Rabbi Akiva’s Name

My master told me that one of the mitzvahs that Rav Dimi was very careful about was that of accompanying guests and the dead. This is also true of Rabbi Akiva. My teacher told me that the end-letters of, "Oir zarua latsadik ul’yishray leiv simchah [light is sown for the righteous; and for the upright of heart, gladness]", (Ps. 97:11) spell R AKYVA/Rabbi Akiva, because this verse is talking about him. This proves that AKYVH/Akiva is spelled with H/hei (at the end) and not A/aleph.

The concepts in this paragraph are juxtaposed because they have an underlying relationship.

Abraham was outstanding in having guests. (Gen. 18:1, Rashi) Once, while in midst conversing with G‑d, some guests came to his door, he politely excused himself and took care of them. (Gen. 18:3, Rashi) Kabbalah explains that he was talking with the lower manifestation of the Shechinah, which comes from malchut. Serving guests affords relation to the upper Shechinah from bina. Therefore did he set aside one for the other.

Wayfarers have no set place. Measure for measure, one who takes them in is given a tremendous surrounding light that is not settled into the world - because it is too great.

Accompanying the guests takes the manifestation a step further. He is sent on his way, back to a state of on the road/no settled place - but now together accompanied by the upper Shechinah, measure for measure, brought through the one accompanying him. The same applies to accompanying the dead, which helps accompany their soul to its resting place above.

Energy = MC squared: nothing is ever really lost. However, from our lower perspective things can go lost. In order to restore everything, one needs to ascend to the all-encompassing surrounding light outlook.

Every level has its own internal and surrounding light aspects, but the Cain-root is especially attached to the surrounding light. Moreover, Cain is a wanderer. (Gen. 4:14)gair [convert]. Gair is also used in the sense of a sojourner. He so is a foremost Cain character. Through this mitzvah he draws the surrounding light and from it makes up for lost time.

[Shmuel says: "I wrote the same thing in my book, Chochmat Nashim. I corrected a get [divorce document] with what I felt was correct to write Akiva with hei at the end."

Shmuel says: "Even though my father and master concealed his words here, I recall once hearing from him in private that there is a hint in this verse to the closeness of his soul to the soul of the Great Rav, our teacher. He said that this ‘Yitzchak’ refers to the Great Rav. They further hinted to the name of my father and master in this verse, "Behold Tsiyon the city of our festivals - your eyes will see Yerushalayim": (Isaiah 33:20) Ch/chet from "ChZH/chazeh", Y/yud from "TsYN/Tsion," Y/yud from KRYT/Kiryat, and the M/mem from "MVADYNV/Mo’adainu" spells ChYYM/Chaim.

He told me that it was not possible to build Yerushalayim/Jerusalem during the time of the Great Rav, but that it was possible to do so during the time of my father and master, if Israel were to do teshuvah, my father and master could have been Moshiach ben Yosef. 1 It was to this they hinted, "Your eyes will see Yerushalayim", and not, "my eyes".2 These were the words of my father. I could see that my father was quite afraid that the nations of the world shouldn’t kill him.3 This too passed, but as a result of the sins of the generation he left this world in the same manner as the first miracle that occurred when our teacher the Great Rav died.4 This is what it says, "and he was in Keziv", (Gen. 38:5) from the language of "All mankind is kozeiv [deceitful]". (Ps. 116:11)

"And he was in Keziv" says by Judah the son of Jacob, who was in this place while his wife gave birth. This same paragraph in the Torah tells of what leads to the birth of the Mashiach root. (Zohar I Vayaishev, and Rashi) The message of the Torah is that the original mistake of Adam caused that the greatest truth - the messianic spark fell into the hands of the sitra achra, which is called ‘Cheziv’ [falsehood]. (See Likutei Moharan 51) This caused that "All mankind is kozeiv [deceitful]". And this caused that the Ari.Zl. could not be Mashiach, and that the following generation did not merit to Rav Chaim Vital being Mashiach.

Nonetheless, there is more than a ray a hope to this pivotal scenario of history. When G‑d wanted to create existence, the quality of truth objected. For man, the center of it all, would end up being full of falsehood. Instead of heeding Truth’s seemingly truthful claim, "He cast truth to the ground". (Bereishit Raba 8)

"The seal of G‑d is Truth." (Shabbat 55a) "And the truth of G‑d is forever". (Ps. 117) The Divine truth is so deep that it supersedes and encompasses the seemingly opposite. "You gave Truth to Jacob". (Micah 7:20) Yet when presented with the challenge of dealing with Laban the trickster, Jacob was not concerned and said, "I am his brother in trickery". (Baba Batra 123a) The intrinsic truth is eternal, unchanging, and unaffected by its opposite. Moreover - this itself is the greatest truth! "Like the advantage of light from (amidst) darkness". (Eccl. 2:13) The truth that will bounce up from the ground and emerge from the darkness of a world full of falsehood will shine most brilliantly. Mashiach is the master of this dynamic, and so is it found by the inception of the messianic root being revealed in the world.

[In an old printing it says that he died in 5335, which is an error; later on page 149 it says he died in 5332.

My father and master also told me that in one verse there is an allusion to his name and mine, to make known the closeness of our souls. It says, "Oh, who yichyeh [will survive]when SMV EL/misumo EL [imposes these]", (Num. 24:23) and there is an allusion to Chaim and Shmuel. ("Yichyeh" comes from the same root as Chaim [life]. SMV EL/misumo shares the same letters as ShMVEL/Shmuel.)

If I can muster up the strength, I will write in this book, G‑d willing, many of the instructions that our teacher the Great Rav gave over to my father and master from the day that he knew him until the day of his death. I will show them to you so that they will not be ‘collections of that which is forgotten’, I have hidden them with me in separate works."]

Regarding Heber the Kenite, my teacher taught me that this is the secret of the verse, "And Heber the Kenite separated from Cain". (Judges 4:11) For Jethro was from the root of Cain and Heber was from the grandsons of Jethro, and so from Cain as well. Thus he was called Heber the Kenite. Cain was a mixture of good and evil, and Jethro "refined the food from the waste" and separated the good from the evil - the bad remained with the kelipot while Jethro took the good. Therefore it says "he separated from Cain (his root)".

[Translation and commentary by Perets Auerbach.]