Sefirat HaOmer 5780: ”The Rock-Headed Rabbi: Rabbi Akiva’s beginnings, Stories of Rabbi Akiva” with Miriam Gedwiser

The period of Sefirat ha-omer between Pesach and Shavuot is associated in rabbinic lore with Rabbi Akiva, and specifically the death of his students in a plague.  We will study aggadot about the the master teacher Rabbi Akiva himself - his humble beginnings, his family, his intellectual and emotional power, and his tragic end.