From "Rabbi Akiva's Secret to Success" by Bluma Gordeon, Aish HaTorah
Rabbi Akiva had so many factors working against his favor, he could have easily adopted a “victim mentality” and given up even before he tried. Here are some things that could have stopped him from reaching his full potential:
1. He knew too little
While we might assume that Rabbi Akiva was born into a family with a great lineage of Rabbis, he was, in fact, the son of a convert to Judaism who was unfortunately unable to provide him with a basic Jewish education. Before Rabbi Akiva began studying, he worked as a shepherd and didn’t know how to read Hebrew.
2. He was too late
At the mature age of 40 – well after the official window of language learning and reading closes – Rabbi Akiva joined a class of small school children to learn the Hebrew Aleph Bet.
While Rabbi Akiva found absorbing a new curriculum, language, and perspective at his age discouraging, he persevered. The midrash tells us that one day Rabbi Akiva passed by a well and noticed a rock nearby with a hole in it. When he asked the people there how the rock got a hole, they answered that the water dripping from the well eventually eroded part of the rock. When Rabbi Akiva heard this he became encouraged and said: “If soft water can penetrate a hard rock, then Torah learning can also penetrate my heart of stone.”
3. It was too hard
Rabbi Akiva and his righteous wife Rachel suffered from dire poverty. When Rachel’s wealthy and scholarly father heard that Rachel chose to marry an ignoramus among tens of other suitable mates – Rachel, in her wisdom, intuited Rabbi Akiva’s latent potential – he disowned Rachel and refused to give the young couple any financial support. They lacked basic necessities and Rachel cut and sold her hair so that Rabbi Akiva would be able to continue to learn.
Unlike the typical image of the hero who rose to sudden glory and fame through one courageous act, Rabbi Akiva’s journey of upward growth was gradual. Only after 24 years of intense Torah study did he gain renown as a Torah leader and amass a following of 24,000 followers and star pupils.
4. And then – tragedy struck.
Rabbi Akiva was already in his old age and, like a Mt. Everest climber, stood at the breathtaking summit following an arduous journey. Then suddenly, tragedy struck and every one of his students perished in a plague. While anyone of lower stature would have understandably thrown up his arms and say, “That’s it God, I tried,” Rabbi Akiva didn’t let this enormous setback discourage him. He got up and started teaching again from scratch. Rabbi Akiva gained another five students, one who was the famed Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai who revealed the hidden parts of the Torah. These five students became the future leaders and transmitters of Torah to the Jewish people.
Rabbi Akiva possessed the quality of grit in spades and that helped fuel his achievements.
Angela Duckworth documents in her bestseller Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance how grit predicts long-term success in nearly every realm of life. A passion for one’s goal, perseverance, determination and how one chooses to respond to failure – all these trump talent, IQ level, and favorable environmental conditions. The great Rabbi Akiva is a testimony to the power of human will over all obstacles.
Which element of Rabbi Akiva inspires you the most and why?
According to our tradition, Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai unlocked many secrets of the Torah when he and his son retreated to a cave to escape Roman persecution. We celebrate the great light of Torah that he learned and taught with the fires of Lag B'Omer. He is named as the author of the ZOHAR by mystics in order to link their soul to his. Study some ZOHAR in his memory and listen to songs that celebrate him below the text passages.
The ZOHAR (3:291b) describes Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai's revelations:
Rabbi Shimon spent the entire day in a prophetic stream of consciousness, revealing the deepest mystical secrets of Torah. He told his students: "Until now, I have held the secrets close to my heart. But now, before I die, I wish to reveal all."
Rabbi Abba, a student assigned with the job of transcribing Rabbi Shimon's words, reports: "I couldn't even lift my head due to the intense light emanating from Rabbi Shimon. The entire day the house was filled with fire, and nobody could get close due to the wall of fire and light. At the end of the day, the fire finally subsided, and I was able to look at the face of Rabbi Shimon: He was dead, wrapped in his Tallis, lying on his right side – and smiling."
Why was Rabbi Shimon bathed in light and fire? Because Torah is compared to fire – Fire is that material which converts physical matter into energy. So too, Torah shows us how to transform the material world into a transcendent energy.
How does Torah help you transform our material world into transcendent energy? holy moments?
The ZOHAR describes his last day as revealing there is truly eternal life:
...Rabbi Shimon sat and expounded. Rabbi Abba sat before him and wrote, and his son, Rabbi Elazar repeated the matters. All the disciples listened and were moved. The fire rose in flames around them, and the sun did not set. He revealed secrets of the Torah from the furnace of the hidden secrets, until he came to the verse: "For there G-d commanded the blessing, eternal life." (Psalms 133:30)
Rabbi Abba said, "Our holy teacher did not finish saying the word 'life' before his words grew weak. I, who was writing, wanted to write more, but I could not hear. And I did not lift my head, because the light was so intense, and I was not able to look. When I heard a heavenly voice call out, saying 'They will add length of days and years of life and peace for you…' I was shaken. I heard another voice: 'He asked life of You, You gave it to him, a length of days forever and ever.' The entire day, the house was enveloped in fire, and no one drew close to it, of it was surrounded by fire and light."
