Rabbi Akiba

Jewish tradition recognises the religious authority of both the Written and the Oral Law, the former being found in the Five Books attributed to the prophet Moses (c.14th century BCE) , Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy collectively known as the Torah (the Law) and held to be the revelation by God of Himself to man. The Oral Law is collected from many authorities in the Talmud and is the interpretation of the Law to suit the particular needs of the age. Rabbi Akiba was certainly the greatest of the voluntary profession of rabbis who followed the pharisaic tradition in continuing the development of the Oral Law and was a central figure in Judaism at a time when its people and religion might well have disappeared with little trace.

Akiba was born about 40 CE into a landless peasant family near the coastal town of Lydda in Palestine during the insensitive and often cruel Roman occupation. In 70 CE after nationalist insurrections in Judea, Jerusalem was captured and the Temple destroyed so completely that only the" Western Wall remains. A further revolt was mercilessly suppressed in ]]5 CE and in 132 CE Simeon Bar Kokhba s rebellion and its disastrous aftermath led to the destruction of Judea. Akiba had learned to read at the age of 40 and was accepted as the foremost authority on the interpretation of the law. Unable to compromise with the Roman law of 132 CE forbidding study of the Torah he was cruelly executed at the age of 97.

Akiba learns to read

Nearly two thousand years ago there lived in Palestine a shepherd boy called Akiba. All Akiba's family worked for a rich farmer, but they were desperately poor. The farmer lived in a great house surrounded by beautiful gardens with all sorts of food in plenty and servants and slaves to do whatever he wished. But Akiba lived in a small square hut made of mudbrick: it had a low door, but no windows, no furniture and nothing to cover the bare earth floor but straw.

As he sat guarding his master's sheep Akiba would usually feel hungry .His family always ate the same things: every day, with any luck, there would be heavy rough bread, and sometimes there was raw cabbage or turnip. Cooked food was really only for rich people who could afford burn fires to boil water.

Times were hard for most people in Palestine. The country was ruled by the Romans. Akiba never saw much of the Roman soldiers but they were well known for their bullying and cruelty.

Everything wasn't bad for Akiba. He lived an outdoor life in a warm country which was green with growing plants. Behind him the hills of Judea shimmered in the heat haze; in front was the clear blue sky and the shining blue of the Mediterranean Sea. It was hot and sunny in summer and warm and sunny in winter with cool refreshing rain.

And so Akiba grew up into a tall strong man. He could not read or write and didn't want to learn. The only people he had ever come across who could read were rich conceited people: they didn't think much of a poor boy, and Akiba didn't think much of them.

But things were soon to change. Akiba met a woman from a better family than his called Rachel. Her father wouldn't even let Akiba into his house -he would have nothing to do with a poor and ignorant shepherd. And Rachel herself believed that Akiba could do better for himself. So when he asked her to marry him she said no, not unless he learned to read and write. He agreed and the two were married.

Akiba found a rabbi, a priest who was willing to teach him to read, and he began to study. After a long day out under a hot sun looking after the sheep Akiba would plod wearily home only to have to struggle all evening with his letters. Every day until it grew dark he would go through his alphabet trying to remember the names and sound of each letter. And when he had begun to get the hang of most of them the rabbi gave him a book to read. It was not one of the famous Jewish stories such as Noah and the Ark, or Adam and Eve, or Moses or Joseph and his many-coloured coat. Akiba was expected to read the Book of Leviticus which gives technical details of the sacrificial offerings and complicated rules of behaviour which even a priest might have difficulty with. Akiba really couldn't manage it -after a hard day's work to have to read such things was too much for him, and he gave up.

But his wife Rachel did not give up. She was determined that Akiba should succeed. One day while he tended the sheep Akiba came to a spring of water. The water gushed out of a hole in the hill and fell as a small waterfall on to a rock beneath. And where the water hit the rock, day after day, year after year, it had worn away a groove. He realised that his wife was right. Just as the water had worn away the hard rock by pouring on to it, he too must keep on trying and trying until he had learned to read.

He came home and took his five year old son with him to the rabbi. 'Teach us both,' he asked the rabbi, 'and we will learn to read together.'
And so Akiba began again. By helping his son to learn to read it made it easier for him. Father and son did learn together. It was not long before Akiba overtook his son and he studied the Book of Moses, the writings of the Prophets and the other books of the Bible. It had taken him until he was 40 years old, but he had learned to read. He decided to become a rabbi himself so that he could teach others, not only to read, but to understand the word of God as he had come to understand it in the Bible.

Akiba went to the rabbis' academy which was like a university for priests and a place where the law of the Bible was discussed and decided upon. First he went to Eliezeryben Hyrkanos, one of the men who had begun the academy. Eliezer might well be the one to teach him. He had been brought up as a peasant and knew what it was like to be poor and hungry .He was rich and famous now but surely he would remember. Indeed he did remember and that was the reason he turned Akiba away. 'I won't be able to teach you anything,' said Eliezer. 'You'll be so busy worrying about not having enough food for your family that you won't be able to concentrate. Come back when you're richer.'

But one of the other teachers there offered to help. He too had been poor and had taught himself the Bible while he nearly starved. He taught Akiba himself and sent him to other wise rabbis. Akiba studied for thirteen years before he felt that he could come back to the rabbis' academy to discuss the Bible and the law with Eliezer and the other teachers there. After spending some time listening to what was said Akiba came to the point where he could not agree. And so he stood up, a newcomer to the academy, and argued with Eliezer himself, And he argued so clearly and so well, he knew and understood the Bible so perfectly that Eliezer had to admit that he was right.

