Rabbi Akiva and his students, one of whom was the famed Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi), are strongly associated with the days of Omer. According to legend, it was on Lag Ba’Omer that Rashbi left his cave and that the plague that killed 24,000 of Akiva’s students ended.
Less known are some fascinating and complex conversations between Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva (50-135 CE) and Roman general Quintus Tineius Rufus, aka Turnus Rufus the Evil, before Rufus orders Rabbi Akiva’s execution, recorded in the Talmud
Often Rufus asked clever questions, pushing Rabbi Akiva to articulate answers about God’s providence in the world and why certain mitzvot are fundamental to our covenantal relationship with God. At other times he asked questions we as readers want answers to but would not feel comfortable asking.
This is the question that Rufus the wicked asked Rabbi Akiva: “If your God loves the poor, for what reason does He not support them Himself?” Rabbi Akiva answered him: “He commands us to sustain the poor so that through them and the charity we give them we will be saved from the judgment of Gehenna” (Bava Batra 10a).
Rufus asked why God allows suffering if it is said that He loves the poor (and the orphan and the widow). Rabbi Akiva answered that ultimately it is about the impact that compassion toward others has on people when they perform acts of kindness. By recognizing suffering and pain in others, we have the potential to be transformed. God allows us to mirror His characteristics by embodying kindness and compassion to refine our own characters.
IN A second dialogue, Rufus asked Rabbi Akiva why Shabbat is different than other days of the week. After a brief back and forth, Rabbi Akiva told him that the dead can be revived on any other day of the week except Shabbat. He suggested that the Roman governor try it out with his dead father.
Once, Rufus tested this with his father. He was brought back to life on every other day of the week, but on Shabbat he could not be revived. On Sunday, he again came back to life.
Rufus asked him in bewilderment: “Since you died, have you become a Jew? Why were you revived all the days of the week, but on Shabbat you could not be revived?” His father answered: “Anyone who does not observe Shabbat willingly in their own place will observe it here perforce.” Rufus then asked: “Do you have labor there for which you exert yourselves all the days of the week so that you can experience rest on Shabbat?” His father told him: “On all the weekdays we are punished, but on Shabbat we rest” (Genesis Rabbah 11:5).
Even the wicked governor sought the reconnection we all yearn for when a parent or loved one dies. In this fascinating dialogue, Rufus discovered that his father kept Shabbat.
His father warned him that in the world he resides in, presumably Gehenna, everyone is forced to keep Shabbat, as even the wicked benefit from that day because the punishment of the wicked ceases for 25 hours.
IN A third dialogue, Rufus asked: If God wants circumcision, why doesn’t the child leave the womb already circumcised?
Rabbi Akiva responded: Why does the umbilical cord come out attached to the baby? Does not his mother cut his umbilical cord? So why does the child not leave the womb already circumcised? Because God gave Israel the commandments to purify them. Therefore, King David said: “Every word of God is pure (II Sam. 22:31/Psalms 18:31).” (Midrash Tanhuma Tazria 7)
During pregnancy, the child is one with the mother. After birth, it survives through separation from the womb. If it cannot emerge from the birth canal, it will die. Rabbi Akiva was suggesting that the only way it can survive is to have this cord, which gave it life for the duration of the pregnancy, severed. In other words, the separation is necessary for the relationship to continue or both mother and child will die (if the child cannot be born).
Without separation, there cannot be closeness.
The analogy with circumcision can be read similarly: The child cannot be born circumcised any more than he can be born without an umbilical cord.
Cutting the foreskin is necessary for his Jewish life to begin. However, going deeper, it suggests this act is a necessary existential separation.
What Rufus didn't understand
Thus, as with the child’s mother, there cannot be closeness with God without this form of separation. What Rufus did not understand is that there is no such thing as absolute perfection. Without an action – birth/cutting the cord – there is no possibility of life. Without circumcision, there is no covenant with God.
We are sent on our individual journeys from the moment we are born, seeking simultaneous distance and closeness with family, community, and God as we make the choices that shape who we are.
The writer teaches contemporary Halacha at the Matan Advanced Talmud Institute. She also teaches Talmud at Pardes, along with courses on sexuality and sanctity in the Jewish tradition.