So the countdown - or should we say "count-up"? - has begun: We are now well into the Sefira period. Two ideas permeate our nightly enumeration: 1) the linking up of Pesach and Shavuot; and 2) The semi-mourning practices associated with this time of the year due to the deaths of the students of Rabbi Akiva. Is there a connection?


The rabbis explain why those talmidei chachamim perished: "They did not afford sufficient respect to one another." But this is very hard to fathom, considering that Rabbi Akiva's prime forte was promoting the love of each Jew for another. As we sang as kids in the B'nei Akiva youth movement: "Amar Rabi Akiva:

V'Ahavta L'Ray'acha Kamocha - Zeh Klal Gadol Ba'Torah." - "Love your fellow Jew as you love yourself; this is a basic principle of the Torah." So, what happened?


Rabbi Akiva was arguably the greatest Jewish leader since Moshe. Ba'al teshuvah, patriot, scholar par excellence - the Gemara relates that Moshe himself was transported to Akiba's beit midrash to learn from him - Akiba was a role model for the ages. He was the leader of his generation; the acknowledged master of Torah, as well as the guiding force behind the military effort to overcome Roman domination of Israel. But his life, so noble and holy, would have the most tragic consequences. His students would die; he himself would be tortured by the Romans and executed at age 120.


I think Rabbi Akiva was bemoaning the fact that the various elements in the Jewish society of his generation did not respect each other enough, and that is what caused the calamity. And I fear his words ring truer now more than ever. We all suffer from a similar lack of kavod.


One camp in Israel does not respect the very religious, who spend their days learning and are immersed in mitzvah-observance. But where would we all be if there hadn't been those devoted Jews who kept alive the spirit of Judaism through the millennia, who held our faith together in the most difficult of circumstances through their unswerving devotion to G-d, who prayed fervently to return to Zion, even when that was a far-off dream?


At the same time, another camp disrespects those who identify with the State of Israel, who helped build it and bravely defend it, even at the cost of their lives. They will not even stand in honor of the fallen, or say a prayer for our soldiers' safety. But where would we be - all of us - if not for the pioneers who braved every hardship to found the state, if not for the young men and women who form a holy barrier between us and our cruel enemies?


You want to climb the mountain to G-d? Then remember Sefira - every one counts, everyone deserves respect.