Language:
Hebrew
Year of publication:
2013
Titel der Quelle:
מכלול; עיונים ביהדות, בחינוך ובמדע
Angaben zur Quelle:
כט (תשעג) 87-102
Keywords:
עקיבא בן יוסף,
;
Jacob In rabbinical literature
;
Aggada as literature
;
Midrash Criticism, Textual
Abstract:
Mystical teachings in the Zohar and in the writings of R. Hayyim Vital allude to covert interconnections between the biblical figure of Jacob and the rabbinic personage of Rabbi Akiva. Yet in effect, recognition of the kinship between the two originates in a much early historical period and finds expression already in midrashic sources. Hazal suggest a variety of cogent similarities between Jacob as progenitor of the twelve tribes of Israel, who multiplied to form the Jewish people, and Rabbi Akiva, who is portrayed as the progenitor of the Oral Torah in its entirety (BT Sanhedrin 66a). Their names are composed of the same letters; midrashic accounts of Rabbi Akiva's early personal history parallel Jacob's life story, with each figure's meeting with his wife Rachel. Five other biographical elements shared by the two figures can be noted: a group of twelve successors; tensions among that group; real or metaphorical death as an outcome of the tensions between them; eventual restoration and reparation; subsequent exile. The house of Jacob – in the personal and the national sense – is nearly destroyed by conflicts among brothers; the world of Torah learning to which Rabbi Akiva dedicated his life nearly collapses when his twelve-thousand pairs of students treat one another with disrespect. Both are poised on the threshold of a long period of exile, in which all they have built may be lost. In the last moments of their lives, both Jacob and Rabbi Akiva utter the verse Shema Yisrael, and Hazal invest this act with great significance. Finally, Jacob's weeping at his reunion with Joseph is juxtaposed with R. Akiva's laughter in his vision of redemption beyond the present reality of exile.
URL:
אתר את הפרסום בקטלוג המאוחד של ספריות ישראל
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