(ו)
תָּנֵי רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר יוֹחָאי, מָשָׁל לִבְנֵי אָדָם שֶׁהָיוּ יוֹשְׁבִין בִּסְפִינָה נָטַל אֶחָד מֵהֶן מַקְדֵּחַ וְהִתְחִיל קוֹדֵחַ תַּחְתָּיו, אָמְרוּ לוֹ חֲבֵרָיו מַה אַתָּה יוֹשֵׁב וְעוֹשֶׂה, אָמַר לָהֶם מָה אִכְפַּת לָכֶם לֹא תַחְתִּי אֲנִי קוֹדֵחַ,
(6) Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai taught a parable: Men were on a ship. One of them took a drill and started drilling underneath him. The others said to him: What are sitting and doing?! He replied: What do you care. Is this not underneath my area that I am drilling?!
BY MARLA BENNETT
I’ve been living in Israel for over a year and a half now, and my favorite thing to do here is go to the grocery store. I know, not the most exciting response from someone living in Jerusalem these days. But going grocery shopping here—deciphering the Hebrew labels and delighting in all of the kosher products—as well as picking up my dry cleaning, standing in long lines at the bank, and waiting in the hungry mob at the bakery—means that I live here. I am not a tourist; I deal with Israel and all of its complexities, confusion, joy and pain every single day. And I love it.
I got the “Israel bug” during my junior year, when I studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I had traveled in Israel before, but living here was a qualitatively different experience. I left knowing I would return. I was not sure whether I would study or work, but I knew that my love for Israel, my desire to understand this country, and my desire to learn more about Judaism were not yet satiated.
I came back to Israel a year and a half ago . . . and what a year and a half it has been. In September 2000, I began studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, where I have been learning traditional Jewish texts from master teachers, with other students who represent a broad range of Jewish backgrounds and perspectives. I have learned more in my year and a half of study at Pardes than I learned during my entire undergraduate career.
But my learning is a result not only of the hours I spend pouring over material in the Beit Midrash (Jewish house of study), but also of my life in Jerusalem... Here in Jerusalem I’ve found a community of seekers: people who like me who want to try living in another country, who want to know more about Judaism; people who are trying to figure out exactly what they want their lives to look like. The air is charged with our debates and discussions as we try to assimilate into our lives all that we’ve learned. Life here is magical.
I have learned more in my year and a half of study at Pardes than I learned during my entire undergraduate career.
It’s also been difficult. Just a month after I arrived the current “Intifada” began. My time here has been dramatically affected by both the security situation and by the events happening around me. I am extremely cautious about where I go and when; I avoid crowded areas and alter my routine when I feel at all threatened. But I also feel energized by the opportunity to support Israel during a difficult period. This is undoubtedly an important historic moment for both Israel and for the Jewish people—I have the privilege of reporting to my friends and family in the U.S. about the realities of living in Israel at this time and I also have the honor of being an American choosing to remain in Israel, and assist, however minimally, in Israel’s triumph.
...
Stimulation abounds in Jerusalem—and I need only go to the supermarket to be struck once again by how lucky I am to live here. There is no other place in the world where I would rather be right now.
[גמ׳] איבעיא להו מכפרין עון אבות או לא, ת״ש דר׳ עקיבא נפק לההוא אתרא אשכחיה לההוא גברא דהוי דרי טונא אכתפיה ולא הוה מצי לסגויי ביה והוה צוח ומתאנח, א״ל מאי עבידתיך א״ל לא שבקנא איסורא דלא עבידנא בההיא עלמא ועכשיו איכא נטורין עילוון ולא שבקין לי דאינוח א״ל רבי עקיבא שבקת ברא א״ל בחייך לא תשלין דדחילנא ממלאכי דמחו לי בפולסי דנורא ואמרין לי אמאי לא תיתי בפריע א״ל אימא ליה דקא ניחותך, א״ל שבקית אתתא מעברתא אזל ר׳ עקיבא עאל לההיא מדינתא, אמר להו בריה דפלוני היכא (ליה) אמרו ליה יעקר זכרו דההוא שחיק עצמות א״ל אמאי אמרו ליה ההוא לסטים אכל אינשי ומצער בריתא ולא עוד אלא שבא על נערה המאורסה ביום הכפורים. אזל לביתיה אשכח אתתיה מעוברתא נטרה עד דילדה, אזל מהליה לכי גדל אוקמי׳ בבי כנישתא לברוכי בקהלא לימים אזל ר׳ עקיבא לההוא אתרא איתחזי ליה א״ל תנוח דעתך שהנחת את דעתי:
GEMARA. The question was asked: Do atone for the sin of their fathers or not? Come and hear: R. ‘Aḳiba went to a certain place63A cemetery. where he met a man64i.e. a ghost. carrying a heavy load on his shoulder with which he was unable to proceed, and he was crying and groaning. He asked him, ‘What did you do [in your lifetime]?’ He replied, ‘There is no forbidden act in the world which I left undone, and now guards have been set over me who do not allow me to rest’. R. ‘Aḳiba asked him, ‘Have you left a son?’ He answered, ‘By your life! do not detain me because I fear the angels who beat me with fiery lashes and say to me, “Why do you not walk quickly?” ’. R. ‘Aḳiba said to him, ‘Tell me, whom have you left?’65H emends the text according to the version in Menorath Hamma’or IX. He replied, ‘I have left behind my wife who was pregnant’. R. ‘Aḳiba then proceeded to that city and inquired, ‘Where is the son of So-and-so?’ [The inhabitants] replied, ‘May the memory of that wicked person66lit. ’may his bones be ground to dust’ an imprecation against a wicked person. be uprooted’. He asked them the reason, and they said, ‘He robbed and preyed upon people and caused them suffering; what is more, he violated a betrothed girl on the Day of Atonement’. He made his way to the house and found the wife about to be delivered of a child. He waited until she gave birth to [a son], circumcised him and, when he grew up, took him to the Synagogue to join in public worship. Later R. ‘Aḳiba returned to that [cemetery] and [the ghost] appeared to him and said, ‘May your mind be [always] at rest because you have set my mind at rest’.67This story indicates that a child can atone for a parent’s sins.