Depiction of Akiva ben Joseph, Mantua Haggadah (1568)
Akiva ben Joseph (ca.40–ca.137 CE) simply known as Rabbi Akiva (Hebrew: רבי עקיבא), was a tanna of the latter part of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century (3rd tannaitic generation). He was a great authority in the matter of Jewish tradition, and one of the most central and essential contributors to the Mishnah and Midrash Halakha. He is referred to in the Talmud as "Rosh la-Chachamim" (Head of all the Sages). He is considered by tradition to be one of the earliest founders of rabbinical Judaism.[1] He is the seventh most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah.[2]
A great many legends have been passed down about Akiva. But despite the rich mass of material afforded by rabbinical sources, only an incomplete portrait can be drawn of the man who marked out the path followed by rabbinical Judaism for almost two millennia.
Akiva ben Joseph (written עקיבא in the Babylonian talmud, and עקיבה in the Jerusalem Talmud — another form for עקביה) who is usually called simply Akiva, was of comparatively humble parentage.[3] A misunderstanding of the expression "Zechus Avos" (Ber. l.c.), joined to a tradition concerning Sisera, captain of the army of Hazor (Giṭ. 57b, Sanh. 96b), is the source of another tradition (Nissim Gaon to Ber. l.c.), which makes Akiva a descendant of Sisera. According to the romantic story of Akiva's marriage with the daughter of the wealthy Jerusalemite, Kalba Savua, Akiba began life as an uneducated shepherd who worked for this aristocrat. (see below "Akiva and his wife" and "His relationship with his wife"). His wife's name is not given in the earlier sources, but she is called Rachel in a later version of the tradition (Ab. R. N. ed. S. Schechter, vi. 29). She stood loyally by her husband during that critical period of his life in which Akiva dedicated himself to the study of Torah.
A different legendary tradition (Ab. R. N. l.c.) narrates that Akiva at the age of 40, and when he was the father of a numerous family dependent upon him, eagerly attended the academy of his native town, Lod, presided over by Eliezer ben Hyrkanus. Hyrcanus was a neighbor of Joseph, the father of Akiva. The fact that Eliezer was his first teacher, and the only one whom Akiva later designates as "rabbi," is of importance in settling the date of Akiva's birth. These legends set the beginning of his years of study at about 75–80. Earlier than this, Yochanan ben Zakai was living, and Eliezer, being his pupil, would have been held of no authority in Johanan's lifetime. Consequently, according to the legendary tradition that Akiva was 40 when beginning the study of the Law, he must have been born about 40–50.
Besides Eliezer, Akiva had other teachers—principally Joshua ben Hananiah (Ab. R. N. l.c.) and Nahum Ish Gamzu (Hag. 12a). He was on equal footing with Rabban Gamaliel II, whom he met later. In a certain sense, Tarphon was considered as one of Akiva's masters (Ket. 84b), but the pupil outranked his teacher, and Tarphon became one of Akiva's greatest admirers (Sifre, Num. 75). Akiva probably remained in Lod (R. H. i. 6), as long as Eliezer dwelt there, and then removed his own school to Bene Berak, five Roman miles from Jaffa (Sanh. 32b; Tosef., Shab. iii. [iv.] 3). Akiva also lived for some time at Ziphron (Num. xxxiv. 9), the modern Zafrân (Z. P. V. viii. 28), near Hamath (see Sifre, Num. iv., and the parallel passages quoted in the Talmudical dictionaries of Levy and M. Jastrow). For another identification of the place, and other forms of its name, see A. Neubauer, Géographie, p. 391, and M. Jastrow, l.c.
Among Akiva's other contemporaries were Elisha ben Avuya, Eliezer ben Tzodok, Eleazar ben Azaria, Gamliel II, Yehuda ben Betheira, Yochanan ben Nuri, Yosi Haglili, Rabbi Yishmael and Chanina ben Dosa.
According to the Talmud, Akiva owed almost everything to his wife. Akiva was a shepherd in the employ of the rich and respected Kalba Sabu'a, whose daughter took a liking to him, the modest, conscientious servant. She consented to secret betrothal on the condition that he thenceforth devote himself to study. When the wealthy father-in-law learned of this secret betrothal, he drove his daughter from his house, and swore that he would never help her while Akiva remained her husband. Akiva, with his young wife, lived perforce in the most straitened circumstances. Indeed, so poverty-stricken did they become that the bride had to sell her hair to enable her husband to pursue his studies. But these very straits only served to bring out Akiva's greatness of character. It is related that once, when a bundle of straw was the only bed they possessed, a poor man came to beg some straw for a bed for his sick wife. Akiva at once divided with him his scanty possession, remarking to his wife, "Thou seest, my child, there are those poorer than we!" This pretended poor man was none other than the prophet Elijah, who had come to test Akiva (Ned. 50a).
By agreement with his wife, Akiva spent twelve years away from her, pursuing his studies under Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and Joshua ben Hananiah. Returning at the end of that time, he was just about to enter his wretched home, when he overheard the following answer given by his wife to a neighbor who was bitterly censuring him for his long absence: "If I had my wish, he should stay another twelve years at the academy." Without crossing the threshold, Akiva turned about and went back to the academy, to return at the expiration of another twelve years. The second time, however, he came back as a most famous scholar, escorted by 24,000 disciples, who reverently followed their beloved master. When his poorly clad wife was about to embrace him, some of his students, not knowing who she was, sought to restrain her. But Akiva exclaimed, "Let her alone; for what I am, and for what you are, is hers" (she deserves the credit) (Ned. 50a, Ket. 62b et seq.).
