I would like to share a famous Gemarah in Masechet Makot. If you’ve ever been to a Siyuum on Masechet Makot, you may be familiar with this, because it’s found at the end.
We mentioned it long ago when discussing reframing early on in this series. Reframing means looking at a situation in a new way. If you took a picture and changed the frame, the picture would look different.
The classic reframing example we use is the one from the Hovot HaLevavot, who tells us to look at the baby taking his first bath. The baby is crying and screaming before he even gets in. One could look at it as child abuse, but we know that his most loving mother, his grandmother, and maybe even his great- grandmother are there bathing him. How much love is in the room? How much concern is in that room?
But the baby doesn’t understand.
The Hovot HaLevavot says that in our lives, G-d sometimes gives us a bath, and maybe he uses a shampoo that we don’t like. Maybe it’s not Johnson and Johnson “No More Tears” shampoo.
Maybe it’s a “Tears” shampoo. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t love us, or that he doesn’t care about us. But it’s still hard for us, and we cry and scream. This classic reframe is one that we can always use, especially now.
Let’s study this Masechet Makot, learn the lesson of reframing, and bring it back to Pesach:
It says that great rabbis were walking together: Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Yehoshua Rabbi Akiva, and Rav Elazar Ben Azariah, (you may recognize these names from your Hagaddah, where it says that they all had a seder together. We will soon see why.)
As these contemporaries walked together, they heard loud noises of screaming, partying and laughter coming from Rome. They all began to cry, except Rabbi Akiva, who laughed. They asked why he was laughing. It was horrible. The Romans had destroyed the Bet HaMikdash. They worshipped idols and yet they sat serene and relaxed, while our Bet Hamikdash was burned with fire, and we shouldn’t cry?
Rabbi Akiva explained,
אני מצחק ומה לעוברי רצונו כך לעושי רצונו על אחת כמה וכמה
“That’s why I’m laughing. If that’s the way G-d treats those that sin, then they must have some merit. If so, imagine what’s going to happen to us!!”
Rabbi Akiva knew what was awaiting him. Even as his skin was peeled off with steel combs, when he was being tortured and killed at the end of his life. He said “Hashem Echad” as they peeled his skin. He knew what was waiting for him. He was a giant.
Another time, the Gemarah tells us, they were walking to Yerushalayim. They tore their clothes as they got to Mount Scopus.
When they arrived at the Temple Mount, they saw a fox coming from the Holy of Holies. The rabbis began crying, except Rabbi Akiva, who again, was laughing.
They asked him why he was laughing.
Rabbi Akiva asked them why they were crying. They answered that it was because they were a place that had been so holy that it says, the non-kohanim who approached should die, “and now foxes walk in it; and we shouldn’t cry?”
Rabbi Akiva said, “That’s why I’m laughing.” He quoted a prophecy that said, on one hand, that Mount Zion would turn into a field, with wild animals running through...
But, he said, it was connected to another prophecy that says,
עֹ֤ד יֵֽשְׁבוּ֙ זְקֵנִ֣ים וּזְקֵנ֔וֹת בִּרְחֹב֖וֹת יְרוּשָׁלִָ֑ם וְאִ֧ישׁ מִשְׁעַנְתּ֛וֹ בְּיָד֖וֹ מֵרֹ֥ב יָמִֽים׃
Once again, there will be old men and women in the squares of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age.
And the full Pasuk, not quoted in the Gemarah continues that...
וּרְחֹב֤וֹת הָעִיר֙ יִמָּ֣לְא֔וּ יְלָדִ֖ים וִֽילָד֑וֹת מְשַׂחֲקִ֖ים בִּרְחֹֽבֹתֶֽיהָ׃ (ס)
And the streets of the city shall be crowded with boys and girls playing in the squares.
We look forward to this coming true.
Rabbi Akiva explained that, “Until the first prophecy, with regard to the destruction of the city was fulfilled, I was afraid that the prophecy of Zechariah would not be fulfilled, as the two prophecies are linked. Now that the first prophecy was fulfilled, we are ready for the second prophecy to come true.”
Rabbi Akivah looked at these very challenging situations with different glasses. He reframed.
And the Gemara adds that the rabbis told him
עקיבא ניחמתנו, עקיבא ניחמתנו
Akiva, you have comforted us; Akiva, you have comforted us.
They said it twice, one time for each story.
What does Nechama mean? We use it as “comfort”, but the word first shows up when G-d, so to say, “changed His mind” about creation. It didn’t turn out the way He wanted it to. It says, וינחם
Rashi says this means He changed His mind. He says, of course, that it’s not like we change our minds.
But every time it says the word נחוםNechum, it means we’re changing our מחשבה - our thoughts.
When someone sits shiva, lo Alenu, and we say “TeNachamu Min Hashamayim,” it means “G-d should give you another way to look at it.”
There was a great man named Nachum Ish Gamzu. He always able to look at things and see them in a positive light. He’d always say,
“Gam zu le’Tova - this is also for the best.”
This is a constant Mitzvah.
Nachum Ish GamZu’s student happened to be Rabbi Akiva, who said something similar in Aramaic:
כל מה דעביר רחמנא לטב עביד
Everything that G-d does is for the good.
It’s a halacha in Shulchan Aruch. We have to say that.
There’s a famous story of Rabbi Akiva when he was walking in the fields and all he had was a candle, a donkey, and a rooster. He came to a certain town, but they wouldn’t let him in, so he slept in a field. Over night, a lion ate his donkey, a weasel ate rooster, and the wind blew out his candle. Still, he said Gam Zu leTova.
Then turned out that that night, bandits had come to the town he had wanted to enter, took everyone into captivity and looted everything. Rabbi Akiva survived. Gam zu LeTova. That was his outlook on life. He saw that everything was for the good. Rabbi Akiva is the one that taught us this concept. He lived it, and he gave it over the other rabbis.
And now for our punchline:
It says in the Hagddah that these rabbis were all in Bnei B’rak, which was Rabbi Akiva’s town.
Why were they all there? They all had families of their own. What made the them come to Rabbi Akiva’s seder in Bnei B’rak?
The Aruch Hashulchan gives an unbelievable answer.
It says that the reason they came there was that they had asked Rabbi Akiva where his strength of Emunah came from.
He was like Superman. 24,000 of his students died, but he kept going. He found five new students. He’s gone from a poor shepherd boy and rose to such greatness! His father in law had initially disowned him... where did he get such resilience from? How had he survived?
He told them that he got it all from the night of the Seder, and from Yetziat Mitzrayim. Yetziat Mitzrayim is the source of all Emunah.
So they decided they wanted to come watch his seder. It was the “nuclear reactor” of his Emunah.
We must know that this is the power of our Seder as well. We still have some time. Take time to prepare. Order some new books. Artscroll is still taking orders. Take out an old hagaddah. Go online. Watch classes. Take notes. Even if it’s only you and your wife, or you alone.
We need Emunah now more than ever. Let’s use our Seder to get the emunah, the proper outlook, to reframe the situation that we are in.
And that Emunah will, beH, bring Mashiach Tzidkenu, B’mHerah B’Yamenu Amen.