Perspective on Plowing & Pesach

Last night Rav Goldwicht delivered his shiur on Pesach with insights about the Hagaddah. Among the gems he shared was a new understanding of the famous account of R' Akiva's response to the sight of the Temple Mount recounted in Makkot 24b that I copied over in English in The Last Laugh.

The crux of the matter for R' Akiva is that if we see the prophecy of recounted in Michah 3:12 ‘Therefore for your sake shall Zion be plowed,' then we are guaranteed to also see what Zecharia described (Zechariah 8:4) ‘Yet shall old men and old women sit in the broad places of Jerusalem.’ 

I had always taken the "plowed" simply as a description of the devastation. But Rav Goldwicht added another layer of meaning to R' Akiva's observation.  


Jerusalem is charush [plowed]  not charuv [ruined].  It is never utterly destroyed -- despite the ruins one may see. Rather, it is plowed -- prepared for the seeds to take root and bloom again. That is the essence of the geula that we await now.

It's because R' Akiva could see that future salvation that four of the greatest  talmidei chachamim, Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, Rabbi Yehoshua, and Rabbi Tarfon wanted him at their seder. Having seen the destruction, they felt they could not rejoice in redemption without his perspective. 


Like and follow on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/KallahMagazine/