See "His relationship with his wife" below for the full story from the Talmud.
The greatest tannaim of the middle of the 2nd century came from Akiva's school, notably Rabbi Meir, Judah ben Ilai, Simeon bar Yohai, Jose ben Halafta, Eleazar ben Shammai, and Rabbi Nehemiah. Besides these, who all attained great renown, Akiva undoubtedly had many disciples whose names have not been handed down, but whose number is variously stated by the Aggadah at 12,000 (Gen. R. lxi. 3), 24,000 (Yeb. 62b), and 48,000 (Ned. 50a). That these figures are to be regarded merely as haggadic exaggerations, and not, as some modern historians insist, as the actual numbers of Akiva's political followers, is evident from the passage, Ket. 106a, in which there are similar exaggerations concerning the disciples of other rabbis.
The part which Akiva is said to have taken in the Bar Kokba revolt cannot be historically determined. The only established fact concerning his connection with Bar Kokba is that the venerable teacher regarded the patriot as the promised Jewish Messiah (Yer. Ta'anit, iv. 68d), and this is absolutely all there is in evidence of an active participation by Akiva in the revolution. In this regard, Akiva expounded the following verse homiletically: "A star has shot off Jacob" (Numbers 24:17) and so nicknamed the rebel as Kochva, "the star", rather than Kozieva. When Akiva would see bar Kochba, he would say: "Dein hu Malka Meshiecha!" ("This is the King Messiah"; Jerusalem Talmud, Ta'anit 4:8). The numerous journeys which, according to rabbinical sources, Akiva is said to have made, cannot have been in any way connected with politics. In 95–96 Akiva was in Rome (H. Grätz, Gesch. d. Juden, iv. 121), and some time before 110 he was in Nehardea (Yeb. xvi. 7), which journeys cannot be made to coincide with revolutionary plans.
In view of the mode of traveling then in vogue, it is not at all improbable that Akiva visited en route numerous other places having important Jewish communities,[4] but information on this point is lacking. The statement that he dwelt in Gazaka in Media rests upon a false reading in Gen. R. xxxiii. 5, and Ab. Zarah, 34a, where for "Akiva" should be read "UḲba," the Babylonian, as Rashi on Ta'anit, 11b, points out. Similarly, the passage in Ber. 8b should read "Simon ben Gamaliel" instead of Akiva, just as the PesiḲta (ed. S. Buber, iv. 33b) has it. A sufficient ground for refusing credence in any participation by Akiva in the political anti-Roman movements of his day is the statement of the Baraita (Ber. 61b) that he suffered martyrdom on account of his transgression of Hadrian's edicts against the practice and the teaching of the Jewish religion, a religious and not a political reason for his death being given.
Akiva's death, which according to Sanh. 12a occurred after several years of imprisonment, must have taken place about 132, before the suppression of Bar Kokhba's revolt, otherwise, as Z. Frankel[5] remarks, the delay of the Romans in executing him would be quite inexplicable. That the religious interdicts of Hadrian preceded the overthrow of Bar Kokba, is shown by Mek., Mishpaṭim, 18, where Akiva regards the martyrdom of two of his friends as ominous of his own fate. After the fall of Bethar no omens were needed to predict evil days. Legends concerning the date and manner of Akiva's death are numerous, but according to Crawford Howell Toy and Louis Ginzberg in the Jewish Encyclopedia, they must all be disregarded as being without historical foundation.
However Jewish sources relate that he was subjected to a Roman torture where his skin was flayed with iron combs. As he was tortured, astonishingly — especially for the torturers —, he said the Shema prayer and was jubilant. When questioned by his students, he responded that he was worried that he would never be able to serve God "with his entire soul". Now that he was given the opportunity to serve God even while being killed, he felt that he was fulfilling the verse.
An example of his modesty is his funeral address over his son Simon. To the large assembly gathered on the occasion from every quarter, he said (Sem. viii., M. ḳ. 21b):
Brethren of the house of Israel, listen to me. Not because I am a scholar have ye appeared here so numerously; for there are those here more learned than I. Nor because I am a wealthy man; for there are many more wealthy than I. The people of the south know Akiva; but whence should the people of Galilee know him? The men are acquainted with him; but how shall the women and children I see here be said to be acquainted with him? Still I know that your reward shall be great, for ye have given yourselves the trouble to come simply in order to do honor to the Torah and to fulfill a religious duty.
Modesty is a favorite theme with Akiva, and he reverts to it again and again. "He who esteems himself highly on account of his knowledge," he teaches, "is like a corpse lying on the wayside: the traveler turns his head away in disgust, and walks quickly by" (Ab. R. N., ed. S. Schechter, xi. 46). Another of his sayings, quoted also in the name of Ben Azzai (Lev. R. i. 5), is specially interesting from the fact that Book of Luke, xiv. 8–12, is almost literally identical with it: "Take thy place a few seats below thy rank until thou art bidden to take a higher place; for it is better that they should say to thee 'Come up higher' than that they should bid thee 'Go down lower'" (see Prov. xxv. 7).
