RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:TEN MARTYRED RABBIS:Chutzpis:

 RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:TEN MARTYRED RABBIS:Chutzpis:

 

 RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: TEN MARTYRED RABBIS:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL

 

Shalom:
I was asked by a talmidah: Who are the 10 martyred sages? The are called the Asarah Harugei Malchut. These ten names are read every Yom Kippur and on Tisha B'Av.

These were all rabbis executed by the Romans after the Temple's destruction circa 70 CE.

 The first two to be executed were [1]  Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel and [2] Rabbi Yishmael the Kohen Gadol. Rabban Shimon Ben Gamliel was beheaded, and while Rabbi Yishmael wept, the Roman ruler's daughter coveted Rabbi Yishmael for his physical beauty. When she was told that he would have to be executed as well, she asked that the skin of his head be flayed while he was alive, so she could stuff the skin and look at his face.

Our first martyr is Shimon ben Gamliel II (Hebrew : רבן שמעון בן גמליאל) who was a Tanna of the third generation and president of the Great Sanhedrin. Shimon was a youth in Betar  when the Bar Kokhba revolt  broke out, but when that fortress was taken by the Romans he managed to escape the massacre (Talmud Bavli Tractates Gittin 58a; Sotah 49b; Bava Kamma 83a; and Talmud Yerushalmi  Ta'anit 24b). On the restoration of the college at Usha, Shimon was elected its president, this dignity being bestowed upon him not only because he was a descendant of the house of Hillel, but in recognition of his personal worth and influence. His traditional burial location is in Kfar Manda  in the Lower Galilee .

There were many children in his family, one-half of whom were instructed in the Torah, and the other half in Greek philosophy. Shimon himself seems to have been trained in Greek philosophy; this probably accounts for his declaring later that the Scriptures might be written only in the original text and in Greek (Talmud Bavli Meg. 9b; i. 8; Talmud Yerushalmi . Meg. 71c). Shimon appears to have studied natural science as well, for some of his sayings betray a scientific knowledge of the nature of plants and animals, while others concern the anatomy of the human body and the means of avoiding or of curing disease (Talmud Bavli Tractates Ber. 25a, 40a; Shab . 78a, 128b; Yeb. 80b; Ket. 59b, 110b). It is not known who were his teachers in the Halakah; he transmits sayings of R. Judah bar Ilai  ,of R. Meir   and of R. Jose bar Ḥalafta  . The last-named was honored as a teacher by Shimon, who addressed questions to him, and put many of his decisions into practice (Talmud Bavli Tractate Suk. 26a).

During Shimon's patriarchate the Jews were harried by daily persecutions and oppressions. In regard to these Shimon observes: "Our forefathers knew suffering only from a distance, but we have been surrounded by it for so many days, years, and cycles that we are more justified than they in becoming impatient". "Were we, as of yore, to inscribe upon a memorial scroll our sufferings and our occasional deliverances therefrom, we should not find room for all" (Talmud Bavli Tractate Shab. 13b).

Jewish internal affairs were more firmly organized by Shimon ben Gamaliel, and the patriarchate attained under him a degree of honor previously unknown. While formerly only two persons, the nasi  (president) and the ab bet din (head of the rabbinic court), presided over the college, Shimon established the additional office of "cḥakam",(sage) with authority equal to that of the others, appointing R. Meïr   to the new office. In order, however, to distinguish between the dignity of the patriarchal office and that attaching to the offices of the ab bet din and the cḥakam, Shimon issued an order to the effect that the honors formerly bestowed alike upon the nasi and the ab bet din were henceforth to be reserved for the patriarch (nasi), while minor honors were to be accorded the ab bet din and the cḥakam. By this ruling Shimon incurred the enmity of R. Meïr, the cḥakam, and of R. Nathan, the ab bet din (Talmud Bavli Tracate Hor   13b).

 

Shimon had made this arrangement, not from personal motives, but in order to increase the authority of the college over which the nasi presided, and to promote due respect for learning. His personal humility is evidenced by his sayings to his son Judah I, as well as by the latter's sayings (Talmud Bavli Tracate Bava Metzia 84b, 85a).

