Avot190

Today's shiur is dedicated by Avraham Hasson in memory of his father,
Yosef ben Miriam and Natan z"l,
whose yahrzeit will be on Shabbat, 10th Nisan.

1:
Rabbi Akiva is probably the sage whose biography is best known to the widest number of people. Biographic details concerning this sage are scattered throughout our studies over the years. It would be superfluous to recapitulate here the whole romantic story of this glorious hero of the Jewish people. I hope that many will find it helpful to refresh their memories about the salient details. You can learn of Akiva's early life and his marriage to Rachel here. You can read about Rachel's heroic sacrifices to ensure that her husband became a great scholar here. You can read of his contribution to the outbreak of the Bar-Kokhba revolt here and of his defiance of the Hadrianic decrees here. You can learn about his essential contribution to the development of the Oral Tradition here.

2:
Since a brief account of the death of Rabbi Akiva was given when we studied Tractate Berakhot and that tractate has not yet been archived I reproduce here that brief account:

3:
We shall learn more and more about this great sage since he features not only in our present mishnah, but also in several of the subsequent mishnayot.

4:
The picture we get from our sources of Rabbi Akiva is certainly not that of a dour person who never smiled. That being the case we must understand his pronouncement in the first clause of our present mishnah as referring to excess: excessive and inordinate laughter and frivolity pave the way for promiscuity. Furthermore, Rabbi Akiva is not referring to occasional bouts of frivolity: the Hebrew term he uses [margilin] indicates regular behaviour. Someone whose constant behaviour is hedonistic will inevitably view the sexual restrictions of Jewish law as being of little or no meaning. I wonder what Rabbi Akiva would have thought of our present permissive society.

To be continued.

In Avot 187 I brought the opinion of Ed Frankel concerning the teaching of youngsters how to recite their prayers. Ed now adds:

I would suggest that the amidah may be too complex for most adults. Halacha demands that the amidah is repeated aloud by a shaliach tsibbur. It does not demand, however, that s/he sing it solo. Our practice, currently, is for the congregation to join with the chazzan, particularly on Shabbat and chagim, to sing special parts of the amidah. Nothing bars us from singing the entire amidah with the chazzan.

I respond:

I don't want to be a spoil-sport, but I am often concerned with the way congregations join in with the singing in the repetition of the Amidah by the cantor. Sometimes the singing is so hearty that the cantor can barely be heard at all. In which case we have a grave danger of berakhah le-vatalah – that the cantor will be reciting the benedictions but no one will actually be hearing him or her. If our purpose is educational I prefer Ed's earlier suggestion of having everyone read the 'silent' amidah out loud in chorus.