Optimism, Rebbe Akiva, and Yom Ha’atzmaut

The Maharal explains the connection between Sefirat HaOmer, the preparation for Matan Torah and Shavuot and the sin of Rebbe Akiva’s students. Throughout the Mishna and Gemara Rebbe Akiva is always portrayed as an optimist. What was it that enabled him to be an optimist? It was his deep Ahavat Hashem.

This optimism is what enabled those who “saw worlds destroyed” to see Rebbe Akiva as a role model and gave them the strength and resilience to rebuild the State of Israel only years after the destruction of European Jewry in the Holocaust.

Recorded at OU Israel’s L’Ayla Rosh Chodesh Iyyar 5779 Women’s Event sponsored in memory of Mrs Linda Pruwer-Brachfeld, מרת חיה סאשא בת ר’ יוסף הלל.