Kriat Shema Al Hamitah (Part 20)
“The amount of sleep required by the average person is five minutes more.”
Wilson Mizener – American Playwright
Kriat Shema al Hamitah continues: “Behold, the resting place of Shlomo, with sixty mighty ones surrounding it, of the mighty ones of Israel. All of them gripping their swords, skilled in warfare, each with their sword on their thigh, from fear in the nights.” (Shir Hashirim 3:7-8)
The Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 11) connects the “sixty mighty ones” to the sixty letters of Birkat Kohanim, which is why it is included in Kriat Shema al Hamitah immediately before the words of Birkat Kohanim are recited. The Midrash poetically explains that the sixty letters of Birkat Kohanim are like a sword that cuts through all the obstructions that try to block our way forwards to Hashem. It is the Name of Hashem within our Tefillot that sweeps away all the obstacles and allows us to draw closer and closer to our Father in Heaven. The Rabbis teach us the number sixty is analogous to the sixty tractates of the Mishna. (There are actually sixty-three tractates in the standard version of the six orders of the Mishna. However, originally, some of them were actually considered to be as only one tractate, such as Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia and Bava Batra.) Homiletically, the verses are teaching us that a person should “surround” themselves with the Mishna to keep them safe.
I read a moving account by someone who related that he attends a shiur in his local neighborhood in Ramat Beit Shemesh. Sitting next to him is someone called Akiva Hoffman. Akiva Hoffman is an Israeli who participated in many fearsome battles during the Yom Kippur War. Today he spends his mornings immersed in learning Torah. One day, he gave all those present an amazing lesson about the power of learning Torah, and specifically Mishna, that happened to him during the war.
Soon after the war began in 1973, Akiva was first sent up north with his unit to Ramat HaGolan and then later on down south to the Sinai Desert. He had no idea how long he would be away from home, so he brought with him a volume of Mishna to learn whenever the opportunity arose.
The war progressed, and in between the battles and the skirmishes, Akiva used his “spare time” to continue learning Mishna. At some point, he would finish whichever volume he had brought with him, and each time that he was given permission to go home for a short leave he would exchange the volume he had finished for the next one.
One day, a non-religious soldier named Chadad asked Akiva what he was so busy with when they weren’t in combat. Akiva explained that he was learning Mishna and that there are 525 chapters that are split up into six sections. He then mentioned that his aspiration was to finish the entire six orders of the Mishna. Completely unexpectedly, Chadad told him, “The day you finish all of the Mishna, the war will be over and we’ll get to go home.”
Akiva laughed at the remark and went back to his learning. At a later date, intensive international diplomacy led to a ceasefire, and slowly but surely the Israeli troops in the Sinai Desert began withdrawing. But, for some inexplicable reason, Akiva’s unit was left waiting for their orders to return home. On the Friday afternoon of Parshat Zachor, Chadad said to Akiva, “It’s enough! I want to go home already! How close are you to finishing the Mishna?”
Akiva told him, “I’ve almost completed them all, but I have guard duty tonight, so I won’t have time to finish over Shabbat.”
“I’ll take your guard duty,” Chadad replied. “We need you to finish!”
So Akiva eagerly went back to learning his precious Mishna. And, sure enough, that Shabbat he finished the entirety of the Mishna and, together with his unit, made a festive meal in honor of his incredible accomplishment.
Early Sunday morning Akiva was shaken awake by Chadad, “Akiva, we just got our orders! We’re going home!”
To be continued…