In halakic matters Shimon inclined toward lenient interpretation of the laws, and he avoided adding to the difficulties attending their observance. In many instances in which an act, in itself not forbidden by Biblical law, had later been prohibited merely out of fear that it might lead to transgressions, Shimon declared it permissible, saying that "fear should not be admitted as a factor in a decision" (Talmud Bavli Tractates  Shab. 13a, 40b, 147b; Yoma 77b; Bava Metzia. 69b; Bek. 24a; Pes. 10b). Of his halakic opinions about 30 relating to the Sabbath regulations and 15 referring to the seventh year "shebi'it") have been preserved, in nearly all of which the liberality of views is evident. He always took into consideration the common usage, and he often maintained that the ultimate decision must follow common tradition (Talmud Bavli Tractate Ket. vi. 4; Bava Metzia  vii. 1; Bava  Batra x. 1). The habits of the individual must also be considered ( Talmud Bavli Tractate  Ta'an. 30a).

In his regulations regarding the legal relations of man and wife he made it an invariable rule to protect the rights and the dignity of the latter in preference to those of the former (Talmud Bavli Tractate Ket. v. 5, vii. 9, xiii. 10). He endeavored to protect the slaves and secure to them certain rights ( Talmud Bavli Tractate Giṭ. 12b, 37b, 40b). The weal of the community is more important than the interests and rights of the individual, and the latter must be sacrificed to the former (Ket. 52b; Giṭ. 37b). He especially strove to maintain the authority of the magistrates; according to his opinion the decisions of a court of law must be upheld, even though a slight error has been made; otherwise its dignity would suffer (Ket. xi. 5).

Shimon's decisions are mostly founded on sound common sense and an intimate acquaintance with the subjects treated, and, with three exceptions ( Talmud Bavli Tractates Bava. Batra . 173b; Giṭ. 74b; Sanh  31a), his views, as set forth in the Mishnah , have been accepted as valid ( Talmud Bavli Tractates Giṭ. 75a). He often cites the conditions of the past, which he learned probably from the traditions of his house, and which are highly important for the knowledge of older customs and habits. He speaks of the earlier festive celebrations in Jerusalem on the Fifteenth of Av and on the Day of Atonement ( Talmud Bavli Tractates Ta'an. iv. 8); of the customs followed there at meals when guests were present ( Talmud Bavli Tractate Ber. iv. 9 et seq.); of the work on the pools of Siloah ( Talmud Bavli Tractates Arakhin   1b); of the nature of the marriage contract ( Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanh. vii. 1) and the bill of divorce ( Talmud Bavli Tractate Giṭ. ix. 13).

Several of Shimon's haggadic sayings and decisions also have been preserved. "Great is peace, for Aaron the priest became famous only because he sought peace" ("pereḳ ha-shalom";  . Mal. ii. 6). "Justice must be accorded to non-Jews as to Jews; the former should have the option of seeking judgment before either a Jewish or a pagan court" (Sifre , Deut. 16:. 68b]). Shimon praised the Samaritans for observing more strictly than did the Israelites such commandments of the Torah  as they recognized ( Talmud Bavli Tractate Ḳid. 76a). The Scripture is in many places to be understood figuratively and not literally (Sifre, Deut. 25  p. 70a]). "It is unnecessary to erect monuments to the pious; their sayings will preserve their memories" (Talmud Yerushalmi Tractate Shek . 47a; and Midrash Gen. Rabbah. lxxxii. 11).

 

Rabban Gamliel I was succeeded by his son,Shimon ben Gamliel II, or as some say, his son-in-law, who took over the spiritual leadership as Nasi during one of the saddest periods of Jewish history. The yoke of the Romans became ever heavier, and oppression made the spiritual and cultural life very difficult. Rabbi Shimon strongly emphasized the importance of religious deeds. Said he: ( Pirkei  Avot I, 17)

"All my life I have been brought up among, the Sages, and I have found nothing better for a person than silence; study is not the most important thing, but practice; and whoever talks too much, brings about sin."
In those days of oppression, many joined the ranks of patriots who wanted to rebel and fight the Romans. Rabbi Shimon supported them very effectively. Even Josephus, the historian, who generally was not his friend, talks very highly about his great knowledge and capabilities. But Rabbi Shimon did not foresee the tragic results of the revolt which ended in the destruction of the Beth-Hamikdosh. He put all his considerable means at the disposal of the war party because he saw no other way out of the desperate situation. In this policy he was not followed by most other Sages who urged peaceful relations with the Romans.

