My arguments were mostly against what he said.
I don’t think so.
And even R’ AKiva as you point out tried to avoid it too.
Right. Not a stirah, as I said.
We are a religion of Life. Ubecharta bechaim, Vechai bahem. The things we daven for over and over are chaim. chaim aruchim, chaim shel shalom etc, Zachreinu lechaim melech chafets bachaim, melech chafetz bamisah al kiddushc hashem. There are (Few) examples I gave where we daven specificly not to have suffering or nisyonos (like R’ Akiva had). There is not a single Tefila that Ican think of where we ask for the opportunity to be killed AL kiddush Hashem.
Right. Not a stirah, as I said.
There si no source that says we should hope for that. The gemara in question does not say that and does seem to imply that. It sounds like Comforting anguished talmidim, and yes to focus on the positive even in that terrible situation that R’ Akiva tried to avoid and would have avoided if he could. H couldnt avoid it so he accepted it with Ahvava. As we would hopefully
He said he waited his entire life for the ability to demonstrate “b’chol nafsh’cho”.
But if we had a choice we would avoid being killed al Kiddush Hashem..
Right. Not a stirah, as I said.
I dont think this kind of death focus is a healthy focus and is not part of our religion
It’s not a focus on death. It’s a focus on the fact that our lives were given to us by Hashem for the purpose of serving Him, to the extent that if He asks us to give it up, we will be able to do so b’ahavah. That’s why it’s not a stirah to live our lives to serve Hashem, because that is why he gave us our lives, and at the same time, to yearn to to demonstrate that fact by giving up our lives should that be what He asks of us.