Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Va’es’chanan

Loving While Leaving

August 7, 2025

Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by HaRav Chaim Weg

Hear, O Yisrael: Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is the One and Only.

Dvarim 6:1

The Gemara in Brachos (61b) describes how R’ Akiva was put to death by the Romans for teaching Torah in public. While he was being killed, R’ Akiva fulfilled the mitzvah of reciting Shma at its proper time. His students asked him, “Ad kan (to this extent)?”—i.e., why did he have to recite Shma even as he was dying? R’ Akiva responded that during his lifetime, he always yearned be able to fulfill uvechol nafshecha—that even if Hashem takes one’s life, he must still love Him—and now was his opportunity, so he should of course recite Shma.

R’ Zelig Reuven Bengis wondered why the talmidim questioned R’ Akiva’s decision to recite Shma. Isn’t a person obligated to fulfill mitzvos if he is able? R’ Baruch Ber Leibowitz answered him: The talmidim thought R’ Akiva was exempt from reciting Shma due to the principle of oseik bemitzvah patur min hamitzvah (one who is involved with one mitzvah is exempt from another). If he is fulfilling the mitzvah of dying al kiddush Hashem, why interrupt to say Shma?

R’ Akiva responded that kabalas ol malchus Shamayim (accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven) through Shma is the very same mitzvah as sanctifying Hashem’s name by dying al kiddush Hashem; both involve sanctifying His name, which must be done both in life and in death. This was, in fact, R’ Akiva’s response to the talmidim: He had long hoped for the opportunity to be mekabel ol malchus Shamayim through death, so of course he should also recite Shma, through which one accepts ol malchus Shamayim.