Always Holy
This week I’m sending out these words from Teveria where the Tomb of Rabbi Akiva is located. Rav Schorr, in his comments on this week’s parsha, brings a teaching of the Radziner Rebbe about the death of Rebbe Akiva, so I thought that would be a good place to start. Many of us are familiar with the Gemara’s account (Brachot 61b) of Rebbe Akiva’s death at the hands of the Romans after the Bar Kochba revolution. As the Romans were torturing him, Rebbe Akiva famously said Shema, and in his last words to his students, he explained why. He said, “All my life, I didn’t know when I could fulfill the words of the Shema, ‘with all your soul.’ Now I can.” The Gemara testifies that he died with the word echad on his lips.
The Radziner explains that Rebbe Akiva did not say Shema the way we say Shema. Rebbe Akiva accepted the Kingship of Hashem with intense, unparalleled connection to Hashem. His soul connected to its source, and he was completely willing to give up everything, including life itself. It was almost to the point where his soul was released from his body. Almost, but not quite. Rebbe Akiva could not allow his soul to rise freely and return to its source because of the pasuk in this week’s parsha (Vayikra 18:5): “v’chai bahem, you shall live in them.” He was commanded by Hashem to be here, in his body.
However, at the moment of his torture, death was imminent. The command of “live in them” no longer applied. Rebbe Akiva could say Shema with no restrictions. Through his complete attachment to Hashem as he uttered the word echad, he gave his soul back to his maker The Romans could not rule over the powerful soul of Rebbe Akiva.
Rav Schorr explains that the death of Nadav and Avihu, which opens this week’s parsha, was a similar situation. Nadav and Avihu were offering ketoret, the incense offering. The ketoret is a korban which has the power to connect a person so closely to the source of life that it can stop a plague. This is in fact how Moshe used it to stop the plague after Korach’s rebellion. But for Nadav and Avihu it had the opposite effect. They died from coming too close to Hashem. The Zera Kodesh describes how Nadav and Avihu were such tremendous tzaddikim that they regularly attained a level of connection to Hashem where they would come to the point of death with each mitzvah. The mitzvah itself would then become their source of life, and revive them. In this case, however, the Torah tells us “they were not commanded.” They were following no command when they brought this korban, and so there was no mitzvah that could revive them. Their souls returned to complete connection with Hashem and they died.
Mitzvot connect us to the source. But the way we use the mitzvot, and the way we understand the potential of the mitzvot, impacts the way we experience them. Ramban illustrates this vividly in his commentary to “v’chai bahem.” Halachically, this mitzvah is an instruction to prioritize saving a life over other mitzvot. However, Ramban explains that this pasuk is also a description of spiritual reality.
The mitzvot are our true source of life. We live through the mitzvot. And not just in a vague, general way, but in a way that is specific to each person. The way that we do a mitzvah determines the life force we are able to draw from the mitzvah. Mitzvot which are done for our own material needs nourish us with life in this world. Mitzvot we do for the sake of gaining the world to come save us from punishment in the world to come. But mitzvot done with love for Hashem open the doors to eternal life, even while they nourish us in this life as well. Mitzvot done with complete devotion and attachment, in the way of Eliyahu Hanavi and Chanoch, create the possibility of eternal life, body and soul together.
Mitzvot are not only a source of life. Just as there is life-force without limit in every mitzvah, there is a force of unlimited kedusha in every mitzvah as well. Parshat Kedoshim opens with the instruction, “kedoshim tehiyu, you shall be holy.” Rav Schorr points out that Moshe was instructed to teach this mitzvah to the entire congregation together (Vayikra 19:2). It is a message to each and every Jew, and it contains within it both a warning and a promise. The warning is that we have the obligation to separate ourselves from that which can harm us spiritually, even those things that might technically be allowed. The promise is that we remain eternally connected to Hashem, and therefore eternally kadosh.
Our kedusha is eternal, everlasting, and without limits because it stems from Hashem, Who is of course without limits. We therefore retain the ability, regardless of where we find ourselves in life, to sanctify ourselves. In addition, Hashem promises us that He will place us in situations that push us toward kedusha. In the end, personally and nationally, we will remain kadosh. As a nation, we will return to the level we experienced at Har Sinai. We are traveling a long and winding path. But we are traveling a path that has a specific destination. We will ultimately come to a place of connection and kedusha. We had not yet reached our destination at the time of Rabbi Akiva. Nevertheless, he knew how to experience joy and connection, to draw eternal life force, from any situation. He knew how to do it in a way that continues to revitalize the nation today.
May we be zoche to learn from Rebbe Akiva, and to apply his example to all the simple and joyful experiences of our lives. May we be zoche to use those experiences to the fullest, and to allow them to bring us closer to Hashem, to our true selves and to our real destiny.