We are getting closer to Shavuot, and have just passed the Lag B’Omer point, which was when the students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying and the new students came about.
It says that they died because, “Lo Nehagu Kavod Zeh LaZeh/They didn’t act with respect one to another.” Rabbi Akiva himself told his five new students to be careful, not to repeat the same mistake. And we are now in the days of that lesson, so we should know exactly what “Lo Nehagu Kavod Zeh LaZeh” means.
One of the Rabbis that we visited in Eretz Yisrael said that it doesn’t say that they did anything wrong. It was just a lack of kavod/honor. They didn’t have a certain amount of kavod.
They explain that Rabbi Akiva himself didn’t pick up on it. The Rabbi said that Rav Shach told a story to explain this lack of kavod:
There were two great rabbis, Rabbi Akiva Eiger, the Chief Rabbi of Posen, and Rabbi Yaakov of Lissa, known for his Sefer Netivot Hamishpat. They were once in another town together as guests, and the town gave the Aliyah L’Torah to Rabbi Akiva Eiger. When they announced this, he fainted.
Why did he faint? Because he felt it was a lack of respect to the other Rabbi, that he got the Aliya while that rabbi did not. The Netivot Hamishpat said that he would revive him, which he did by whispering in the Rabbi’s ear, “The reason why you got the Aliyah was not because they felt that you were greater than me, but rather that you are the Rabbi of a city with more people.”
With this, Rabbi Akiva Eiger was revived.
This story is an example of a lack of kavod. It’s a lack of the positive, and not that anything was actually done wrong. The Rabbi who told us this story was Rav Matityahu Deutsch, the Rabbi of Ramat Shlomo, the city where Yeshivat Mikdash Melech is located. It’s also where kollel Ohel Yosef, the kollel that has been adopted by the Yad Yosef Torah Center, is located.
Rabbi Deutsch told us a beautiful thought on Ahavat Yisrael. He asked why it is that if a Sefer Torah that has two letters touching, it’s pasul/invalid.
It says that are 600,000 letters in the Torah, corresponding to 600,000 Jews. However, if you count them, it’s actually not 600,000. There are different explanations as to how we find 600,000 letters in the Torah if they don’t all really exist. One of the answers is that it depends on what kind of Jew you are. Certain Jews have a letter, while other Jews might have the crown of a letter, and other Jews might have a part of a letter ( Alef, for example, is made up of three parts: a vav and two yuds).
Then there are certain Jews that don’t have a letter in the Torah; they have the space between the letters. That is their part of the Torah. They are empty, but they also accomplish something. They are the space between the letters. So when two letters touch, we are missing that Jew, and that is why that Sefer Torah becomes pasul.
What Jew does this refer to? It is the Jew that you don’t even see.
He’s irreligious, but he also makes up the Sefer Torah.
That is why we have to be careful with every Jew. By squashing that Jew, with the two letters touching, the entire Sefer Torah is pasul.
Have a wonderful day.