The daily strengthening from The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a – Rabbi Akiva’s students passed away because they did not show honor to one another

Monday, 28 Tammuz 5783 – “It is forbidden to hold a grudge against any Jew”

These are his holy words:

After the tribe of Shimon sinned with the daughters of Midian, within a second 24,000 died. We count those 24,000 during Sefiras HaOmer; when you divide it into 33 days, that comes out to 730 people a day.

Now two children passed away—one, Asher Menachem zt"l, and the other, Yaakov Yisrael zt"l, from the Pali family—and the whole country was shaken. Then two girls, Maya Esther Di zt"l, age 20, and her sister Rina Miriam Di zt"l, age 15—the whole country was shaken; it is impossible to absorb it. After that, two Shabbos-observant soldiers from a hesder yeshivah, Yigal Yisrael zt"l and his brother Hillel Menachem zt"l—again two, it is always siblings.

It always comes out as siblings. The whole point is that it is forbidden to hold a grudge against anyone in the world. Because what does it mean that Rabbi Akiva’s students did not show honor to one another? That in their hearts they carried resentments!

A person must not have resentment in his heart against any Jew!!

The 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva—that is 12,000 pairs, the way they learned in chavrusas—and all of them died within 33 days. A person always has some resentment, but it is forbidden for him to have resentment; if he has resentment, then he is liable to death.

That is why during Sefiras HaOmer we do not take haircuts, and we do not shave the beard until the eve of Shavuos.