Kinna 21 - Message of the Martyrs

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July 30 2009
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The horrific description of the execution of the ten martyrs, as described in Arzei Halevanon, makes one shudder. Yet underlying this kinnah is also a message of hope and a lesson in emunah.

When describing the unspeakable death of Rebbe Akiva, the kinnah refers to Rebbe Akiva’s dramatic recitation of Shema Yisroel as he suffered the unimaginable –"יצתה נשמתו באחד" His soul departed as he recited [God is] One. However, the Talmud adds one strange nuance.

When Rebbe Akiva was taken out to be killed it was the time of the recital of Keriyas Shema.
Berachos 61b
בשעה שהוציאו את רבי עקיבא להריגה זמן קריאת שמע היה
:מסכת ברכות סא

This addition is seemingly superfluous. Moreover, it doesn’t make sense! In the very same passage Rebbe Akiva passionately describes how he was waiting his whole life for the opportunity to die while sanctifying Hashem’s name. Why then does it matter that it was in the morning? Wouldn’t Rebbe Akiva have been equally eager to sanctify Hashem’s name in the afternoon? What message are these words teaching us?

Rav Moshe Shapiro explains that the declaration that Hashem is One means that everything and every event, no matter how difficult to comprehend, somehow fits into a larger picture. Everything is part of the great puzzle that is being pieced together by the Creator since the beginning of time. Everything is One.

The Chassidic Masters teach that by covering our eyes during Keriyas Shema we affirm that we may not understand everything that occurs in this world but we recognize that it is because we are blind. It is because we can’t see. But everything fits together.

Times of great confusion demand this affirmation more than ever. Rebbe Akiva was not necessarily taken out during shacharis. But it was the most inexplicable moment of his life. It was the ultimate zman kriat shema; a moment so incomprehensible that the only response was to recognize that this somehow fits into Hashem’s master plan.

The version of this kinnah recited on Yom Kippur describes the angels’ passionate protest to Hashem in response to the ten martyrs - Is this the reward for Torah? The response is a seeming threat that they remain silent lest the world be returned to nothingness.

Rav Shlomo Kluger, puzzled by an ostensibly unfair response to a good question, offers an explanation with a parable. A king hires the most talented tailor in his kingdom to customize a golden suit and supplied him with an exact number of threads. The other tailors in the kingdom, jealous that they were not chosen, inform the king that his tailor of choice stole some golden threads. Upon presentation of the final product, the king accuses the tailor of stealing his precious threads. The tailor responds that the only way to prove his innocence would be to rip up the garment and count it thread by thread.

This was Hashem’s response to the angels. It was not a threat. Hashem was explaining that the only way to explain such unfathomable occurrences would by returning the world to the beginning. Only then could Hashem demonstrate, step by step, that everything comes together to form the magnificent tapestry that is being woven and will only be revealed at the end if time.

Perhaps this can explain the kinnah’s similar description of Rav Elazar ben Shamua’s death while reciting the words ברא אלקים during Friday night Kiddush. The kinnah is reminding us that as tragic as these events may seem they somehow fit into a much larger picture that has been in motion since the creation of the world.

The kinnah, on the one hand is too tragic to bear. Yet its underlying message is that in the greatest moments of darkness it is our lack of vision which does not allow us to see the light.

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    Learning on the Marcos and Adina Katz YUTorah site is sponsored today by Judy & Mark Frankel & family l'ilui nishmos מרדכי בן הרב משה יהודה ע"ה and משה יהודה ז"ל בן מאיר אליהו ויהודית