 

 In the Mishnah we find Rabbi Shimon's name mentioned in connection with the laws concerning the offering of sacrifices. When poor women, who after childbirth, had to bring an offering, of doves, were embarrassed by the steep price of the birds he pledged that by the next day the birds would be available to them at a much cheaper price. Indeed, he was able to make his pledge come true. Another time Rabbi Shimon is mentioned in connection with the celebration of the Drawing of the Water ("Simchat Beth Hashoeivah"). In the ecstasy of joy, he would juggle torches with great skill. He also was not too proud to personally entertain a groom and bride at their wedding celebration.

Unfortunately, this great scholar and leader was one of the Ten Scholars who died as martyrs at the hands of the cruel Romans. We read the following about his martyrdom:

Rabbi Shimon was thrown into prison together with Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha, and condemned to die. He cried out in painful sorrow: "Woe to us that we have to be put to death like common heathen and murderers!" When Rabbi Yishmael heard these words, he wondered whether Rabbi Shimon had perhaps once refused to admit a poor and hungry man to his house, while he was sitting at a meal; and that this might be the punishment for it. Thereupon Rabbi Shimon replied: "Heaven knows that I have never in all my life been guilty of this sin. On the contrary, I have always hired people who were on the lookout for beggars in need of food, to bring them into my house." When Rabbi Yishmael questioned him ,whether he bad felt proud while lecturing to the huge crowd of Jews who had gathered at the Temple mount to hear him expound the Law, Rabbi Shimon replied: "I have never been guilty of such conceit. This punishment is rather a heavenly decree, which no human being can escape."

When both were brought to the place of execution, each one begged to be permitted to die first, so that he would not have to witness the tortures and death of the other. Rabbi Yishmael claimed that, as Kohen Gadol, he was entitled to die first, and Rabbi Shimon argued that being the Nasi gave him the right of being executed first. Lots were drawn, and Rabbi Shimon was executed first. When Rabbi Yishmael saw his head fall into the sand, he picked up the bloody head of his friend, put it in his lap and sobbed: "O sacred, truthful mouth, from which such pearls of wisdom had once flowed! What is it that has caused you to fall into the dust, and your tongue to be sealed off with earth and dirt!" Thus ended the life of one of Israel's noblest princes.

 

The second martyr, Rabbi Ishmael or Ishmael ben Elisha (90-135 CE, Hebrew: רבי ישמעאל) was a Tanna of the first and second centuries (third tannaitic  generation). A Tanna (plural, Tannaim) is a rabbinic sage whose views are recorded in the Mishnah.

Ishmael's teachings were calculated to promote peace and goodwill among all. "Be indulgent with the hoary head;" he would say, "and be kind to the black-haired [the young]; and meet every man with a friendly mien" (Pirkei Avot , iii. 12).

What he taught he practiced . Even toward strangers, he acted considerately. When a heathen greeted him, he answered kindly, "Thy reward has been predicted"; when another abused him, he repeated cooly, "Thy reward has been predicted." This apparent inconsistency, he explained to his puzzled disciples by quoting Gen. xxvii. 29: "Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee" (Talmud Yerushalmi Tractate Beracoth , viii. 12a; Midrash Gen. Rabbah lxvi. 6).

Ishmael was fatherly to the indigent, particularly to poor and plain maidens, whom he clothed attractively and provided with means, so that they might obtain husbands (Talmud Tractate Bavli Nedarim, ix. 10; 66a). One Friday night, while absorbed in the study of the Bible, he inadvertently turned the wick of a lamp; and he vowed that when the Second Temple was rebuilt, he would offer there an expiatory sacrifice (Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat, 12b).

R. Ishmael delayed Eleazar ben Damma from being cured in the name of Ben Pandera long enough for Eleazar to die without becoming associated with the minim.

