[Avodah] Hopeful Vision

[Richard Wolberg]

To Rabbi Akiva, what was most important was the transcending of the  
world
and its limitations, and hence in a mitzvah the essential element was  
what was
common to each, that it embodies the will of God which has no  
limitations.
Therefore he says that the Israelites responded primarily to this common
element in receiving the Torah and they said "yes" to positive and  
negative
alike.

We can in fact go deeper in our understanding of Rabbi Akiva's  
statement.
When he says that the Israelites said "yes" to the negative  
commandments, this
was not simply that they sensed in them the element common to all  
expressions of
God's will; but more strongly, that they only saw what was positive  
even in
a negative thing-the holiness that an act of restraint brings about.

This sheds light on the supernatural statement in the Torah that the
Israelites "heard what was normally seen." For since the physical  
world's
existence was for them only an intellectual perception and the only  
sensed
reality was the existence of God, they could not sense the existence  
of things
which opposed holiness ("the other gods") but saw only the act of  
affirmation
involved in "Thou shall have no other gods."

We can see this orientation of Rabbi Akiva very clearly in the story  
related
in the Talmud, that Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, Rabbi  
Joshua and
Rabbi Akiva were on a journey and decided to return to Jerusalem  
(after the
destruction of the second Temple). When they reached Mt. Scopus they  
rent
their garments. When they reached the Temple Mount, they saw a fox  
emerging from
the Holy of Holies and they began to weep-but Rabbi Akiva laughed.  
They asked
him: "Why are you laughing?" and he replied: "Why are you weeping?"  
They said, it
is written, "the common man who goes near (to the Holy of Holies)  
shall die,''
and now foxes enter it-should we not cry?

He said, "this is why I laugh. For it is written 'And I will take to  
Me faithful
witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.' Now  
what
connection has Uriah with Zechariah? Uriah lived during the times of the
First Temple, while Zechariah prophesied at the time of the second.  
But the Torah
links the prophecies of both men. Uriah wrote, 'therefore shall  
Zion,because of
you, be plowed like a field.' And Zechariah wrote 'Yet shall old men and
women sit in the broad places of Jerusalem.' So long as Uriah's  
prophecy had not
been fulfilled, I was afraid that Zechariah's would not be. Now that  
it has, it
is certain that Zechariah's will come true."

Even in the darkest moment of Jewish history-when foxes ran freely in  
the
Holy of Holies, Rabbi Akiva saw only the good: That this was proof  
that the
serene and hopeful vision of Zechariah would be vindicated.
Adapted from Chabad  "Torah Stories"


My personal feelings have been very optimistic also for another  
reason. It
is our traditional belief that God knows everything that will ever  
occur.
Hence, if the end of man were to be total evil, then it seems unlikely  
that
God would have created a world doomed to failure.
ri



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