Rabbi Akiva’s soul was moved by Shlomo Ha’Melech’s description of HaShem’s love for the Jewish people (8:6-7):
Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away.
Asaph saw in the greatest tragedy to befall the Jewish nation in 500 years as the never ceasing compassion and fidelity of HaShem for His children Yisrael. That despite the fact that the quality of justice rightfully demanded the most severe punishment for the Jewish nation, Hashem vented his wrath on the physical Temple not on the Jewish population.
A motion picture is comprised of thousands of individual frames. So too is one’s life of 70 years or even a whole generation no more than a tiny frame in the larger picture of HaShem’s world plan.
And just as one cannot grasp the plot and sub-plots of a film by viewing it for one minute, one cannot grasp the plots and many sub-plots and directions in the history of mankind from the first day that Adam and Eve walked the earth even within a lifespan of 120 years.
Time is the ultimate supernatural gift that HaShem has given to the Jewish people, and indeed only to us. HaShem granted us the ability to transform its fleeting elements – seconds, minutes, hours, days, and Sabbatical cycles, into eternal entities. We do so by performing mitzvot which transfer the “this world” dimension of time into eternal spiritual entities which are the building blocks of our personal place in Gan Eden.
However these must be authentic mitzvot.
What is an authentic mitzva, as apart from an unauthentic one?
The very thought that HaShem would cease His continuous dialogue with His nation Yisrael, albeit temporarily, is fundamentally flawed.
Granted, the last authentic prophet in the world was our own prophet Malachi – claimed by some to have been Ezra HaSofer who restored the Second Bet Hamikdash some 2360 years ago. And granted that the “bat kol” – a voice from nowhere which was heard occasionally in the bet midrash of the Amoraim – has also ceased. And granted that the concept of “da’as Torah” ceased being relevant the moment two great rabbis issued contradictory halachic decisions.
Nevertheless, HaShem sends very clear messages if one has the appropriate receptors. These receptors are the objective ability to interpret how current events are designed specifically for the Jewish nation, even if they occur 1000 kilometers from the nearest Jew.
There are two essential acts which HaShem requires of us at this time: 1- To prepare our army to the best of our ability and resources, and 2- to pray to HaShem.
What should we pray for at this very fragile time in history?
On the 27th of Nisan, we commemorate collectively and on the national level the 20th century Shoah in Europe. New investigations have proven that the number 6 million is inaccurate, with the true figure closer to 7.5 million Jews who were murdered or died in the Shoah.
The people of my generation born in the 1920s and 30s bear witness not to one Shoah but to two, both emanating from the two faces of Aisav …