Though so modest, yet when an important matter and not a merely personal one was concerned Akiva could not be cowed by the greatest, as is evidenced by his attitude toward the patriarch Gamaliel II. Convinced of the necessity of a central authority for Judaism, Akiva became a devoted adherent and friend of Gamaliel, who aimed at constituting the patriarch the true spiritual chief of the Jews (R. H. ii. 9). But Akiva was just as firmly convinced that the power of the patriarch must be limited both by the written and the oral law, the interpretation of which lay in the hands of the learned; and he was accordingly brave enough to act in ritual matters in Gamaliel's own house contrary to the decisions of Gamaliel himself.[6] Concerning Akiva's other personal excellences, such as benevolence, and kindness toward the sick and needy, see Ned. 40a, Lev. R. xxxiv.16, and Tosef., Meg. iv. 16. Akiva filled the office of an overseer of the poor.[7]
Eminent as Akiva was by his magnanimity and moral worthiness, he was still more so by his intellectual capacity, by which he secured an enduring influence upon his contemporaries and upon posterity. In the first place, Akiva was the one who definitely fixed the canon of the Tanakh books. He protested strongly against the canonicity of certain of the Apocrypha, the Wisdom of Sirach, for instance (Sanh. x. 1, Bab. ibid. 100b, Yer. ibid. x. 28a), in which passages קורא is to be explained according to ḳid. 49a, and חיצונים according to its Aramaic equivalent ברייתא; so that Akiva's utterance reads, "He who reads aloud in the synagogue from books not belonging to the canon as if they were canonical," etc.
He has, however, no objection to the private reading of the Apocrypha, as is evident from the fact that he himself makes frequent use of Sirach (W. Bacher, Ag. Tan. i. 277; H. Grätz, Gnosticismus, p. 120). Akiva stoutly defended, however, the canonicity of the Song of Songs, and Esther (Yad. iii.5, Meg. 7a). Grätz's statements (Shir ha-Shirim, p. 115, and Kohelet, p. 169) respecting Akiva's attitude toward the canonicity of the Song of Songs are misconceptions, as I.H. Weiss (Dor, ii. 97) has to some extent shown. To the same motive underlying his antagonism to the Apocrypha, namely, the desire to disarm Christians—especially Jewish Christians—who drew their "proofs" from the Apocrypha, must also be attributed his wish to emancipate the Jews of the Dispersion from the domination of the Septuagint, the errors and inaccuracies in which frequently distorted the true meaning of Scripture, and were even used as arguments against the Jews by the Christians.
Aquila was a man after Akiva's own heart; under Akiva's guidance he gave the Greek-speaking Jews a rabbinical Bible (Jerome on Isa. viii. 14, Yer. ḳid. i. 59a). Akiva probably also provided for a revised text of the Targums; certainly, for the essential base of the so-called Targum Onkelos, which in matters of Halakah reflects Akiva's opinions completely (F. Rosenthal, Bet Talmud, ii. 280).
Akiva's true genius, however, is shown in his work in the domain of the Halakah, both in his systematization of its traditional material and in its further development. The condition of the Halakah, that is, of religious praxis, and indeed of Judaism in general, was a very precarious one at the turn of the 1st century of the common era. The lack of any systematized collection of the accumulated Halakot rendered impossible any presentation of them in form suitable for practical purposes. Means for the theoretical study of the Halakah were also scant; both logic and exegesis—the two props of the Halakah—being differently conceived by the various ruling tannaim, and differently taught. According to a tradition which has historical confirmation, it was Akiva who systematized and brought into methodic arrangement the Mishnah, or Halakah codex; the Midrash, or the exegesis of the Halakah; and the Halakot, the logical amplification of the Halakah (Yer. SheḲ. v. 48c, according to the correct text given by Rabbinowicz, DiḲduḲe Soferim, p. 42; compare Giṭ. 67a and Dünner, in Monatsschrift, xx. 453, also W. Bacher, in Rev. Ét. Juives, xxxviii. 215.) The Mishna of Akiva, as his pupil Meir had taken it from him, became the basis of the Six Orders of the Mishna.
The δευτερώσεις τοῦ καλουμένου Ραββὶ Ακιβά mentioned by Epiphanius (Adversus Hæreses, xxxiii. 9, and xv., end), as well as the "great Mishnayot of Akiva" in the Midr. Cant. R. viii. 2, Eccl. R. vi. 2, are probably not to be understood as independent Mishnayot (δευτερώσεις) existing at that time, but as the teachings and opinions of Akiva contained in the officially recognized Mishnayot and Midrashim. But at the same time it is fair to consider the Mishnah of Judah ha-Nasi (called simply "the Mishnah") as derived from the school of Akiva; and the majority of halakic Midrashim now extant are also to be thus credited.
Johanan bar Nappaḥa (199–279) has left the following important note relative to the composition and editing of the Mishnah and other halakic works: "Our Mishnah comes directly from Rabbi Meir, the Tosefta from R. Nehemiah, the Sifra from R. Judah, and the Sifre from R. Simon; but they all took Akiva for a model in their works and followed him" (Sanh. 86a). One recognizes here the threefold division of the halakic material that emanated from Akiva: (1) The codified Halakah (which is Mishnah); (2) the Tosefta, which in its original form contains a concise logical argument for the Mishnah, somewhat like the Lebush of Mordecai Jafe on the Shulḥan 'Aruk; (3) the halakic Midrash.
The following may be mentioned here as the halakic Midrashim originating in Akiva's school: the Mekilta of Rabbi Simon (in manuscript only) on Exodus; Sifra on Leviticus; Sifre Zuṭṭa on the Book of Numbers (excerpts in YalḲ. Shim'oni, and a manuscript in Midrash ha-Gadol, (edited for the first time by B. Koenigsberger, 1894); and the Sifre to Deuteronomy, the halakic portion of which belongs to Akiva's school.
