YOSSI: Wait, wait, wait a minute! Rabbi Akiva lived in Bnei Brak! We just learned that in yeshiva! In the Haggadah, the other Tannaim all went to visit Rabbi Akiva in Bnei Brak! What does Rabbi Akiva have to do with Teveria?
YOELI: So, my rebbe said that Teveria and Rabbi Akiva are very connected. Teveria is connected very deeply, in many ways, to pnimiyus, the deeper, hidden Torah.
YOSSI: This sounds like it would have to do with Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. The Rashbi wrote the Zohar, and revealed the hidden Torah, I asked you about…
YOELI: And Rashbi’s rebbe was…?
YOSSI: Oh, Rabbi Akiva!
YOELI: Yes! Chazal tell us that Rabbi Akiva actually taught Rashbi the Toras hanistar, so in a deep way that’s one reason he was buried in Teveria, a city connected to the highest levels of the hidden Torah. When Moshe Rabbeinu got the Torah on Har Sinai, he saw how great Rabbi Akiva would be on all levels, and suggested Hashem give the Torah to Rabbi Akiva instead!
YOSSI: Rabbi Akiva’s wife is buried here too, no?
YOELI: And in the words of Rabbi Akiva, everything he accomplished was hers! She lived through years of poverty with him. She believed in him and encouraged him to go learn at 40, and encouraged him to go away to yeshiva to learn for 12 years… only to say another twelve would be fine as well!
YOSSI: Yes, yes, and he went straight back to yeshiva for another 12 years without even saying hello!
YOELI: He took all his talmidim with him, too. Rav Chaim Vital says that not only is Rabbi Akiva buried here, but his 24,000 talmidim that died during Sefiras Haomer, are buried on the same mountainside, here in Teveria!
YOSSI: WOW! I can feel the ruach of Rabbi Akiva here, in the air!
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 29.