Our last stop on a very busy Tuesday was Tevarya. We have now visited all four holy cities of Israel. Yerushalayim – home of Beis Hamikdash, Chevron – resting place of our patriarchs and matriarchs, Tzefat – city of kabbalah and now Tevarya – place where the Talmud Yerushalmi was written. At first one may think that the Talmud was written in Yerushalayim, since that is part of its name. However, the Romans did not allow Jews to live in Yerushalayim and Jews moved up north to the Galillee. The rabbis wanted our thoughts to always be focused on Yerushalayim, so the name reflects Yerushalayim.
Each city is compared to 4 elements. Tevarya is compared to water, because of the Kineret. In addition water is like Torah and the Talmud was written in Tevarya. Tzefat is compared to wind. As Miri answered Tzefat is on mountains and it can be windy. Tzefat is also the home of Kabalah which is spiritual. Chevron is compared to earth because of the burial site that Avaraham bought. Earth is also consistent and permanent like our patriarchs and matriarchs. Yerushalayim is fire because of the korbanot. Fire us passion and our connection to Hashem is one that should bring out the passion in us.
Our first site was to R’ Akiva, who we have heard about since we were children. We learned that R’ Akiva was a simple shepherd, who began studying Torah at the age of 40 and became a very famous Rabbi and teacher of 24,000,000 students. R’ Akiva is best known for his mantra of Ahavat Yisroel, to love everyone. Yoni reminded us that Rabbi Akiva was always an optimist. He always saw the positive side of things. In fact when Rabbi Akiva walked by the Temple ruins, he smiled because he knew that just as the prophecy of destruction occurred so to the prophecy of the rebuilding will occur.
Our last stop was the grave of Rambam, Maimonides. Rambam is someone that we know very well. Each day at school we begin hearing the daily Rambam from Rabbi Noach Kosofsky. It was very meaningful to daven there. Rambam is well known for many things, but one of his greatest works is called Yad Hachazaka, which is a series of 14 books. The numerical value of yad is 14. As one ascends to his grave, you pass 14 pillars with the names of the books recorded. Israel has updated his grave site with an updated floor and benches.
Legend is that Rambam who died in Egypt and his body was put on a camel. The camel kept walking until he came to Tevarya. Actually Rambam had been in Israel before and his father was buried in Tevarya and therefore Rambam asked to be buried in Tevarya.
Next to Rambam is the grave of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai. He is a rabbi who lived before the destruction of the 2nd Temple and he is credited with saving Judaism. As Yerushalayim was under siege, he snuck out of the city to meet the General Vespasian, who granted him 3 requests. One was to save the wise men and the city of Yavneh. Rabbi Yochanan understood that the destruction was inevitable, but he knew Torah study must go on. The fact that we are here today is due to his vision. The Shaloh, Yeshiah Halevi Horowitz is buried here as well. The Shaloh lived in Europe and went to Israel in 1621. Rabbi Chaim Kosofsky writes a weekly Dvar Torah for LYA’s email from the teachings of the Shaloh.