What was Rabbi Akiva like? - A worker who goes out with his basket. He finds wheat - he puts it in, barley - he puts it in, spelt - he puts it in, beans - he puts it in, lentils - he puts it in. When he arrives home he sorts out the wheat by itself, barley by itself, spelt by itself, beans by themselves, lentils by themselves. So did Rabbi Akiva; he arranged the Torah rings by rings.
— Avot deRabbi Natan ch. 18; see also Gittin, 67a
Admirable as is the systematization of the Halakhah by Akiva, his hermeneutics and halakhic exegesis—which form the foundation of all Talmudic learning—surpassed it.
The enormous difference between the Halakhah before and after Akiva may be briefly described as follows: The old Halakhah was, as its name indicates, the religious practice sanctioned as binding by tradition, to which were added extensions, and, in some cases, limitations, of the Torah, arrived at by strict logical deduction. The opposition offered by the Sadducees—which became especially strenuous in the last century BC.—originated the halakhic Midrash, whose mission it was to deduce these amplifications of the Law, by tradition and logic, out of the Law itself.
It might be thought that with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem—which event made an end of Sadduceeism—the halakhic Midrash would also have disappeared, seeing that the Halakhah could now dispense with the Midrash. This probably would have been the case had not Akiva created his own Midrash, by means of which he was able "to discover things that were even unknown to Moses" (PesiḲ., Parah, ed. S. Buber, 39b). Akiva made the accumulated treasure of the oral law—which until his time was only a subject of knowledge, and not a science—an inexhaustible mine from which, by the means he provided, new treasures might be continually extracted.
If the older Halakhah is to be considered as the product of the internal struggle between Phariseeism and Sadduceeism, the Halakhah of Akiva must be conceived as the result of an external contest between Judaism on the one hand and Hellenism and Hellenistic Christianity on the other. Akiva no doubt perceived that the intellectual bond uniting the Jews—far from being allowed to disappear with the destruction of the Jewish state—must be made to draw them closer together than before. He pondered also the nature of that bond. The Bible could never again fill the place alone; for the Christians also regarded it as a divine revelation. Still less could dogma serve the purpose, for dogmas were always repellent to rabbinical Judaism, whose very essence is development and the susceptibility to development. Mention has already been made of the fact that Akiva was the creator of a rabbinical Bible version elaborated with the aid of his pupil, Aquila, and designed to become the common property of all Jews, thus Judaizing the Bible, as it were, in opposition to the Christians.
But this was not sufficient to obviate all threatening danger. It was to be feared that the Jews, by their facility in accommodating themselves to surrounding —even then a marked characteristic—might become entangled in the net of Grecian philosophy, and even in that of Gnosticism. The example of his colleagues and friends, Elisha ben Abuyah, Ben Azzai, and Ben Zoma strengthened him still more in his conviction of the necessity of providing some counterpoise to the intellectual influence of the non-Jewish world.
Akiva sought to apply the system of isolation followed by the Pharisees (פרושים = those who "separate" themselves) to doctrine as they did to practice, to the intellectual life as they did to that of daily discourse, and he succeeded in furnishing a firm foundation for his system. As the fundamental principle of his system, Akiva enunciates his conviction that the mode of expression used by the Torah is quite different from that of every other book. In the language of the Torah nothing is mere form; everything is essence. It has nothing superfluous; not a word, not a syllable, not even a letter. Every peculiarity of diction, every particle, every sign, is to be considered as of higher importance, as having a wider relation and as being of deeper meaning than it seems to have. Like Philo (see Siegfried, Philo, p. 168), who saw in the Hebrew construction of the infinitive with the finite form of the same verb and in certain particles (adverbs, prepositions, etc.) some deep reference to philosophical and ethical doctrines, Akiva perceived in them indications of many important ceremonial laws, legal statutes, and ethical teachings (compare D. Hoffmann, Zur Einleitung, pp. 5–12, and H. Grätz, Gesch. iv. 427).
He thus gave the Jewish mind not only a new field for its own employment, but, convinced both of the immutability of Holy Scripture and of the necessity for development in Judaism, he succeeded in reconciling these two apparently hopeless opposites by means of his remarkable method. The following two illustrations will serve to make this clear:
- The high conception of woman's dignity, which Akiva shared in common with most other Pharisees, induced him to abolish the Oriental custom that banished ritually impure women from all social intercourse. He succeeded, moreover, in fully justifying his interpretation of those Scriptural passages upon which this ostracism had been founded by the older expounders of the Torah (Sifra, Meẓora, end, and Shab. 64b).
- The Biblical legislation in Ex. xxi. 7 could not be reconciled by Akiba with his view of Jewish ethics: for him a "Jewish slave" is a contradiction in terms, for every Jew is to be regarded as a prince (B. M. 113b). Akiba therefore teaches, in opposition to the old Halakah, that the sale of a daughter under age by her father conveys to her purchaser no legal title to marriage with her, but, on the contrary, carries with it the duty to keep the female slave until she is of age, and then to marry her (Mek., Mishpaṭim, 3). How Akiba endeavors to substantiate this from the Hebrew text is shown by A. Geiger (Urschrift, p. 187).
How little he cared for the letter of the Law whenever he conceives it to be antagonistic to the spirit of Judaism, is shown by his attitude toward the Samaritans. He considered friendly intercourse with these semi-Jews as desirable on political as well as on religious grounds, and he permitted—in opposition to tradition—not only eating their bread (Sheb. viii. 10) but also eventual intermarriage (ḳid. 75b). This is quite remarkable, seeing that in matrimonial legislation he went so far as to declare every forbidden union as absolutely void (Yeb. 92a) and the offspring as illegitimate (ḳid. 68a). For similar reasons Akiba comes near abolishing the Biblical ordinance of Kil'ayim; nearly every chapter in the treatise of that name contains a mitigation by Akiba.
