When Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria, Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Akiva approached the Temple Mount, they saw a fox coming out of the Holy of Holies. The former began crying whereas Rabbi Akiva laughed. To explain his laughter, he told them: "It is certain that the prophecy of Zechariah (8:4-5) will be fulfilled: 'There shall yet old men and old women sit in the broad places of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand for very age. โAnd the broad places of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the broad places thereofโ (Makkot Tractate 24: 2)
Rabbi Akivaโs friends saw the series of disasters and wept. How can you stop the tears, when you see the holy places of Israel become a playground for the wicked, when the Temple Mount and the Holy of Holies have become a den of foxes?
Rabbi Akiva, unlike his friends, laughed. His eyes saw the same sight, but his heart received a completely different message. In his mind's eye, the magnitude of the present destruction was a guarantee of a glorious future deliverance. Is it possible, Rabbi Akiva wondered, that G-d will compensate for such a deep low with routine rehabilitation? Can such total destruction be balanced by modest construction and assurance of basic sustenance?
No and no, Rabbi Akiva realized. Rather, the depth of the tragedy heralds a bright and spectacular future. Rabbi Akiva's laughter was not one of light-heartedness but of deep faith and inner joy. He realized that the Nation of Israel does not live only in the present; for him, the past serves as an accurate road map for the future.
This concept is reflected in our daily life. We continue to pray at night, continuing G-dโs work for that day into the darkness. With a strong understanding that it is precisely from the darkness that the greatest light grows. The deeper and darker the night, the brighter and more spectacular the light that will emanate from it.
Thus, the Maharal teaches us, one must observe the events of life: not only in what is revealed to the eye, but also in what lies in them for the future to come. This is a deep view of Jewish history, which allows us to draw hope (Maharal; Beit Aharon) according to the words of Rabbi Nosson Scherman, Book of Lamentations
