[Avodah] Rabbi Akiva's Students' Deaths as Soldiers in Bar Kochba's Army? A thorough critique of the theory

[Zvi Lampel]

>
> RMB: What I said about "iskara" [the idea that the Y-mi's "iskarah" wasn't
> a lung disease (askara) but the

type of low-ranking Roman soldier who carried a dagger (sicarii)] is found
> in most divrei Torah
> that refer to the idea at al. (Hit Google
> <https://www.google.com/search?&q=%22sicarii%22+rabbi+akiva%27s+students>
> ...I think this element started with R Shlomo Riskin; but many others run
> with it.)
>
> I think RSY's oversight of a key part of the argument as frequently
> presented is a major limitation of the article you shared....[as it
> is] the most compelling one.
>
>  In defense of RSY I would have pointed out that his information came from
sefarim and hard copy articles, and not from blogs, or indeed any
non-Hebrew language sources.

But even by googling (in English and Hebrew) Askara or Askarah+Akiva, it
seems that R. Riskin's idea, of relating the word askara to sicarii, is far
from being "frequently presented." I haven't even found it to be noted at
all by any others. (Another example:
https://lib.cet.ac.il/pages/item.asp?item=16918)

Neither did I find such in a random look at some of the160 sources that
come up in your link

https://www.google.com/search?&q=%22sicarii%22+rabbi+akiva%27s+students.

Perhaps you can specify, say, three of them that agree to, or even mention,
the theory that Rav Nachman's "iskarah" was the type of low-ranking Roman
soldier who carried a dagger (sicarii)], to support your critique that
"RSY's oversight of a key part of the argument as frequently
presented is a major limitation of the article ....[as it is] the most
compelling one"?

I of course do come up with several promoters of the idea that Rabbi
Akiva's students died either in battle in the Bar Kochba rebellion or in
punishment for their participation in or advocacy thereof. (In
https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/26881/is-there-any-evidence-that-rabbi-akivas-students-fought-alongside-bar-kochba
one discussant connects askera to asphyxiation, and takes it as a reference
not to a sickness, the ubiquitous meaning, but to the result of
crucifixion.)  But I have only been addressing your contention that  Rav
Nachman's "iskarah" was a type of low-ranking Roman soldier (and therefore
a reference to the alleged death in battle of Rabbi Akiva's students in Bar
Kochba's army.)

One mistake I did find in RSY's presentation is the claim (p. 10, note 18,
in the name of R. Yisrael Eliyahu [HaOtzar, gilyon 78]) that Rav Nachman
himself, the author of the statement (in Yevamos 62b) that the students
died from askarah, states (in Sota 35a) that when the Torah says the
meraglim died in a mageyfa, it means they died b'askara! So the very person
who attributed Rabbi Akiva's students' deaths to "askara,'' defined the
word to mean a plague.

Trouble is, the first statement was made by Rav Nachman stam (bar Yaakov),
and the second by Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak.

Zvi Lampel
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