From Rabbi Akiva to Rambam: A History of Love, Conflict and Redemption

Throughout the generations, rather than being an amalgamation, the Jewish nation has succumbed to harmful relations, which even our sages had to endure, as evidenced by the following examples.

The Cost of Division: What We Can Learn from Rabbi Akiva’s Students

Rabbi Akiva lived between the 1st and 2nd century CE and became the greatest of all the sages in the Torah. He participated in composing the Mishnah and the Halacha [Jewish code of law].

The rumor of his great wisdom spread throughout the country, and 24,000 students from all parts of the world came to learn from him. Rabbi Akiva was a Kabbalist, and as such, put great emphasis on the foundation of the Torah: “‘Love your neighbor as yourself’; Rabbi Akiva says, ‘This is a great rule in the Torah.’”

In his essay “Matan Torah” [“The Giving of the Torah”], Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) explains that “when he says about the commandment ‘love your friend as yourself,’ that it is a great Klal [rule/collective] in the Torah, we must understand that the rest of the 612 commandments in the Torah, with all their interpretations, are no more and no less than the sum of the details inserted and contained in that single commandment, ‘love your friend as yourself.’”[1]

But Rabbi Akiva’s students could not abide by the rule of loving others because their egoistic desires grew beyond their ability to manage them, and the Talmud writes that they died because of that. “Rabbi Akiva had twelve thousand pairs of disciples, from Gevat to Antipatris, and all of them died at the same time because they did not treat each other with respect” (Yevamot, 62b.). The death of the disciples of Rabbi Akiva was the beginning of a period of spiritual desolation.

The Timeless Call for Unity: How RASHBI and His Group Fought to Overcome Ego and Hatred

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (RASHBI), the author of The Book of Zohar, lived in the middle of the second century CE. He studied with Rabbi Akiva for more than thirteen years and was among his foremost disciples.

When Rabbi Shimon spoke out against the Roman rule, a former disciple and fellow Jew called Judah ben Gerim overheard RASHBI’s critical words and reported them to the Roman authorities. As a result, Rabbi Shimon was tried in absentia and sentenced to death. The Romans searched for Rashbi in order to capture and execute him, but he fled and disappeared.

Rabbi Shimon and his son Elazar fled to Galilee and hid in a cave in the village of Peki’in for 13 years. While in the cave, they delved into the internality of the Torah, namely the wisdom of Kabbalah. When they emerged from their hiding, RASHBI gathered nine disciples of great sagacity, and with their help, wrote The Book of Zohar.

Despite the processes of development that brought the Jewish people to disputes, hatred, and subsequent ruin, the authors of The Zohar managed to stick together and achieve the qualities of bestowal and love. It was a special connection that held them together. It is precisely that unique connection between them that holds the secret to the book’s force and extraordinary quality.

The Zohar itself describes this process: “‘Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to also sit together.’ These are the friends as they sit together and are not separated from each other. At first, they seem like people at war, wishing to kill one another. Then they return to being in brotherly love.”[2]

The Resistance Against Maimonides

One of the most prominent sages who also suffered from fierce resistance was Maimonides, author of A Guide to the Perplexed, among other writings.

Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon (RAMBAM), known as Maimonides (1138–1204), was a scientist, physician, and one of the greatest interpreters of Jewish law of all time. But in his time, he suffered fierce objections when he published his books.

Maimonides’ approach was highly innovative compared to the traditional approach; it incited resistance among many rabbis. Letters condemning Maimonides were sent to Jewish leaders in France and ignited a heated debate that culminated in the banning of his books.

The ban expanded to Spain where Maimonides’ opposers appealed to the Inquisition to have his books burned on the grounds of heresy.

Throughout the ages, the example that we can take from our sages is that regardless of the conflicts and animosity that may erupt within the Jewish people, the sages understood that the fate of the Jews depended solely on their level of compliance with the requirement to be “as one man with one heart.”

Midrash Tanah De Bei Eliyahu, an ancient commentary on the Torah, writes,

“The Lord said to them, to Israel: ‘My sons, have I lacked anything that I should ask of you? And what do I ask of you? Only that you love one another, respect one another, and fear one another, and that there will be no transgression, theft, and ugliness among you.’”[3]

Similarly, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Halevi Epstein wrote in the 18th century about the timeless and undying covenant binding the Jewish nation depending on its level of unity,

“Afterwards, He [the Creator] said to them [Israel], ‘Not with you alone am I making this covenant,’ meaning that being saved from any harm by bonding was not promised only to Moses’s generation. “Rather, ‘But with those who stand here with us today … and with those who are not with us here today,’ meaning that all future generations have been promised it — to pass through all the bludgeons of the covenant, and that through the unity and bonding that will be among them, they would not be harmed.”[4]

This promise endures and awaits us.