Rabbi Akiva

Tevet 5772
1 January 2012

At the age of 40, Akiva (ca. 60 CE) was an illiterate shepherd.
At his wife's insistence, he went to learn, but was embarrassed to be sitting in school with kindergarteners. Yet he couldn't go home, because his wife told him not to return until he was a scholar.
Feeling sorry for himself. Akiva sat down by a stream and stared at the water.
As he watched the dripping water slowly wearing away a rock, he had a flash of inspiration:
"If water, which is so soft, can wear away a hard rock, surely a little Torah can get into my hardened heart!"
So inspired, he returned to kindergarten.
By the age of 64 he had become Rabbi Akiva, the greatest scholar in Israel, with 24,000 students.
Talmud Nedarim 50a, Ketubot 62b-63a

Wikipedia on Rabbi Akiva
A book about Rabbi Akiva
An amazing class by R. Akiva Tatz on the meaning of life 

Ghost Story

October 31, 2011
3 Cheshvan, 5772

Do you like a good ghost story?

Look no farther than the Biblical book of Samuel. There you will see one of the world's oldest ghost stories.

King Saul is desperate. He is facing a massive battle with the Philistines and is not getting any guidance from the usual prophetic channels.

In desperation, he turns to a sorceress. She is hard to find, given that Saul himself banned all sorcery a few years earlier.

He goes to her incognito and asks her to bring up the prophet Samuel, Saul's mentor, who had died a few months earlier.

To her surprise, the seance works - Samuel's ghost comes up (feet first, by the way).

"What are you disturbing me for? Is that you Saul?"

"Sorry, I just need to know what's going to happen in this battle, I'm quite afraid."

"Well, in that case, I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?"

"Tell me the good news first."

"The good news is that you are eventually going to be joining me here" (i.e., despite your many mistakes, you're going to make it to the World to Come).

"Umm... that's reassuring! What's the bad news?"

"The bad news is that you're going to be joining me tomorrow...."

2 Samuel Ch. 17

Rabbi Becher's introduction to Kabbala class (audio link)

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