Love for the Holy Land, which he as a genuine nationalist frequently and warmly expressed (see Ab. R. N. xxvi.), was so powerful with him that he would have exempted agriculture from much of the rigor of the Law. These examples will suffice to justify the opinion that Akiba was the man to whom Judaism owes preeminently its activity and its capacity for development.
A tannaitic tradition (Ḥag. 14b; Tosef., Ḥag. ii. 3) mentions that of the four who entered paradise, Akiva was the only one that returned unscathed. This serves at least to show how strong in later ages was the recollection of Akiba's philosophical speculation (see Elisha b. Abuya).
Akiva's utterances (Abot, iii. 14, 15) may serve to present the essence of his religious conviction. They run:
- How favored is man, for he was created after an image; as Scripture says, "for in an image, Elohim made man" (Gen. ix. 6).
- Everything is foreseen; but freedom [of will] is given to every man.
- The world is governed by mercy... but the divine decision is made by the preponderance of the good or bad in one's actions.
Akiva's anthropology is based upon the principle that man was created בצלם, that is, not in the image of God—which would be בצלם אלהים—but after an image, after a primordial type; or, philosophically speaking, after an Idea—what Philo calls in agreement with Judean theology, "the first heavenly man" (see Adam ḳadmon). Strict monotheist that Akiba was, he protested against any comparison of God with the angels, and declared the plain interpretation of כאחד ממנו (Gen. iii. 22) as meaning "like one of us" to be arrant blasphemy (Mek., Beshallaḥ, 6). It is quite instructive to read how a Christian of Akiba's generation, Justin Martyr, calls the literal interpretation—thus objected to by Akiba—a "Jewish heretical one" (Dial. cum Tryph. lxii.). In his earnest endeavors to insist as strongly as possible upon the incomparable nature of God, Akiba indeed lowers the angels somewhat to the realms of mortals, and, alluding to Ps. lxxviii. 25, maintains that manna is the actual food of the angels (Yoma, 75b). This view of Akiba's, in spite of the energetic protests of his colleague Rabbi Ishmael, became the one generally accepted by his contemporaries, as Justin Martyr, l.c., lvii., indicates.
Against the Judæo-Gnostic doctrine (Recognit. iii. 30; Sifre, Num. 103; Sifra, Wayikra, 2), which teaches that angels—who are spiritual beings—and also that the departed pious, who are bereft of their flesh, can see God, the words of Akiba, in Sifra, l.c., must be noticed. He insists that not even the angels can see God's glory; for he interprets the expression in Ex. xxxiii. 20, "no man can see me and live" (וחי), as if it read "no man or any living immortal can see me."
Akiba insists emphatically that next to the transcendental nature of God, there is no limitation in the freedom of the human will. This insistence is in opposition to the Christian doctrine of the sinfulness and depravity of man,[dubious – discuss] and apparently controverts his view of divine predestination. The inclination towards evil and the inclination towards good can be chosen from equally, and men are not in any way naturally inclined towards evil.
He cautions against those who find excuse for their sins in a supposed innate depravity (ḳid. 81a). But Akiba's opposition to this genetically Jewish doctrine is probably directed mainly against its Christian correlative, the doctrine of the grace of God received through faith in Christ.[dubious – discuss] Referring to this, Akiba says, "Happy are ye, O Israelites, that ye purify yourselves through your heavenly Father, as it is said (Jer. xvii. 13, Heb.), 'Israel's hope is God'" (Mishnah Yoma, end). This is a play on the Hebrew word מקוה ("hope" and "bath"). In opposition to the Christian insistence on God's love,[dubious – discuss] Akiba upholds God's retributive justice elevated above all chance or arbitrariness (Mekilta, Beshallaḥ, 6).
But he is far from representing strict justice as the only attribute of God: in agreement with the ancient Israel theology of the מדת הדין, "the attribute of justice", and מדת הרחמים, "the attribute of mercy" (Gen. R. xii., end; the χαριστική and κολαστική of Philo, Quis Rer. Div. Heres, 34 Mangey, i. 496), he teaches that God combines goodness and mercy with strict justice (Ḥag. 14a). Hence his maxim, referred to above, "God rules the world in mercy, but according to the preponderance of good or bad in human acts."
As to the question concerning the frequent sufferings of the pious and the prosperity of the wicked —truly a burning one in Akiba's time—this is answered by the explanation that the pious are punished in this life for their few sins, in order that in the next they may receive only reward; while the wicked obtain in this world all the recompense for the little good they have done, and in the next world will receive only punishment for their misdeeds (Gen. R. xxxiii.; PesiḲ. ed. S. Buber, ix. 73a). Consistent as Akiba always was, his ethics and his views of justice were only the strict consequences of his philosophical system. Justice as an attribute of God must also be exemplary for man. "No mercy in [civil] justice!" is his basic principle in the doctrine concerning law (Ket. ix. 3), and he does not conceal his opinion that the action of the Jews in taking the spoil of the Egyptians is to be condemned (Gen. R. xxviii. 7).