Ishmael manifested the same spirit of hope in declining to countenance the refusal of the ultra-patriotic to beget children under the Roman sway (Talmud Bavli Tractates Sotah, xv. 10; Bava Batra, 60b). Even under the conditions then existing, he recommended early marriage. He said, "The Scripture tells us, 'Thou shalt teach them [the things thou hast seen at Horeb] to thy sons and to thy sons' sons;' and how may one live to teach his sons' sons unless one marries early?" (Deuteronomy 4:9 Yerushalmi  Talmud Tractate Kiddushin, i. 29b; Talmud Tractate Bavli Kiddushin 61a)

Ishmael gradually developed a system of halakhic exegesis which, while running parallel with that of Rabbi Akiva, is admitted to be the more logical. Indeed, he established the principles of the logical method by which laws may be deduced from laws and important decisions founded on the plain phraseology of the Scriptures. Like Akiva, he opened up a wide field for halakhic induction, but, unlike Akiva, he required more than a mere jot or a letter as a basis for making important rulings ( Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin, 51b).
Ishmael was of opinion that the Torah was conveyed in the language of man (Talmud Yerushalmi Tractate Yevamot, viii. 8d; Yerushalmi Nedarim, i. 36c), and that therefore a seemingly pleonastic word or syllable can not be taken as a basis for new deductions. In discussing a supposititious case with Akiva, he once exclaimed, "Wilt thou indeed decree death by fire on the strength of a single letter?" (Sanhedrin, 51b). The plain sense of the Scriptural text, irrespective of its verbal figures, was by him considered the only safe guide.

To consistently carry out his views in this direction, Ishmael formalized a set of 13 hermeneutic rules by which halakha was derived from the Torah. As a basis for these rules he took the seven rules of Hillel, and on them built up his own system, which he elaborated and strengthened by illustrating them with examples taken from the Scriptures ( Baraita of R. Ishmael ; Midrash Gen. Rabbah. xcii. 7). Even these rules, he would not permit to apply to important questions, such as capital cases in which no express Scriptural warrant for punishment existed; he would not consent to attach a sentence of death, or even a fine, to a crime or misdemeanor on the strength of a mere inference, however logical, where no such punishment is clearly stated in Scripture (Talmud Yerushalmi Tractate Avodah Zarah, v. 45b), or to draw a rule from a law itself based on an inference ( Talmud Yerushalmi  Tractate Kiddushin, i. 59a). His rules were universally adopted by his successors, tannaim, as well as amoraim, although occasionally he himself was forced to deviate from them ( Sifre, Numbers , 32).

Thus, his name became permanently associated with the halakha ; but in the province of the Haggadah also, it occupies a prominent place (Mo'ed Katan, 28b). In answer to the question whether future punishment will be limited to the spirit or to the body, or whether in equity , any punishment at all should be inflicted on either, seeing that neither can sin when separated from the other, Ishmael draws this parallel:

A king, owning a beautiful orchard of luscious fruit, and not knowing whom to trust in it, appointed two invalids — one lame, and the other blind. The lame one, however, tempted by the precious fruit, suggested to his blind companion that he ascend a tree and pluck some; but the latter pointed to his sightless eyes. At last the blind man raised his lame companion on his shoulders, and thus enabled him to pluck some of the fruit.

When the king came, noticing that some fruit had disappeared, he inquired of them which was the thief. Vehemently asserting his innocence, each pointed to the defect which made it impossible for him to have committed the theft. But the king guessed the truth, and, placing the lame man on the shoulders of the other, punished them together as if the two formed one complete body. Thus, added Ishmael, will it be hereafter: soul and body will be reunited and punished together (Midrash Lev. Rabbah, iv. 5;  Sanhedrin , 91a)

One of the Tannaim (the great Sages of the Mishnah), was Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha, who lived some fifty years after the Destruction of the Second Beth Hamikdosh. He lived at the time of Rabbi Akiva, and like him, he was one of the Ten Martyrs who were cruelly put to death by the Roman governor.

