These five students. Pesach Sheni, we have to understand a life lesson that we learn from this: a person, whatever he is, whatever he wants to accomplish, never give up, never ever give up. Always continue pursuing what you want. Of course, you need Hashem for it, you know what I’m saying? But you see that they couldn’t do many people they were; they couldn’t do Korban Pesach (Paschal offering) the first time around. So they said, “We want to do it so badly.” Hashem saw that they wanted it so badly. Hashem says, “You know what? 30 days from now, there’s going to be something called Pesach Sheni, and if you miss that, you’ll be able to make it up.” Never give up hope.
What do we learn this from? From Rabbi Akiva, the most... Rabbi Akiva, what is one of the reasons why we celebrate Lag BaOmer? What is one of the reasons why it’s the biggest time for celebration? What happened exactly that day? So Beit Yosef explains that Rabbi Akiva’s students stopped dying. Pri Chadash says something else. He says, “You know why? It’s not just because they stopped dying; it’s because Rabbi Akiva didn’t give up.” He went ahead and said, “24,000 students of mine passed away.” Now Lag BaOmer, now when they’re all done, he went ahead and got more students. He says, “I will never give up. If this is what HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants from me, if this is what Hashem wants from me, I’ll continue serving Hashem.” It might be difficult, it might be hard, but Rabbi Akiva went out of his way and said, “I’m going to go get more students,” and he ended up getting another five students. Rabbi Akiva went and got five students, and from these five students we got the Gemara. They’re all over the Gemara. They wrote the Mishnah. They wrote the Mishnayot. And imagine if you had given up: what would it be with all the Gemara? What would it be with all the Torah in the world? Because it’s a lesson in life: don’t give up.
You want to be a Tzadik (righteous person), you want to be a Tzadeket (righteous woman), whatever you want to be. You want to reach spiritual highs; you want to be something accomplishing. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, be the best ever to Hashem. You want it. If you don’t give up, Hashem will make sure that you’ll get that Siyata Dishmaya (heavenly assistance) that you need. How do I know that? It says, “Kol mi sheba letaher, mesay’in oto.” Anybody who wants to become Tahor (pure), Hashem will go ahead and help you be Tahor and Kadosh (holy). Just want, just want, and if you do, you will see in your lifetime such, such Siyata Dishmaya from HaKadosh Baruch Hu that will help you every single step of the way.
Just trust in Him, trust in Him, and don’t stop trusting Hashem. This is what I want to do, and you’re going to help me succeed in doing it, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu will be on your side. Say, “Yeah, this is what you want, this is what it’s going to be,” and that’s exactly what happened to Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva could have given up hope. He could have given up everything. He could have said, “At the end of the day, I’m done.” He says, “No, I’ll go forward, I’ll go forward, and I’ll go forward.” And with that, Hashem says, “From these students will come Torah.”