Rabbi Akiva [R"A]

Second Generation of Tannaim

Second Generation of Tannaim, Rabbi Akiva ben Yosef, a descendant of converts, from the lineage of Sisera; he was humble, receptive to moral instruction, a great sage, pious, knew seventy languages, and were it not for Rabbi Akiva, Torah would have been forgotten from Israel.

R"A served Nahum Ish Gamzu and learned the secrets of Torah from Rabbi Nehunia ben HaKanah, a colleague and disputant of Rabbi Tarfon. R"A said: Whatever comes from Heaven is for the good. He lived one hundred and twenty years, like Moses, Hillel, and Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai.

His Greatness

After the passing of Rabbi Akiva's twenty-four thousand students, the world was desolate, meaning, without Torah. Until R"A came to our Sages in the South and taught them, and they were: Rabbi Meir Ba'al HaNes, Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai, Rabbi Yose ben Halafta, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and Rabbi Elazar ben Shamu'a; and some add: Rabbi Yochanan HaSandlar and Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov.

His Self-Sacrifice

On the day R"A passed away to his eternal home, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi was born; he was the foremost of the Ten Martyrs.

When they led him out to be executed, it was the time for reading the Shema, and he focused on accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven with love. He said: Now it has come to me to fulfill what is written: “and with all your soul” [Deuteronomy 6:5], even if it takes your soul, meaning: to die with self-sacrifice for the sanctification of His blessed Name, and I would not fulfill it!

He prolonged the word 'Echad' (One) until his soul departed with 'Echad', a Heavenly Voice went forth and said: Fortunate are you, R"A, whose soul departed with 'Echad'.

His Praises and Sayings

Rabbi Tarfon said: Fortunate are you, Abraham our Patriarch, that R"A emerged from your loins. Rabbi Akiva's father was a righteous convert and married an Israelite woman.

R"A was modest and conducted himself with proper etiquette (derekh eretz), which is why Rachel, the daughter of Kalba Savua, agreed to marry him, on condition that he go to study Torah! Her father heard this and disinherited her from his property, meaning: her father vowed on account of this that he would not give her from his possessions.

R"A married Rachel and began to study Torah at the age of forty. He went and studied for twenty-four years and brought with him twenty-four thousand students! In the end, when R"A returned with his students to his city and it became clear to his father-in-law that his son-in-law had become the greatest of the generation, he asked to be released from his vow which he had vowed, and R"A annulled his vow. Kalba Savua gave half of his property to R"A. [Nedarim 50b]

Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinas said to him: Fortunate are you, R"A, whose name travels from one end of the world to the other. [Yevamot 16a] The heart of the early ones is like the entrance to the Ulam (vestibule of the Temple) – this is R"A; and that of the later ones is like the entrance to the Heichal (sanctuary) – this is Rabbi Elazar ben Shamu'a.

His Enrichment

One of six things from which R"A became wealthy.

Once, R"A and his students needed money for food and yeshiva expenses. R"A went to a certain matron and asked for a loan! She said to him: You are the lender, the Holy One, Blessed be He, and the sea are guarantors. R"A set a time for her to repay the loan. When the time came to repay the loan, R"A fell ill and could not come!

The matron went to the seashore and said: Master of the Universe, it is revealed and known before You that R"A is ill and cannot come, behold, You are the guarantor in this matter!

Immediately at that moment, the Emperor's daughter went mad and threw a chest full of precious stones and gold dinars into the sea, and the chest arrived exactly at the place where the matron was standing. She took the chest and returned home.

Days later, R"A recovered and came to pay his debt! The matron said to him: I already went to the guarantor, and he paid your debt. Here is the surplus from the loan amount. And from that money, R"A became wealthy. [Nedarim 50b, see A]

His Sayings

Rabbi Akiva says: Levity and frivolity lead to lewdness. Tradition is a fence for Torah. Tithes are a fence for wealth. Vows are a fence for asceticism. A fence for wisdom is silence. [Avot 3:14]

Levity and frivolity: One should be careful of excessive joy so that one does not come to levity and revelry, meaning buffoonery, whose outcomes are undesirable.

Tradition: The tradition transmitted by the Sages in the Oral Torah, in the Mishnah, in the Gemara, and in all the words of the Sages, made a great safeguard and distancing, so that one does not come to transgress the words of Torah.

Vows: Even in physical matters that are permissible for a person, preoccupation with them can lower his spiritual level, therefore vows hasten him to withdraw from them.

Becoming wealthy: Tithes: A person who tithes. A fence for wisdom is silence: It is obligatory to study Torah day and night. Gossip and evil speech are simply forbidden to speak! So what kind of silence is being referred to? Rather, even concerning permissible matters that a person may speak about, silence is preferable. [Ra"B]

Why do we need fences? As the spiritual level diminishes from generation to generation, the Sages added boundaries and fences, because only in this way will it be easier for a person to overcome darkness and inclinations.