Rabbi Ishmael came from a very distinguished family of High Priests, and he, too, had the title "Kohen Godol." As a boy, he was unusually good looking and wise, and he was taken to Rome as a captive. The great Sage Rabbi Joshua ben Chanania came to Rome, probably as a messenger of the Jews in the Holy Land, to try to appeal before the Roman Emperor for a more lenient policy towards the persecuted Jews in the Holy Land. He learned that a Jewish boy was held captive in that city. He passed by the place where the boy was kept prisoner, and called out "Who delivered Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers?" quoting a passage from the Prophet Isaiah (42:24). And the boy's voice came back in reply, "Did not God, He against Whom we have sinned?" quoting the words of the prophet from the second part of the same verse. Rabbi Joshua decided to spare no effort to ransom that boy, saying, "I am sure that boy will grow up to be one of our great Sages." Indeed, for a large sum of money Rabbi Joshua succeeded in ransoming the young boy, whom he took home with him, fed him and clothed him, and taught him the Torah every day. Before long, Rabbi Ishmael became well-known as a distinguished scholar of the Torah. Rabbi Joshua himself now considered him as his colleague, and called him "My brother Ishmael."

Rabbi Ishmael became a disciple of the famous Tanna, Rabbi Nechunia  ben Hakaneh , and he also studied in the Yeshiva of Yavne. He was greatly respected by the Sages of his time. He and Rabbi Akiva were often engaged in Talmudic discussions, and both of them were called "the fathers of the world."

Rabbi Ishmael is famous for the thirteen rules of interpretation (middoth) of the Torah. The Beraita (Tannaic text) which enumerates them is well known, since it is included as a part of our Morning prayers. Well known also is his saying, "Be respectful of the old and kind to the young, and receive every man with gladness" (Avot 3:12).

His knowledge and sharpness of mind earned him the title "Uprooter of mountains," for his discussion of a point of the Torah was likened to "tearing up mountains and grinding them against each other." His colleagues also likened him to a " department-store" where you can get any merchandise you desire, so full was Rabbi Ishmael of knowledge of the Torah and all wisdoms.

In addition to his many discussions on points of Jewish law and his interpretations of the Torah (the Halachah), he was also well versed in the Aggadah and Midrash. He is the author of the Halachic Midrash, the Mechilta on the Book of Shemoth, and many of his teachings, as well as those of his school, are to be found in the other Halachic Midrashim, the Sifra on Vayyikra, the Sifre on Bamidbar, and on Devarim, and throughout the Talmud. These teachings and sayings gave expression to his great love of his people, and show also the nobility of his character. He was one of several Sages that declared ."All Israelites are the sons of kings," impressing upon his brethren that although they are subjugated to the Roman idol worshippers, and are persecuted and down-trodden by them, the Jews are nevertheless "royal princes" and infinitely superior to their oppressors. Thus, he instilled faith and courage in his brethren and was a source of great comfort to them at a very critical time, when the cruel emperor Hadrian tried his utmost to stamp out the Jewish religion and faith.

Rabbi Ishmael was a great friend of the poor, and of poor marriageable girls who could not get married because they were poor. He was especially sorry for those who were sensitive or ashamed to beg, and he helped them greatly by the following teaching: It is written in the Torah, "You shall surely open your hand to your brother, to your poor, your needy, in your land." (Deut. 15 :11) . This, Rabbi Ishmael explained, means that if a man of good family is ashamed to ask for charity, it is our duty to "open" to him with words, saying, "My son, perhaps you need a loan?" This man would more readily accept, a "loan" which the giver should really treat as a gift.

Rabbi Ishmael also taught: Every "if" (in Heb. im) in the Torah refers to a voluntary act with the exception of three "ifs." One of these three is, "If you lend money to any of My people with you who is poor" (Exod. 12:2 5) . Here the "if" is an obligation, for it is written, "You shall surely lend him" (Deut. 15:8) .

Once it came to Rabbi Ishmael's knowledge that a man made a vow that he would not marry his niece because she was not good looking. He had the girl brought to his house, where she was groomed and beautified and dressed nicely. Then he sent for her uncle and asked him, "Is this the girl about whom you made a vow?" The uncle, who hardly recognized the niece after this change, replied, "No, indeed; I had quite another girl in mind when I made the vow." Then Rabbi Ishmael told him that he was no longer bound by his vow and he could marry his niece. Rabbi Ishmael wept and said, "The daughters of Israel are really beautiful, but it is poverty that makes them look ugly." When Rabbi Ishmael died, the daughters of Israel bewailed his death as the death of King Saul was lamented.