From his views as to the relation between God and man he deduces the inference that he who sheds the blood of a fellow man is to be considered as committing the crime against the divine archetype (דמות) of man (Gen. R. xxxiv. 14). He therefore recognizes as the chief and greatest principle of Judaism the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Lev. xix. 18; Sifra, ḳedoshim, iv.). He does not, indeed, maintain thereby that the execution of this command is equivalent to the performance of the whole Law; and in one of his polemic interpretations of Scripture he protests strongly against a contrary opinion allegedly held by Christians, according to which Judaism is "simply morality" (Mek., Shirah, 3, 44a, ed. I.H. Weiss). For, in spite of his philosophy, Akiba was an extremely strict and national Jew.
His doctrine concerning the Jewish Messiah was different than other views, and believed Bar Kokba to be the Messiah. He accordingly limited the Messianic age to forty years, as being within the scope of a man's life — similar to the reigns of David and Solomon—against the usual conception of a millennium (Midr. Teh. xc. 15).
A man like Akiba would naturally be the subject of many legends. The following examples indicate in what light the personality of this great teacher appeared to later generations.
‘When Moses ascended into heaven, he saw God occupied in making little crowns for the letters of the Torah. Upon his inquiry as to what these might be for, he received the answer, "There will come a man, named Akiba ben Joseph, who will deduce Halakot from every little curve and crown of the letters of the Law." Moses' request to be allowed to see this man was granted; but he became much dismayed as he listened to Akiba's teaching; for he could not understand it’ (Men. 29b). This story gives a picture of Akiba's activity as the father of Talmudical Judaism.
The Aggadah explains how Akiba, in the prime of life, commenced his rabbinical studies. Legendary allusion to this change in Akiba's life is made in two slightly varying forms, of which the following is probably the older:
- Akiva, noticing a stone at a well that had been hollowed out by drippings from the buckets, said: "If these drippings can, by continuous action, penetrate this solid stone, how much more can the persistent word of God penetrate the pliant, fleshly human heart, if that word but be presented with patient insistency" (Ab. R. N. ed. S. Schechter, vi. 28).
The most common version of Akiva's death is that the Roman government ordered him to stop teaching Torah, on pain of death, and that he refused.
There is some disagreement about the extent of Akiva's involvement in the Bar Kochba rebellion. (Source: Encyclopædia Britannica online)
Akiva's martyrdom—which is an important historical event—gave origin to many legends. The following account of his martyrdom is on a high plane and contains a proper appreciation of his principles: when Rufus—"Tyrannus Rufus," as he is called in Jewish sources—who was the pliant tool of Hadrian's vengeance, condemned the venerable Akiva to the hand of the executioner, it was just the time to recite the Shema. Full of devotion, Akiva recited his prayers calmly, though suffering agonies; and when Rufus asked him whether he was a sorcerer, since he felt no pain, Akiva replied, "I am no sorcerer; but I rejoice at the opportunity now given to me to love my God 'with all my life,' seeing that I have hitherto been able to love Him only 'with all my means' and 'with all my might,'" and with the word "One!" he expired (Yer. Ber. ix. 14b, and somewhat modified in Bab. 61b).
The version in the Babylonian Talmud (Berachot 61b) tells it as a response of Akiva to his students, who asked him how even now—as he is being tortured—he could yet offer prayers to God. He says to them, "All my life I was worried about the verse, ‘with all your soul’ (and the sages expounded this to signify), even if He takes away your soul. And I said to myself, when will I ever be able to fulfill this command? And now that I am finally able to fulfill it, I should not?" Then he extended the final word Echad ("One") until his life expired with that word. A heavenly voice went out and announced: "Blessed are you, Rabbi Akiva, that your life expired with "Echad". Pure monotheism was for Akiba the essence of Judaism: he lived, worked, and died for it.
Contrary to the vision (Men. 29b), which sees Akiba's body destined to be exposed for sale in the butcher's shop, legend tells how Elijah, accompanied by Akiba's faithful servant Joshua, entered unperceived the prison where the body lay. Priest though he was, Elijah took up the corpse—for the dead body of such a saint could not defile—and, escorted by many bands of angels, bore the body by night to Cæsarea. The night, however, was as bright as the finest summer's day. When they arrived there, Elijah and Joshua entered a cavern which contained a bed, table, chair, and lamp, and deposited Akiba's body there. No sooner had they left it than the cavern closed of its own accord, so that no man has found it since (Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrash, vi. 27, 28; ii. 67, 68; Braunschweiger, Lehrer der Mischnah, 192–206).
Akiva taught thousands of students: on one occasion, twenty-four thousand students of his died in a plague. His five main, last remaining students were Judah bar Ilai, Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Eleazar ben Shammua, Jose ben Halafta and Shimon bar Yochai.[8]
Akiva's success as a teacher put an end to his poverty; for the wealthy father-in-law now rejoiced to acknowledge a son-in-law so distinguished as Akiba. There were, however, other circumstances which made a wealthy man of the former shepherd lad.
It appears that Akiva, authorized by certain rabbis, borrowed a large sum of money from a prominent heathen woman—a matrona, says the legend. As bondsmen for the loan, Akiva named God and the sea, on the shore of which the matrona's house stood. Akiva, being sick, could not return the money at the time appointed; but his bondsmen did not leave him in the lurch. An imperial princess suddenly became insane, in which condition she threw a chest containing imperial treasures into the sea. It was cast upon the shore close to the house of Akiva's creditor, so that when the matrona went to the shore to demand of the sea the amount she had lent Akiba, the ebbing tide left boundless riches at her feet. Later, when Akiva arrived to discharge his indebtedness, the matrona not only refused to accept the money, but insisted upon Akiva's receiving a large share of what the sea had brought to her (Commentaries to Ned. l.c.).
