came along and taught “Your life is more important than the life of your friend.” If the bottle of water belongs to you, you must drink it all and survive and your friend must die. The halacha is like Rebi Akiva.
Rebi Akiva’s students heard this ruling about the bottle of water and took it one step further. If someone owns a “bottle of water,” Torah (compared to water), he has two choices. If you are a top-of-the-top student, the pinnacle of Torah study, a student of Rebi Akiva and you have 24 hours in the day, how do you spend them? Do you spend them using your incredible talents to research and uncover more hidden secrets of the Torah, or do you split your time between research and teaching what you already know to others. If you do the former, you will exponentially expand the Shas, but only an elite few will understand it and know it. If you do the latter, more people will learn and understand these Torah secrets, but you will miss out on discovering other, new secrets.
They came to the conclusion, based on Rebi Akiva’s psak above, that it is better for the owner of the “bottle” to drink and survive – not waste his limited resources on his friend, but rather reach his maximum potential in his lifetime.
As a result, Rebi Akiva’s students, instead of going down to and mingling with the rest of Am Yisrael, on a lower level, and teaching what they had discovered, preferred to remain in their ivory towers of study and push the envelope to the next level.
Rebi Akiva’s Torah that interpreted each and every extrusion on every letter has been lost – his students never taught it to anyone else, they had “small eyes” with their Torah. But more importantly, Rebi Akiva never taught it to the final five students! Perhaps his reasoning was that this level of study was too dangerous and too destructive. The fact is, we no longer have it, it did not survive.
Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: How much flour (Solet) is there in each loaf of Lechem HaPanim?
Answer to Last Shiur’s Trivia Question: What is “Pigul“? A “disqualified” Korban, one that cannot be offered or eaten, for one or more of a variety of reasons.