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From: teitz@aecom.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Sephardim - Ashkenazim
Message-ID: <569@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 7-May-84 10:38:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: aecom.569
Posted: Mon May  7 10:38:48 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 13-May-84 08:13:44 EDT
References: <972@hou5e.UUCP>, <253@masscomp.UUCP>
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 35

we  are now in the period betwwen pesach ( passover ) and shavuot ( pentacost )
known as s'fira. many jews have a custom of accepting upon themselves a period
of mourning during this time to commemorate the death of 24,000 students of
Rabbi Akiva during the post-Temple period. these students died in a plague
and the reason for their  death is said to be because they did not treat
each other with respect ( i do not remember the exact location of the  quote).
a question can be asked: surely the jews  suffered worse   calamities than this
why do we accept this  mourning ? 
an answer that i heard from a friend ( rabbi  baruch lanner in the name of
Rav Yosef Soloveitchik ) is this: the tragedy occured because the students
did not treat each other with  respect. what does this mean ? because they
did   not say good morning   to each other they  were  wiped out?
no, the reason is that they did not  accept the fact   that there can be
variant opinions in judaism. 
this does not mean that i have to  accept what anyone else says. but as
long as he has some basis for his opinion, i cannot attack him for  his
belief.
the  second temple  was destroyed not because we transgressed against G-D
a much as  because we  transgressed against each other. (again i forgret
the qoute) the temple was destroyed because of unwarranted hatred (sinas
chinam ). the  students of Rabbi Akiva who lived immediately after the
temple did not learn this  lesson and had to be taught a lesson of their
own.
let us learn fromtheir tragic mistakes, and on this the 36 anniversary
of the independence of Israel let us resolve to bury the hatchet forever.
we have differences of opinion. this networkis a forum to air these ideas.
however we must use  caution not to   offend anyone, even if we feel that
we arre just in our  attacks, because of previous injustices.
if we take this lesson to  heart, we may yet have the honor and privilege
to see the rebuilding of the temple, askenazim and  sefaradim together,
bimhayra biyamenu (  quickly and in our days ) , amen.

	hakosayve lichvod hayehudim ( who writes for the honor  of all jews),
			eliyahu teitz.