The Talmud also enumerates six occasions in which Akiva gained his wealth (Nedarim, 50a–b). Akiva's many journeys brought numerous adventures, some of which are embellished by legend. Thus in Ethiopia he was once called upon to decide between the swarthy king and the king's wife; the latter having been accused of infidelity because she had borne her lord a white child. Akiba ascertained that the royal chamber was adorned with white marble statuary, and, basing his decision upon a well known physiological theory, he exonerated the queen from suspicion (Num. R. ix. 34). It is related that, during his stay in Rome, Akiva became intimately acquainted with the Jewish proselyte ḳeṭia' bar Shalom, a very influential Roman—according to some scholars identical with Flavius Clemens, Domitian's nephew, who, before his execution for pleading the cause of the Jews, bequeathed to Akiba all his possessions (Ab. Zarah, 10b).
Another Roman, concerning whose relations with Akiva legend has much to tell, was Tinnius Rufus, called in the Talmud "Tyrannus" Rufus. One day Rufus asked: "Which is the more beautiful—God’s work or man’s?" "Undoubtedly man's work is the better," was Akiva's reply; "for while nature at God's command supplies us only with the raw material, human skill enables us to elaborate the same according to the requirements of art and good taste." Rufus had hoped to drive Akiva into a corner by his strange question; for he expected quite a different answer from the sage, and intended to compel Akiva to admit the wickedness of circumcision. He then put the question, "Why has God not made man just as He wanted him to be?" "For the very reason," was Akiva's ready answer, "that the duty of man is to perfect himself" (Tan., Tazri'a, 5, ed. S. Buber 7).
Akiva was the shepherd of a rich man nicknamed Kalba Savua because anyone who entered his house hungry like a dog (kalba) went out satiated (savua) (a reference to his hospitality toward guests). Kalba Savua's daughter, whose name was Rachel, noticed his modesty and good nature. She saw that he had a great mind, and that if he would put his mind to The Almighty’s Divine Torah, he would flourish into a great teacher in Israel. She spoke with Akiva about God and the role of the Jewish people, and it sparked his interest. One day Akiva came to Rachel by a river, and asked her why the Jewish people, if they were God's Chosen people, had to suffer so much.
Rachel's response (what was Rachel's response?) moved Akiva, and he told her that he could only dedicate himself to Torah if he had a wife like her by his side. She said that she would accept his "wooing" if he would devote himself to the study of God's law. He said he would, and they married in secret. Her father, hearing this, drove her out of his house and prohibited her by vow of having any share in his assets.
Rachel brought Akiva to Gamzu, a small place near Lod, to learn from the Torah sage Nochum of Gamzu. He learned with him until he died, at which point he moved to Yavneh to study at the feet of ben Zakkai, as well as Gamliel II HaNasi (the Prince), and Yehoshua ben Chananya. After 12 years, he returned to his home with twelve thousand disciples following him. He overheard a neighbor saying to his wife Rachel: "How long will you live as a widow while still married? Your husband has probably forgotten all about you!" She answered her: "If he would listen to me, he should go study another twelve years." Hearing this, Rabbi Akiva said: "So I'm doing it with her approval!" and went and studied another twelve years.
When he came back this time, he had twenty-four thousand disciples with him. Hearing this, his wife was about to go out and greet him. Her female neighbors said to her: "Go borrow garments and dress yourself!" She replied: "A righteous man knows the spirit of his domestic beast" (Proverbs 12:10). When she reached him she prostrated herself and started kissing his feet. His servants started pushing her away. He said to them: "Let her be! What both I and you have is hers."
Her father heard that a great man had arrived in town. He said: "Let me go to him, perhaps he may annul my vow." Rabbi Akiva asked him: "Had you known that her husband would become a great man, would you have vowed?" Kalba Savua answered: "Why, if he even knew one chapter, even one Halakha!" Rabbi Akiva then said: "I am he." He prostrated himself and kissed him on his feet, and gave him half his assets (Ketubot 62b-63a).
This was not the only occasion on which Akiba was made to feel the truth of his favorite maxim ("Whatever God doeth He doeth for the best"). Once, being unable to find any sleeping accommodation in a certain city, he was compelled to pass the night outside its walls. Without a murmur he resigned himself to this hardship; and even when a lion devoured his donkey, and a cat killed the rooster whose crowing was to herald the dawn to him, and the wind extinguished his candle, the only remark he made was, "All that God does is for the good." When morning dawned he learned how true his words were. A band of robbers had fallen upon the city and carried its inhabitants into captivity, but he had escaped because his abiding place had not been noticed in the darkness, and neither beast nor fowl had betrayed him (Ber. 60b).
A legend according to which the gates of the infernal regions opened for Akiba is analogous to the more familiar tale that he entered paradise and was allowed to leave it unscathed (Ḥag. 14b). There exists the following tradition: Akiba once met a coal-black man carrying a heavy load of wood and running with the speed of a horse. Akiba stopped him and inquired: "My son, why do you work so hard? If you are a slave and have a harsh master, I will buy you from him. If it be out of poverty that you do this, I will take care of your needs." "It is for neither of these," the man replied; "I am dead and am compelled because of my great sins to build my funeral pyre every day. In life I was a tax-gatherer and oppressed the poor. Let me go at once, lest the demon torture me for my delay." "Is there no help for you?" asked Akiba. "Almost none," replied the deceased; "for I understand that my sufferings will end only when I have a pious son. When I died, my wife was pregnant; but I have little hope that she will give my child proper training."
