4858 —כתיבת השם עקיבא – "לא בשמים היא" בפסק הלכה ולא בבירור מציאות

B"H, 21 Marcheshvan, 5717

Brooklyn.

Shalom u'Vrachah!

In answer to your letter: it is understood that my pointing out certain books in my letter was in order to ease for you the work of collecting material and of dealing with the matter you write about.

Regarding what you write about the visit of Rabbi ..., shlita — you surely know that his visit was for the purpose of arousing Torah and mitzvos in the area and for no other aim. It is therefore surprising that you did not seek to assist him in this work, for you are there on the spot and could surely have helped in this matter; and it appears from your letter that you did not even meet with him.

Regarding what you write about the doubt* concerning the spelling of the name Akiva, and that the Riaz was shown in a dream "Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart"^[1], whose final letters spell Akiva with a heh — but "it is not in heaven"^[2], and "we pay no heed to a heavenly voice"^[3]: this, and the like, has already been debated in several places**. The point is that "it is not in heaven" concerns a halachic ruling, as opposed to clarifying a fact — as in this case, to know how the name of Rabbi Akiva was written, with whom the name Akiva is connected in the generations after him as well; and this is easy to understand.

With blessing.

*) See on this the Turei Zahav on the names in gittin, under Akiva; the Birkei Yosef there; Shem HaGedolim of the Chida under Rabbi Yitzchak of Vienna — (in Sha'ar HaKavanos of the Arizal, on Sefiras HaOmer, and in his Likkutim on Shas, end of Berachos: עקיבא; but in Likkutei Torah of the Arizal on Tehillim 97: "Light is sown, etc.," the final letters spell עקיבה) — Responsa Chasam Sofer, Even HaEzer; and in the name of the Maharshal in Yam Shel Shlomo it is brought that the scribes were not precise in writing names in the Shas.

**) This is also discussed at length in Shem HaGedolim of the Chida under Rabbi Yaakov HaChassid; and see the sources noted there.

Notes

[1] Light is sown for the righteous (אור זרוע לצדיק): Tehillim 97:11. The final letters of its words are ר-ע-ק-י-ב-ה, "R[abbi] Akivah." Rabbi Yitzchak of Vienna named his book "Or Zarua" after this dream.

[2] It is not in heaven (לא בשמים היא): Devarim 30:12. Halachah is decided by the Torah's sages below, not by revelation from above.

[3] We pay no heed to a heavenly voice (אין משגיחין בבת קול): Bava Metzia 59b.

Publisher's notes

Printed in Likkutei Sichos vol. 7, p. 349; completed from a copy.

Debated this: see also the Igros Kodesh of the Rebbe Rayatz, vol. 2, letter 534.