Why Did Only Rebbe Akiva’s Yeshiva Suffer from Sinas Chinam Issues?
Something happened over Shavuos. Should I tell you about it? Although the yom tov has already passed, I think I will.
One of the more challenging elements of writing a weekly column is that one must write about the yom tov before it arrives. However, once that yom tov issue already arrives on store shelves and in people’s mailboxes, invariably over that given yom tov sudden stories develop, intriguing events unfold, and curious happenings take place. So often, by the time the next year comes around those stories are long forgotten. For this reason, I am always challenged if I should share stories from yom tov in the post yom tov issue.
But Shavuos may be different. Nesinas hatorah can never be bound by time, and for this reason, explain many, does the Torah never itself refer to this day as yom matan toroseinu; for Torah is given, or ready to be received, daily. Perhaps this gives us the allowance to talk about Shavuos still after its days have passed.
I was walking home from shul on yom tov when someone approached me with a question. It was such a simple question, but like many seemingly basic inquiries, it was one that was also so profound.
We know that the days of sefira not only count toward shavuos, but also remind us of the deaths of 24,000 students of Rebbe Akiva due to their not treating each other with proper respect. While this certainly reminds us that the Torah is not simply a book of laws to be studied but a way of life to be lived, there was something that had been bothering him about these events.
There were many yeshivos in the day of Rebbe Akiva, so why is it that only his yeshiva suffered from this deficiency? Why don’t we find this problem in the other yeshivos of the time? What was it about this yeshiva in particular that caused this sickness?
This is one of those questions that seem so simplistic at first blush that one may be tempted to brush it off with a quick answer, like I tried to do.
“Well, this was such a special yeshiva that it may have caused the talmididm to have too high of a self-worth” I first suggested.
“But in every generation-going back to Shem and Eiver, there have been many special and unique yeshivos, and we do not find that those students suffered from this yetzer hara” he rebutted.
I said I would think about it. And I did. Throughout yom tov I continually returned to this question in my mind. But each time that I would come up with a suggestion I would quickly realize its inherent weakness, only to start thinking about it again.
On the second day of Shavuos I was reviewing a famous gemara in Nedarim (50a) that tells us of the amazing life of Rebbe Akiva. After leaving his wife to go learn forfor 12 years he returns only to realize that she would be willing to give more years. So as not to make his leaving difficult, he heads back to yeshiva right away. Another 12 years pass, this time he returns to town with 24,000 students in tow.
I read the gemara again just to make sure that I did not misread what I saw.
Could it be? Did I just discover what was unique about his yeshiva?! Rebbe Akiva built this yeshiva during the time he was away from his wife and family.
It is important to learn Torah from one’s Rosh Yeshiva, and to learn middos from him as well. But when do you see the Rosh Yeshiva interact with a co-equal? When do you learn to emulate how he acts? And, through this, how to speak to your chavrusah, your friends in the dormitory? If you are like many, it is when you see how your rebbe interacts with his family, his spouse and those in his life.
Rebbe Akiva, of course, did nothing incorrect. He led his yeshiva with dignity and grace, and taught them every day that v’ohavta l’rayacha kemochah is a klal gadol b’Torah. However, his was a unique yeshiva as it was formed, as the gemara relates, away from the rosh yeshiva’s wife.
His talmidim never had the opportunity to witness his interactions at the Shabbos table.
When I told this approach to my congregant he was elated, but I was frightened. It reminded me that as a rav most of my teachings would not come through powerful sermons, rather by what the shul will witness with their own eyes; how I behave, how I treat my co-equals.
I was reminded of the story of Rav Shlomo Zalman Aurbach who while walking home with a talmid arrived at his home. Before entering he made sure to clean his beard and wipe his suit clean. The student remarked to his rebbe that he was likely doing this because he wished to look proper for his rebbetzin.
Rav Aurbach responded that while that was a part of it, the ikar reason for his cleaning his clothes is because chazal teach that when there is shalom bayis in a home the shechinah itself dwells therein, and he was prepapring himself to greet the shechinah!
Imagine the impression that made on this student!
In honor of this year’s Shavuos issue we dedicated this space to demonstrate the mysterious origins of some of the more common maxims among the Jewish people.
Many of these were mistakenly thought to be taken directly from chazal. There is another type of phrase used equally as common, and that we know do not stem from chazal. Often these are in Yiddish, and just as often reveal a nation steeped in Torah and its ways.
One of these is the minhag among many to call last week’s Shabbos (parshas nasso), the Shabbos after Shavuos ‘shabbos nuch shavuos’- the Shabbos after Shavuos.
We do not find this expression after Sukkos or Pesach, only Shavuos.
Why?
Some explain this phrase (Kol Mevaser) that since we know that the Torah was given on Shabbos we wish to remember this fact with this statement.
Many others explain based on the gemara (Chagigah 26) that the multitude of olei regalim were shown the miraculous lechem hapanim on Shabbos chol hamoed. Since Shavuos does not contain a chol hamoed they would show this ness to am yisroel on the Shabbos nuch shavuos.
The late Lubavitcher Rebbe explains this phrase based on a statement found in the Rambam. At the end of seder ahava Rambam lists the order of teffilos and gives us the language of yaaleh v’yavo for chol hamoed “pesach, sukkos and shavuos”. But shavuos has no chol hamoed! Rather the week of tashlumin after Shavuos must then carry mamesh the same weight as shavuos itself, and for this reason do we give the Shabbos and week after this unique phrase.
However, the sefer Divrei Dovid, from the son of Reb Yisroel of Razdzin gives us another, beautiful, explanation for this expression.
The Yiddish word ‘nuch’ can be ‘after’-causing this axiom to be translated innocently as ‘the Shabbos after Shavuos’. However, the word ‘nuch’ can also mean something else: ‘still’. With this translation, the phrase really means something quite intriguing: ‘the Shabbos that is still Shavuos’.
It is for this reason, says ‘Pardes Yosef Hachodosh’ (Nasso, first entry), that the midrashim on parshas nasso and the parshios to follow are longer than those on any other parsha –for the influence of Shavuos does not fade, our rededication to the Torah that we embraced on Shavuos does not falter, and our endearment to His code only grows stronger after this yom tov, all this causes an expansion of our understanding of the Torah for weeks to come !
Hopefully, in addition to learning about this phrase, I have also given myself permission to talk about one small incident that took place over shavuos, an incident that re-enforced my, and every rav’s job as a teacher of Torah.
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