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Nahum's avatar

I too was blown away by that baraisa's portrayal of Shimon (or Nechemiah) ha'amsuni's intellectual honesty and integrity. That baraisa ends with R Akiva resuscitating the thesis by saying that the את of את השם אלוקך תירא is coming to include talmidei chachomim. Now I dont know if the following is more homiletical in nature or not however I was thinking that R Akiva too was flabbergasted by Shimon/Nechemiahs courage and honesty, and, coming to the conclusion that this Godlike behavior is attributable to the fact that he is a talmid chacham, revived his abandoned thesis by including the Shimon/Nechemiah paradigm in the requirement of someone we should stand in awe of, akin to the awe we're to feel towards HaShem Himself, with the delicious irony that precisely what caused him to walk away from his important (lifelong?) Torah exegesis of all prior אתים, that being the integrity acquired via that selfsame Torah study, is what enabled his work to continue . .

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Nahum's avatar

Inspiring words indeed. I might add that even becoming a Yisroel as in part of the jewish nation is also dependent upon commiting to live a certain way and believe certain ideas. Rambam writes (letter to Ovadiah the ger)

"In the same way as he (Avraham) converted his contemporaries through his words and teaching, he converts future generations through the testament he left to his children and household after him.".

Shabbat shalom and all the best (and dont forget to have the gabbai call you for the first 3 aliyos 😁)

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