Simeon ben Azzai
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17
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8
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8
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Search complete. 17 mentions across 8 episodes found for "Simeon ben Azzai".
Sep 25, 2026
DovBer PinsonHOST
And the upper waters obviously represent spiritual desires, and the lower waters represent physical desires.
DovBer PinsonHOST
What Rabbi Akiva is saying, and this is why Ben Azzai s- almost sees that, and he sees that it's, it's kemula nima, it's almost, almost connected, but he doesn't see the full connection.
DovBer PinsonHOST
Only Rabbi Akiva, who is b'shalom, who's in complete harmony with himself, can...
DovBer PinsonHOST
in, in, in a higher, the highest level possible, could see this c- complete harmony, is that we think that we have two types of desires.
Hershel SchachterHOST
So if you look in the tiny letters on the side, if you are Haredim write like that, and the Chafetz Chaim has a separate essay that people who can't have children, they should adopt because HaMelamed Ben Chaver Eitreima Lo Akasu Ki Y'lodo means that there's a, a partial Kiyam HaMitzvah.
Hershel SchachterHOST
The Gemara has this story about, uh, Ben Azzai.
Hershel SchachterHOST
The Rama quotes it then.
Hershel SchachterHOST
Ben Azzai didn't wanna get married.
Hershel SchachterHOST
One version of the Gemara is that he married the daughter of Rabbi Akiva, and then he decided that marriage is not for him, and he divorced her.
Hershel SchachterHOST
The other version is he never got married.
RoyceGUEST
So these were, these were the four rabbis who entered Pardes.
RoyceGUEST
So Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher, or the other, a name for Elish- uh, Elisha ben Av- Avahuya, and Rabbi Akiva.
RoyceGUEST
Rabbi Akiva, the senior among them, said, "When upon your arrival in the upper worlds you reach pure marble stones, do not say 'Water, water,' although they appear to be water, because it is stated, 'He who speaks falsehood shall not be established before my eyes.'" So the Gemara proceeds to relate what happened to each of them.
RoyceGUEST
So Ben Azzai glimpsed the Divine Presence and died, and with re- with regard to him, the verse states, "Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his pious ones."
The Cajun KnightHOST
Okay.
RoyceGUEST
From Psalms.
PinkGUEST
At the same time, we have core Jewish teachings from Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of Our Fathers, that stress the importance of focusing on the here and now.
PinkGUEST
Rabbi Yaakov used to say, "One hour of teshuva and ma'asim tovim, good deeds, is more precious than an entire lifetime in the world to come." And even more famously, Ben Azzai said, "Mitzvah gorereh mitzvah, sh'charr mitzvah mitzvah.
PinkGUEST
One mitzvah leads to another mitzvah, as the reward for doing a mitzvah is another mitzvah." What this means, according to my teacher, Rabbi Eliezer Diamond of blessed memory, is that when you do mitzvot, the benefit is not necessarily anything tangible.
PinkGUEST
The benefit is that it will be easier to do that mitzvah and other mitzvot in the future.
Felicia SolGUEST
There is a passage in the Gemara in Berakhot that says, "The sages teach one who enters a large city recites two prayers.
Felicia SolGUEST
One upon entering, that they may enter in peace, and one upon leaving, that they may leave in peace." Ben Azzai said, "Not two prayers, four.
Felicia SolGUEST
Four prayers.
Felicia SolGUEST
Two upon entering, and two upon leaving." In addition, in, for praying for safe entry and safe departure, he said, "One gives thanks for the past, and cries out in prayer for the future." I love this little text.
Felicia SolGUEST
The city is understood to be a place of danger, and uncertainty, and vulnerability.
Felicia SolGUEST
There is the obvious prayer, may I enter safely and may I leave safely.
Felicia SolGUEST
But Ben Azzai adds something else.
Felicia SolGUEST
He asks us at a moment of change, a moment of transition, to look in two directions at once.
Gerry SerottaGUEST
So I do view, uh, Judaism different from those who see it as an insular, uh, community.
Gerry SerottaGUEST
I agree with, uh, Ben Azzai's, uh, uh, terms of the greatest verse in the Torah.
Gerry SerottaGUEST
Uh, this, I mean, it's a very nice verse Rabbi Akiva picked, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Ben Azz- that's the Klal Gadol from which you can derive everything.
Gerry SerottaGUEST
Ben Azzai said, "No, the Klal Gadol is, uh, you were, all of humanity was created by God in the image of God, male and female," 'cause that's a, that's a universal verse.
Gerry SerottaGUEST
That applies to all of humanity, and that's, that's the Klal Gadol in the Torah.
Gerry SerottaGUEST
So I'm, I'm a Ben Azzai Jew, and I also, uh, uh, you mentioned the Haftarah from last week, that there was a verse from the Torah portion that jumped out at me f- for some reason it, it hadn't been so central to me, and as a negative command, "Lo tuchal l'hit'aleim." You can't be indifferent.
Gerry SerottaGUEST
In that case, it was just to, to returning things that your neighbors have lost or, and watching out for their animals.
Gerry SerottaGUEST
But the, it's a negative command.
speaker_0HOST
The Talmud, in the tractate called Haggigah, tells a story about four sages who entered the orchard, a way of describing a journey into exactly this kind of esoteric mystical speculation about the divine generations before the Zohar existed.
speaker_0HOST
Their names were Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, a man remembered afterward only as the other, and Rabbi Akiva.
speaker_0HOST
According to the account, Ben Azzai gazed and died.
speaker_0HOST
Ben Zoma gazed and lost his mind.
speaker_0HOST
The man called the other, his real name was Elisha Ben Abuyah.
S. F. ZimmermanGUEST
because otherwise there's no Yisra.
S. F. ZimmermanGUEST
Greger takes it further, according to Ben Azzai, that when you walk, it's as if you stopped in the middle, the only way to be over Shem Yavriyano is if you jump.
S. F. ZimmermanGUEST
Think of how far-fetched it is.
S. F. ZimmermanGUEST
Nevertheless, Chazal said, it's better that all of Klal Yisrael should not have Shefer, and all the tikkunim, all the rectifications, and all the positives we have out of Shefer, so one person in every few years shouldn't be in the Chal Shaps.