Rabbi Ishmael's mother was a very pious woman, and she worshipped her son. But one day she astonished the Sages when she appeared before them to complain about her son. Said she, "Rebuke my son, Ishmael, for he does not show me honor." The faces of the Sages turned pale, and they asked her, "Is it possible that Rabbi Ishmael should not show honor to his mother? What has he done to you?" She replied, "Before he goes to the Beth Hamidrash, I want to wash his feet, and to drink the water with which I have washed them, but he will not permit it!" Then the Sages said to Rabbi Ishmael, "Since this is her wish, honor her by permitting it.

People often wondered how God does justice to the body and soul in the Day of judgment after life. Rabbi Ishmael explained it as follows:

A king had an orchard with fine fig trees. When the first fruits were about to ripen, he put two keepers in the orchard to keep out birds and thieves. One of the keepers was blind, the other was lame. After a time, the lame man said to the blind man, "I see some juicy figs just ripe for eating." Said the blind man, "Lead me to them, and we will eat." The lame man said, "I cannot walk." The blind man said, "I cannot see." Then the lame man got on the shoulders of the blind man, and they went and ate the figs, and returned to their places. Later the king came to the orchard, and asked, "Where are my figs?" The blind man said, "Can I see?" and the lame man said, "Can I walk?" But the king was clever. He placed the lame man on the shoulders of the blind man and made them walk. "This is how you did it," the king said.
So, in the World to Come, God says to the soul, "Why have you sinned?" The soul replies, "How could I have sinned? The body sinned. Since I left the body, I have flown about like an innocent bird in the air. What is my sin?" Then God says to the body, "Why have you sinned?" and the body replies, "I have not sinned; it is the soul which has sinned. Since the soul left me, I lie still, like a stone on the ground. How could I have sinned?" So what does God do? He puts the soul back into the body and judges the two together!"

Rabbi Ishmael knew well how powerful the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination) was. And so it was taught in the School of Rabbi Ishmael: "If this abomination (Yetzer) meets you, drag him to the Beth Hamidrash: if it is hard as stone, it will be crushed; if it is as hard as iron, it will be broken in pieces." In other words, the Torah and Mitzvoth are the only way to break down the evil inclination.

As already mentioned, Rabbi Ishmael was one of the Ten Martyrs who were put to death by the Romans. He faced death without fear. Both in his life and in death, and ever since, Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha has been an everlasting source of inspiration to our people; truly one of our greatest.

 
The most well known martyr is [3] Rabbi Akiva, who was raked over his skin with iron combs. Despite the pain consuming him, he was still able to proclaim God's providence in the world by reciting the Shema, drawing out the final Echad - "One".

I am sure, all of you know of Rabbi Akiba ben Joseph, about whom our Sages say that he was one of the greatest Scholars of all times. With his sharp mind the Sages said, he could "uproot mountains," and he explained every single letter of the Torah, even the little crowns that adorn many of the letters of the Torah. Rabbi Akiba- was one of four great Sages who tried to enter the deepest secrets of the Creation and of learning, and he was the only one .who came out sound of body and sane of mind.

But do you also know that all the extraordinary scholarship of this most famous of all Tanaim was due to the self sacrificing love of Torah of his wife?

You see, Rabbi Akiba was not one of the fortunate ones who are born to riches, or into the house of a scholar. He had to get everything the hard way. He was born as the child of a very poor family and became an ignorant shepherd, one of the many who took care of the thousands of flocks of the wealthy Kalba Sabua, about whose riches the Talmud tells many stories. The daughter of this fabulous man, was a beautiful and G-d fearing girl. The richest and most learned young men of that time would have considered themselves fortunate to marry her. But Rachel, Kalba Sabua's only child, the heir to his riches, had observed the shepherd Akiba and some inner voice told her that this ignorant youth had the making of a great scholar. On the condition that he would leave her father's work to go and study Torah, she married him secretly.

As Rachel refused one young man after the other, Kalba Sabua found out about her secret marriage to his former shepherd. He was very angry and he vowed that he would have nothing to do with her or her husband. Gladly, the only child of the richest man of those days left all the luxuries and comforts to which she had been used, and went to live with Akiba in a shack, sleeping on a bundle of straw, and working hard with her own, soft hands, so that her husband could devote himself to the study of Torah. Once when she could not find work, she even cut off her beautiful long hair to sell it, so that she would have some money with which to buy a dry crust of bread for both.

