Have you ever spent much time thinking about the early rabbis, like those at the time of the Holy Temple – Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues? Have you learned anything about the unfolding of history from the time of the Chumash until present times? If you have, who are your favourite rabbis or Biblical characters? What do you learn from them?
The last few years has seen many changes and strange happenings taking place. The Covid 19 pandemic is just one of them but an important one that has disrupted our lives in many ways.
Many talk about the pandemic as though it is the first to occur in the world. In truth, if we look at the history of the world and of the Jewish people in particular, plagues and pandemics do occur. They are one of many ways that G-d tries to waken us to correct our ways and focus on the direction that He wants to world to be going in.
Let’s take a look at some important lessons that we can learn from the life of Rabbi Akiva. Remember, Rabbi Akiva lived at the time of the end of the Second Temple. He was one of the contributing rabbis to the Mishnah. The important role that Rabbi Akiva played is so great that most of the Torah that we have filling our Seforim today, can be traced back to Rabbi Akiva.
That’s interesting, you might say? What does he have to do with Covid 19? Well, every year from the second day of Pesach all the way up to Lag B’Omer, we have certain laws of mourning to follow. These laws are in place as a reminder for the catastrophe that took place when 24 000 students of Rabbi Akiva all died in a plague.
That thought is usually hard to conceptualize until we think about what has been happening during our current plague. Have you taken a look at the statistics? How many have died in one area over a short period of time?
We know that there was a specific reason that the students of Rabbi Akiva died. We also know that they stopped dying on Lag B’Omer. The truth is, that this is not the only time that the rabbis were able to determine what the reason for the plague was. In years gone by, many times when a pandemic happened, the rabbis were able to let us know the reason why Hashem was angry with us and sent a plague.
Whatever the reason for today’s time, one of the best antidotes is the study of Torah. The problem is that many come up with all kinds of excuses as to why they don’t or can’t or won’t study Torah.
Some of the details in the video above have changed. Sadly, at present we are not able to offer the live Shiurim. However, we invite you to:
- become a Patron on our Patreon to enable us to continue to share videos on our YouTube Channel
- sign up to learn Torah, either individually or in a group, with Rabbi Eliyahu Shear
- if you are older, you might enjoy our special service for seniors. Following the example of Rabbi Akiva, age is not a reason to refrain from learning.
- If you have any questions, post a comment at the end of the video or send a question to us via our contact page
- You might also enjoy purchasing a copy of Rabbi Eliyahu’s book Parshah in Just Two Minutes, as seen briefly in the video.