Get Ready for Torah
You shall count for yourselves, from the day after Yom Tov... seven weeks. (Vayikra 23:15)
Sefiras Ha’omer is a time of preparation and purification in advance of Matan Torah. It is a time of clarification for every Jew if he is fitting to receive the Torah. This is why the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva died during this period for not having treated each other with sufficient respect.
It was taught: Rabbi Akiva had twelve thousand pairs of talmidim, from Geves to Antifras, and they all died in one period, because they did not treat each other respectfully.
This imperfection in their interpersonal relationships affected their very right to live. If a person does not behave properly, with the requisite derech eretz, he is not fitting to come to Kabbalas Hatorah.
What about at other times? Did these talmidim act respectfully to one another during the rest of the year?
It could be that also at other times, Rabbi Akiva’s talmidim did not show enough respect to each other, and in Heaven it was held it against them, yet it did not cause their death. But at the time of preparation for Torah, in the period of clarification after clarification, birur achar birur, this imperfection was more blatant, and had a greater effect, to the point that they were punished by death.
The more a period is suited to spiritual growth and elevation, the greater is the demand on a person to perfect himself. This was the time of preparing for Matan Torah. Each person was scrutinized more intensely to see if he was fitting for Torah. This is why Rabbi Akiva’s talmidim died at this time.
Torah Atones
It says in Sefer Nefesh Hachayim that Torah learning has the power to atone all sins, and someone who occupies himself with Torah learning does not need the korbanos to atone for him. The power of Torah will make a kaparah for him and bring him forgiveness for all his sins:
Occupying himself with Torah learning atones all the iniquities of the person who sins.... Come and see how great the power of Torah learning is, for it purifies the sinners of the Jewish people, when they do teshuvah, even if they committed avodah zarah....
If a person occupies himself with Torah learning for its own sake, even if he previously sullied himself with tremendous sins and iniquities, and sunk deep into mud and filth and plunged to the depths of evil, nevertheless, by occupying himself with Torah he can be sure and confident that the light in the Torah will bring him back to the right path.
Rabbeinu Yonah said a similar thing. He detailed the ways to attain atonement for the various sins. Some sins necessitate receiving lashes, and others are punishable by death at the hands of the Rabbinical court, or by kareis. The severity of the sin determines the means by which it is atoned.
Rabbeinu Yonah went on to say that if a person desecrated Hashem’s Name, even suffering will not atone for it. Nevertheless, Torah atones.
He can find atonement by constantly learning Torah and toiling in it. Hashem swore “The sin of the House of Eli shall not be atoned by animal offerings and grain offerings, forever.” And Chazal say that by “animal offerings and grain offerings” they will not be atoned, but they will be atoned by Torah learning.
This shows that Torah learning heals even very grievous illness. Thus it is written about the Torah: “The healing of the tongue is the tree of life.”
The power of Torah is so great that it atones for all sins, even for that of chilul Hashem.
Why is this so? How can Torah learning atone for ostensibly unforgivable aveiros?
Torah and Mitzvos
The world is run according to a system of Divine law and order. If people do this, the result is that. This orderly system of Divine rules relates to the Mitzvos. There are 613 mitzvos, corresponding to the 613 organs and limbs of a person. Every mitzvah corresponds to a certain part of the human body and establishes its place in the world. This is the spiritual-material setup that governs the world.
But Torah is not part of this system. Torah is above all this law and order. It is the very essence of life and of the world. So Torah brings kaparah for all a person’s aveiros, even for things that korbanos can’t atone. Torah is above the whole system.
This is what Sefer Nefesh Hachayim was saying, that by occupying himself with Torah learning, a person can purify his soul even if he sank to the depths of filth and evil. And this is why Rabbeinu Yonah said that a person will attain atonement even for the sin of chilul Hashem, as “Torah learning heals even very grievous illness.”
More than Human
There are two levels that a person can be on. He can be human, and he can be higher than human. The level of “human” is that of a Jew who properly learns Torah and observes mitzvos and corrects his character traits. The whole reason why human beings were created was so they will correct their character traits according to the directives of Torah and mitzvos and live their lives in a Toradik manner, such that their acts of chesed and careful mitzvah observance express their dignified humanity.
Higher than this is the ben Torah. The Torah learning of the ben Torah is different and more exalted than that of a regular Jew. His character traits and mitzvah acts are something else. They are not a matter of form and shape, of maintaining proper order. His very being is attached to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and the Torah.
Someone who deprives himself of sleep in order to examine the sugya yet another time is called a ben Torah. Only if a person’s hasmadah in Torah is not limited to times and schedules does he live in a place that is above the world.
A ben Torah is held to a much higher standard in his relations with others. In every situation and no matter what, he needs to act like a ben Torah and display chesed and rachamim. There is no such thing as a certain person or a certain behavior that he can’t tolerate.
In this time of preparation and clarification before Matan Torah, a higher standard of bein adam l’chaveiro is expected of us.
It is specifically in this period of time that the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva were held to account for not treating each other with due respect. In order for the world to exist in a proper manner, the place of Torah needs to be like it should. Behavior that shows lack of respect has a negative impact on existence itself, and when they died, “the world was desolate,” as Chazal say. This implies that the world has no existence and life without bnei Torah.
It is hard to maintain such a high level of connection to Torah, mitzvos and midos tovos. But we need to know the truth for what it is.
The way to get to the madreigah of ben Torah is in stages. Attachment to Torah learning or connection to Tefilah, working on tikkun hamidos or performing mitzvos in the best manner one can. Each person by doing what he has a personal connection to, can be on the ben-Torah level of relationship to Hashem, as his connection to it is not dependent on schedules and times, thus making him above the world.
Just as the Torah grants existence to the world, so the ben Torah bears on his shoulders the existence of the world. This is the adam hashalem whose deeds hold up all of Creation, and he is thus doing an endless and unlimited chesed. He is the place and the existence of the world.
