Hope
Rabbi Akiva was the most intense of the Rabbis. It is Rabbi Akiva who argued for including the Song of Songs into the Bible. He saw the erotic as a part of the spiritual encounter. Similarly, he was a political radical. He was most likely the spiritual leader behind Bar Kokhba, who led an ill-fated revolt against the Romans. Though the revolt threw off the Roman yoke for 3 years, it ultimately collapsed and left devastation in its wake.
Yet it is Rabbi Akiva who teaches: “Happy is Israel before the One who purifies you. Who purifies you? Your Parent in Heaven. As it says, "I will sprinkle pure waters upon you and purify you" (Ezekiel 36: 25). And it says, "God is the hope (Mikveh) of Israel" (Jeremiah 17:13). Just as a mikveh purifies the ritually impure, so too does the Holy Blessed One purify Israel.”
The delightful word play here makes use of a Hebrew homonym, mikveh as a noun for a ritual bath or mikveh as a verb to hope. God is the purifier and hope of Israel. Even when all seems lost, God is still there to welcome us back.
I wonder when in his life Rabbi Akiva said these words. He taught a Torah of love and hope even as the Roman occupation got worse and worse. Rabbi Akiva is famous for offering up loving faith to God to the bitter end. As the Roman’s murdered him for his rebellion, he recited the words of the Shma.
I suspect he wrote this after the failure that was Bar Kokhba. He wrote it knowing that his own decisions and choices had made things worse for the Jewish people. Despite his best efforts and hopes, his political choices were all bad. And yet, even in that devastation and destruction, he still held faith in God and in the future.
He also put his faith in the people of Israel. If he himself could no longer find a way forward, Israel, the Jewish people as a whole, would. Though he might no longer be part of the Jewish future, he held out hope in God and the Jewish people that such a future existed.
As Rosh Hashanah arrives, I invite us all into the hope that Akiva offered. We may not have always done what we need, but there is hope in the future and in God. Political leaders both here and in Israel may have let us down, but there is hope for the future. Times can get difficult and darkness falls, but there is always a light, a light of redemption that shines. That light is always inviting us, accepting us, challenging us to find a way to heal and repair our world.
May God grant us a year that leads to true peace, to leaders who will lead, and to healing for all that has been hurt and broken.
L’shana Tova-
Rabbi David Booth