Akiba inquired the man's name and that of his wife and her dwelling-place; and when, in the course of his travels, he reached the place, Akiba sought for information concerning the man's family. The neighbors very freely expressed their opinion that both the deceased and his wife deserved to inhabit the infernal regions for all time—the latter because she had not even initiated her child into the Abrahamic covenant. Akiba, however, was not to be turned from his purpose; he sought the son of the tax-gatherer and labored long and assiduously in teaching him the word of God. After fasting 40 days and praying to God to bless his efforts, he heard a heavenly voice (bat Ḳol) asking, "Why do you go to so much trouble on behalf of this person?" "Because he is just the kind to work for," was the prompt answer. Akiba persevered until his pupil was able to officiate as reader in the synagogue; and when there for the first time he recited the prayer, "Bless the Lord!" the father suddenly appeared to Akiba and overwhelmed him with thanks for his deliverance from the pains of hell through the merit of his son (Kallah, ed. Coronel, 4b, and see quotations from Tan. in Isaac Aboab's Menorat ha-Maor, i. 1, 2, § 1, ed. Jacob Raphael Fürstenthal, p. 82; also Maḥzor Vitry, p. 112). This legend has been somewhat elaborately treated in Yiddish under the title, Ein ganz neie Maase vun dem Tanna R. Akiba, Lemberg, 1893 (compare Tanna debe Eliyahu Zuṭṭa, xvii., where Johanan ben Zakkai's name is given in place of Akiba).
A wide variety of modern day institutions are named after Akiva. Examples include the Bnei Akiva youth movement and schools, such as Akiba Hebrew Academy in Philadelphia and Yeshivat Akiva in Michigan. It is also a common Jewish name for males.
Rabbi Akiba appears in Katharine Kerr's novella Resurrection and the short story collection Freeze Frames, and is a leading character in Milton Steinberg's novel As a Driven Leaf.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jewish Encyclopedia. 1901–1906. . The JE cites the following sources:
- Z. Frankel, Darke ha-Mishnah, pp. 111–23;
- J. Brüll, Mebo ha-Mishnah, pp. 116–22;
- Weiss, Dor, ii. 107–18;
- H. Oppenheim, in Bet Talmud, ii. 237–46, 269–74;
- Isaac Gastfreund, Biographie des R. Akiba, Lemberg, 1871;
- J. S. Bloch, in Mimizraḥ u-Mima'Arab, 1894, pp. 47–54;
- Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. d. Juden, iv. (see index);
- Ewald, Geschichte der Volkes Israel, vii. 367 et seq.;
- Joseph Derenbourg, Essai, pp. 329–31, 395 et seq., 418 et seq.;
- Hamburger, R. B. T. ii. 32–43;
- W. Bacher, Ag. Tan. i. 271–348;
- Isaak Markus Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums und Seiner Sekten, ii. 59 et seq.;
- Landau, in Monatsschrift, 1854, pp. 45–51, 81–93, 130–48;
- Dünner, ibid. 1871, pp. 451–54;
- Lewis, ibid. 1857, pp. 335–67
- Neubürger, ibid. 1873, pp. 385–97, 433–45, 529–36;
- D. Hoffmann, Zur Einleitung in die Halachischen Midraschim, pp. 5–12;
- H. Grätz, Gnosticismus, pp. 83–120;
- F. Rosenthal, Vier Apokryph. Bücher ... R. Akiba's, especially pp. 95–103, 124–31;
- S. Funk, Akiba (Jena Dissertation), 1896;
- M. Poper, PirḲe R. Akiba, Vienna, 1808;
- M. Lehmann, Akiba, Historische Erzählung, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1880;
- J. Wittkind, Ḥuṭ ha-Meshulash, Wilna, 1877;
- Braunschweiger, Die Lehrer der Mischnah, pp. 92–110.
- ^ Yer. SheḲ. iii 47b, R. H. i. 56d.
- ^ Drew Kaplan, "Rabbinic Popularity in the Mishnah VII: Top Ten Overall [Final Tally] Drew Kaplan's Blog (5 July 2011).
- ^ Yer. Ber. iv. 7d, Bab. ibid. 27b.
- ^ Neuburger, Monatsschrift, 1873, p. 393.
- ^ Darke ha-Mishnah, p. 121.
- ^ Tosef., Ber. iv. 12.
- ^ Ma'as. Sh. v. 9, and ḳid. 27a.
- ^ Talmud Bavli, Yevamoth 62b
M. Lewis 1887
- Aleksandrov, G. S. "The Role of Aqiba in the Bar Kochba Rebellion." In Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, Vol. 2, by Jacob Neusner. Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1973.
- Finkelstein, Louis. Akiba: Scholar, Saint, and Martyr. New York: Covici, Friede, 1936.
- Ginzberg, Louis. "Akiba" In Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1912.
- Goldin, Judah. "Toward a Profile of a Tanna, Aqiba ben Joseph." Journal of the American Oriental Society 96 (1976): 38-56.
- Marks, Richard G. The Image of Bar Kokhba in Traditional Jewish Literature: False Messiah and National Hero. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994.
- Neusner, Jacob. Judaism, The Evidence of the Mishnah. 2d ed. Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1988.
- Neusner, Jacob, ed. Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity. Vol. 20, The Jews Under Roman Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian, by E. Mary Smallwood. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1976.
- Rubenstein,Jeffrey. The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003),102-121.
- Schürer, Emil. A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ. New York: Scribner, 1891.
- Strack, Hermann L. Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1931.
| Persondata |
| Name |
Akiva |
| Alternative names |
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| Short description |
Tanna |
| Date of birth |
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| Place of birth |
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| Date of death |
135 |
| Place of death |
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