As time went by it became clear to everyone at the academy that Akiba was cleverer than them all. He was appointed to the committee in charge and was so important to the rabbis there that when he went away for a time, one of them said, it seemed as if the Bible had gone.

Jews believe that learning is very important, and that reading and understanding and being able to interpret what the Bible says are most important of all. This prayer is one of the Blessings read daily in synagogue services:

You favour men with knowledge
and teach us understanding.
May You continue to favour us
with knowledge and understanding and learning for all these things come from You.
We praise You, O Lord,
gracious Giver of knowledge.
(from the Fourth Blessing of the Tefillah)

Akiba s death

Rabbi Akiba was a man of great importance, known by learned scholars of the Bible and loved by the ordinary people too. He had struggled to learn to read when he was middle-aged and had taught himself so much about the Bible that he had become a rabbi and joined the rabbis academy. But he never forgot that he had once been a poor shepherd -when he was asked to join the committee that was in charge of the academy he took as his special job the care of the poor people.

When he opened a school for students who wanted to study the Bible with him, he treated them as if they were his own children. One student became ill and had no-one to look after him. Rabbi Akiba acted as nurse and looked after him and cooked and cleaned until he was better .
Although he was a famous man he still believed it was important to carry on teaching the young. He had found that learning to read had been extremely difficult, but reading had given him everything that had made him famous -knowledge, understanding and wisdom.

He described a teacher and his students like this: a lemon tree gives off a sweet smell which people enjoy, a candle can light another candle giving us twice the amount of light, a stream gives refreshing water for us to drink. Although the tree and the candle and stream have all given something, they have lost nothing. And so it is with a teacher who gives his skills to his students.

Palestine 2000 years ago was occupied by the Romans. When Akiba was a young man there had been a rebellion and the Jews had tried to beat the Romans. The Jews were crushed and the Romans had destroyed the city of Jerusalem and burned the Temple. Thousands of Jews had been sold as slaves or executed. Things had quietened down since then. Probably the Jews had lost the will to fight against such a cruel enemy. And as things became more peaceful the Romans treated the Jews more kindly.

Now Akiba was an old man. He lived in hope, like every other Jew, that one day the great Temple would be built again in Jerusalem, but there seemed very little chance of that. However, Hadrian who was now the emperor had been studying reports from that part of the Empire. It seemed silly to him to have destroyed Jerusalem when there were no other great cities in that part of the world. The Roman Empire needed cities for cities were places where money was to be made. And so Emperor Hadrian informed the Jews that Jerusalem could be rebuilt and so could the Temple.

That was the good news. The bad news was that Emperor Hadrian wanted the Temple to have a statue of him dressed up as Jupiter, king of the Roman gods. The Jews worship one God who cannot be shown as a statue because He is a spirit. There could be nothing worse than to have God's sacred Temple dedicated to a Roman emperor dressed up as a god.

Rabbi Akiba who was now 90 years old was bitterly disappointed as were the rest of the Jewish nation. Before trouble could begin the Roman soldieries arrested Rabbi Ishmael and Rabbi Simeon, two men who would have been very likely to lead a revolt. They bravely went to their deaths praying for their people.

Akiba spoke over their graves and warned the Jews: 'Prepare to suffer " he said. 'God has taken away the best of us so that they shall not suffer.

Akiba was right though it did not seem so at first. A Jewish soldier called Simeon bar Kokhba started to gather young men to him to fight against the Romans. And to the Jews' surprise and joy they managed to beat a well-armed well-trained Roman army. But not for long. The Romans turned their anger on Judea and within three years the land had been emptied of people -thousands were sold as slaves, thousands fled to other countries and hundreds of thousands were killed. The few Jews that remained were forbidden to practise their religion or to teach the Jewish way of life to their children.

Akiba had been allowed to live, perhaps because he was so old they thought he could cause no trouble. But the fury of the Romans was not over. a law was passed now forbidding rabbis to teach the Bible or even to study it. Akiba realised that the Jewish religion could survive without the Temple, without Jerusalem, even without the rabbis, but if Jews were not allowed to read and study the Bible their religion would surely die.

Akiba openly called his students to him and they read and discussed the Bible. It did not take long for the Roman soldiers to arrive. He was arrested and put into prison.

But the Romans were quite kind to the old rabbi. He was allowed to have his old students and friends visit him. And when they did Akiba taught them about the Bible. He was moved to a faraway prison and soon brought to trial. The sentence was death.

Akiba, 97 years old, was led out to his execution at dawn. He was to be killed by having the flesh torn from his body. Wounded and bleeding and in terrible pain he watched as the sun rose above the horizon and he began to sing the Jewish morning prayer from the Bible:

'Hear, O Israel:
the Lord is our God,
the Lord is One.
We praise his name
whose glorious kingdom is for ever and ever,
And you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your might.'

The Roman general was amazed that he could speak so clearly and calmly while suffering so much pain. He asked, 'Are you a wizard or do you feel no pain?' 'Neither " replied Akiba. 'I have always loved God with all my heart and soul and might. Now I know that I love Him with all my life too.

Akiba began again: 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.' And with these words he died.