Yet even in their poverty, they were willing to share with others the little they possessed. Once a poor man passed the shack of Akiba and Rachel, and begged, "Pray, good people, let me have a handful of straw. My wife is sick and I have nothing to bed her on." At once Akiba shared his own bundle of straw with the poor man, remarking thus to Rachel: "See, my child, there are those who fare worse than we." The poor beggar, say our sages, was none but the Prophet Elijah who had come to test Akiba's good heart.

After Akiba had mastered the basic knowledge of the Torah, his wife and he agreed that he was to go to the academy of the great scholars of those days, headed by Rabbi Eliezer, to devote twelve years to intensive study. Thus the two parted and for twelve long years Rachel slaved hard to support herself, while her husband grew to become one of the most learned of all men that ever lived. At the end of twelve years Rabbi Akiba returned to his wife, as he had promised. When he came before the shabby old shack he heard a conversation between his wife and a neighbor who was taunting Rachel for being foolish enough to wait and slave for her husband who had left her to study Torah. "You could live in riches and luxuries, if you were not so foolish," said the woman.

"For my part he could stay away another twelve years at the Yeshivah to acquire more knowledge," was Rachel's reply.

Full of pride and admiration for his great wife Rabbi Akiba turned around to do as Rachel wanted him to do.
At the conclusion of the twenty four years Rabbi Akiba had become the most famous of all living scholars. From near and far came the youth of Israel to study under his direction.

Accompanied by twenty four thousand students, Rabbi Akiba returned home in a triumphant journey from city to city, welcomed everywhere by the highest nobility. The masses, rich and poor, turned out when he came home to Jerusalem.

Kalba Sabua, too, was among those who tried to get close to the master. Suddenly Rabbi Akiba saw his disciples trying to hold back a woman dressed in ragged clothes. At once he made his way through the crowd to greet the woman and led her to the chair by his side. "If not for this woman I would be an ignorant shepherd, unable to read the Aleph Beth. Whatever I know, I owe to her," Rabbi Akiba declared.

The whole huge crowd bowed in respect before the woman to whom Rabbi Akiba owed his great scholarship. Kalba Sabua, too, suddenly discovered who his son-in-law was. Publicly he expressed his regret for having treated his daughter and her husband so badly. Now all his wealth would be theirs.

 Rabbi Akiba whom we remember especially on the day of Lag B'Omer, was the wisest and greatest Tanna (teacher) of his time, and one of the greatest of all times. When he passed away, "he left none like him," the Rabbis said. Many are the wise teachings and laws which he taught, and of which the Talmud is full. We bring you here some of his teachings:

A heathen once came to Rabbi Akiba, and asked him, 'Who created the world?'
'God created the world,' Rabbi Akiba replied.
'Prove it to me,' persisted the heathen.
'Come back tomorrow,' Rabbi Akiba told him.
The following day the heathen came back, and Rabbi Akiba engaged him in conversation. 'What are you wearing?', Rabbi Akiba asked him.
'A cloak, as you see.'
'Who made it?' Rabbi Akiba asked.
'The weaver, of course.'
'I don't believe it; prove it to me!' Rabbi Akiba persisted.
'What proof do you want? Cannot you see that the weaver has made the cloth?'
'Then why do you ask for proof that God created the world? Cannot you see that the Holy One blessed be He created it.'

And to his disciples Rabbi Akiba added, 'My children, just as the house is proof of the builder, and the cloth is proof of the weaver, and the door is proof of the joiner, so this world proclaims that God created it.'

 Rabbi Akiba had learned and studied the Torah more deeply and extensively than anyone else, yet he was very humble, for he knew that the Torah is endless, for it is the wisdom of God. Said he, "All my learning is no more than like the fragrance of an Etrog; the one who scents it, enjoys it; but the Etrog loses nothing. Or it is as one who draws water from a spring, or lights a candle from a candle."

No wonder Rabbi Akiba despised a conceited and vain man, whose learning only filled him with self-importance and vain glory. Of such a man Rabbi Akiba said, "He is like a carcass lying on the road; whoever passes it puts his fingers to his nose, and hurries away from it."

