A Long, Long Seder -- CHRONICLE Online/The WORD 04/17/25

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah

April 17, 2025

19 Nisan 5785

Passover

How long did your Seders go?  Did you stay up too late?  Are you still recovering?  If your Seder went late into the night, you might feel a special connection to the five rabbis mentioned toward the beginning of the Seder.  It’s a story preserved only in the Haggadah.

“It happened that Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar Ben Azarya, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon were reclining in Bnei Brak and discussing the Exodus from Egypt all that night, until their students came and told them: ‘Our Masters! The time has come for reciting the morning Shema!’”

Clearly, their Seder went very late into the night if they needed their students to tell them that morning had arrived.  Or, perhaps, this is a story about something else altogether.  These rabbis were all known supporters of the revolt against Rome.  As a result, some scholars believe that these five rabbis – without any wives or children – were not celebrating Passover but instead were helping to plan the Bar Kochba revolt, which started in 133 CE.  

Perhaps, they were in a cave or an attic instead of sitting at a Seder table with their families.  The words “Exodus from Egypt” were likely a code for “Freedom from Rome.” Some 75 years after the destruction of the Temple, these rabbis were ready for Israel to be independent of Rome so that they could rebuild the Temple.  Of course, we know that it didn’t work out quite the way that they had hoped.  Unfortunately, the Bar Kochba revolt failed, and it led to more death and destruction in the Land of Israel.  In another coded story preserved by the Talmud, we learn about sad end to that effort.

“It was said that R. Akiva had twelve thousand pairs of disciples, from Gabbat to Antipatris; and all of them died at the same time because they did not treat each other with respect.... A Tanna taught: All of them died between Pesach and Shavuot. R. Hamma ben Abba or, it might be said, R. Hiyya b. Abin said: All of them died a cruel death. What was it? R. Nahman replied: Diphtheria (BT Yevamot 62b).”

In the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot, the followers of Bar Kochba suffered terrible losses – probably NOT from diphtheria, though.  As a result, these seven weeks in which we find ourselves now became a period of mourning.  Our ancestors mourned not only for those who were killed in battle, but also for the shattered dream of a rebuilt Temple. 

So, what did Rabbi Akiva do in the wake of this terrible loss?  That same passage in the Talmud that told of his great losses also shows us how Rabbi Akiva did not give up hope.  

“The world remained desolate until R. Akiva came to our Masters in the South and taught the Torah to them.  These were R. Meir, R. Judah, R. Yossi, R. Shimon and R. Elazar b. Shammua; and it was they who revived the Torah at that time.”

Rabbi Akiva realized that sticking together as a community and turning to the wisdom of our tradition was the path forward.  It has worked for us ever since.  From the crusades to the Chmelnicki uprisings, from the pogroms to the Holocaust, that has always been the Jewish formula for survival.

Since October 7th, with the seemingly endless hostage crisis, the ongoing war and the world-wide rise in antisemitism, the Jewish people would do well to learn from our past.  During difficult times, we stick together and turn to the wisdom of our tradition until the arrival of a better day. 

Shalom,

RAF.