What do you believe about eternal life? About the soul?
Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 33b
Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yosi and Rabbi Shimon were sitting, and Yehuda, son of converts, sat beside them. Rabbi Yehuda opened and said “How pleasant are the actions of this nation, the Romans, as they established marketplaces, established bridges, and established bathhouses.” Rabbi Yosi was silent. Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai responded and said, “Everything that they established, they established only for their own purposes. They established marketplaces, to place prostitutes in them; bathhouses, to pamper themselves; and bridges, to collect taxes from all who pass over them.” Yehuda, son of converts, went and related their statements to his household, and those statements continued to spread until they were heard by the monarchy. They ruled and said, “Yehuda, who exalted (us) shall be exalted. Yosi, who remained silent, shall be exiled to the city of Tzippori. And Shimon, who denounced the government, shall be killed.”
Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai and his son, Rabbi Elazar, went and hid in the study hall. Every day Rabbi Shimon’s wife would bring them bread and a jug of water and they would eat. When the decree intensified, Rabbi Shimon said to his son, “women are easily impressionable and, therefore, there is room for concern lest the authorities torture her and she reveal our whereabouts.”
They went and they hid in a cave. A miracle occurred and a carob tree was created for them as well as a spring of water. They would remove their clothes and sit covered in sand up to their necks. They would study Torah all day in that manner. At the time of prayer, they would dress, cover themselves, and pray, and they would again remove their clothes afterward so that they would not become tattered. They dwelled in the cave for twelve years.
Elijah the Prophet came and stood at the entrance to the cave and said, “who will inform bar Yoḥai that the emperor died and his decree has been anulled?” They emerged from the cave, and saw people who were plowing and sowing. Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai said “these people abandon eternal life and occupy themselves with temporary things!” Every place that they directed their eyes was immediately burned.
A Divine Voice emerged and said to them, “did you emerge from the cave in order to destroy My world? Return to your cave.” They again went and sat there for twelve months.
They said “the judgment of the wicked in Gehenna lasts for twelve months.” A Divine Voice emerged and said to them, “emerge from your cave.” They emerged.
Everywhere that Rabbi Elazar would strike, Rabbi Shimon would heal. Rabbi Shimon said to Rabbi Elazar: My son, you and I suffice for the entire world.
As the sun was setting on Shabbat eve, they saw an elderly man who was holding two bundles of myrtle branches and running at twilight. They said to him: Why do you have these? He said to them: In honor of Shabbat. They said to him: And let one suffice. He answered them, "one is corresponding to: “Remember the Shabbat day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8), and one is corresponding to: “Observe the Shabbat day, to keep it holy” (Deuteronomy 5:12). Rabbi Shimon said to his son, "see how beloved the mitzvot are to Israel." Their minds were put at ease.
Rabbi Pineḥas ben Ya’ir, Rabbi Shimon’s son-in-law, heard and went out to greet him. He brought him into the bathhouse and began tending to his flesh. He saw that Rabbi Shimon had cracks in the skin on his body. He was crying, and the tears fell from his eyes and caused Rabbi Shimon pain. Rabbi Pineḥas said to him, “woe is me, that I have seen you like this!”
Rabbi Shimon said to him, “Happy are you that you have seen me like this, as had you not seen me like this, you would not have found in me this way (with this wisdom.)”
At first, when Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai would raise a difficulty, Rabbi Pineḥas ben Ya’ir would respond to his question with twelve answers. Ultimately, when Rabbi Pineḥas ben Ya’ir would raise a difficulty, Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai would respond with twenty-four answers.
He said, "Since a miracle took place, I will go and fix something, as it is written 'And Ya'akov returned intact' (Genesis 33:18).
And Rav said [about that], "Intact in his body, intact in his money and intact in his[knowledge] of Torah.") 'and he graced the face of the city.'" Rav said [about that], "He instituted a coin." And Shmuel said "He set up marketplaces." And Rabbi Yochanan said, "He set up bathhouses."
He (Rabbi Shimon) said, “is there something that needs repair?” They said to him, “There is a place where there is a doubt about impurity; and the priests have trouble going out [there]." He said, "Is there a man who knows where it was assumed to be pure [there]?" A certain elder said to him, "Ben Zakkat would cut down lupines from the priestly tithe (terumah) here." He did like this as well. Everywhere that [the land] was hard, he rendered pure, and everywhere where it was soft, he marked it off [as impure].
A certain elder said [scornfully], "Ben Yochai purified a cemetery!" He said to him, "If you had not (not) been with us - and even if had been with his and not been counted with us, you would have said well. [But] now that you were with us and you were counted with us, they will say, 'Prostitutes apply make up to one another, should Torah scholars not all the more so [be kind to one another]?'"
[Rabbi Shimon] placed his eyes upon him and the elder died. He went out to the market and saw Yehuda son of converts. He said, "Is this one still in the world?" He placed his eyes upon him and made him into a heap of bones.