The following story also illustrates his humility and respect for the Torah.

Rabbi Akiba was once called upon to read to the congregation a portion of the Torah, but he did not want to do it. His amazed disciples asked him, 'Master, have you not taught us that the Torah is our life and the length of our days? Why did you refuse to read it to the congregation?' And Rabbi Akiba replied, simply: 'Believe me, I had not prepared myself for it; for no man should address words of Torah to the public unless he has first revised them to himself three or four times.

Rabbi Akiba did not keep his learning to himself, but had many students and disciples, more than any other single teacher. As you know, he had no less than 24 thousand students at one time. Some of the greatest Rabbis of the next generation were among his disciples, as, for example, Rabbi Simeon ben Yochai, whose Yahrzeit is observed on Lag B'Omer. Together with another great Sage, Rabbi Chanina ben Chakinai, Rabbi Simeon went to Bene Beraq to learn Torah from Rabbi Akiba, and they stayed there for thirteen years!
Quoting a passage from Koheleth (11:6) "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening do not rest thy hand," Rabbi Akiba explained it to mean: "Teach disciples in thy youth, and do not stop teaching in thy old age."

As you know, it is customary to say 'Perek' (Sayings of Our Fathers) on the Sabbath, beginning with the Sabbath after Pesach. Some say it until Shavuoth, others throughout the summer. Among the 'Fathers' whose teachings we find in this tractate of the Mishnah there is also Rabbi Akiba. In the third chapter we find the following sayings of his:

"Jesting and frivolity lead a man on to immorality.
"The Massorah (Tradition) is a fence to the Torah.
"Tithes (the prescribed Tzedakah , charity) are a fence to riches.
"Vows (self-restraint) are a fence to a holy life.
"A fence to wisdom is silence."

He used to say:
"Beloved is man, for he was created in the image of God. . .
"Beloved are Israel, for they were called children of God. . .
"Beloved are Israel, for unto them was given the desirable Torah."

Man is indeed the beloved creature, and Israel has been chosen to receive the Torah; that is why one's responsibility is all the greater. And so he reminds us:

"Everything is foreseen (by God), yet freedom of choice is given; and the world is judged with grace, yet all is according to the amount of work accomplished."

Rabbi Akiba goes on to compare the world to a store, where anybody can come and buy things on credit, but everything is recorded in a ledger, and payment will have to be made. Said he:
"Everything is given on pledge, and a net is spread over all the living: the shop is open; and the shopkeeper gives credit; and the ledger lies open; and the hand writes; and whosoever wishes to borrow may come and borrow; but the collectors regularly make their daily rounds; and exact payment from man, whether he is willing or not.

We have no more room here to give you many more of his great sayings and teachings, so we will conclude with one of his favorite sayings, which will do us good to remember always:
"Whatever God does is for the best."

 Rabbi Akiva's daughter once went to the market to buy things for the home. As she passed a group of star-gazers and fortune–tellers, one of them said to the other: "see that lovely girl? What a dreadful calamity is awaiting her! She is going to die on the very day of her wedding. Mark my word!"

Rabbi Akiba's daughter overheard the words of the star-gazer, but paid no attention to him. She had often heard it from her great father that he who observes the Mitzvoth of the holy Torah need fear no evil.

As the happy day of her wedding approached, she had forgotten all about that star-gazer. On the day before her wedding, there was much to do, and at night she retired to bed, tired but happy. Before going to bed, she removed her golden hair-pin and stuck it in the wall, as she had done before.

The following morning, she pulled her pin from the wall, and in doing so dragged a small but very poisonous snake with it. Horrified, she realized that she had killed the snake that was lurking in the wall's crevice when she stuck the pin into the wall the night before. What a wonderful miracle!

Then she remembered the words of the star-gazer, and shuddered.

She heard a knock on the door. "Are you alright, daughter? I heard you shriek," her father said. Then he saw the dead snake still dangling from the pin. She told her father what happened.

"This is indeed a miracle," Rabbi Akiba said. "Tell me, daughter, what did you do yesterday? There must have been some special Mitzvah that you performed yesterday to have been saved from this."

"Well, the only thing that I can remember was this. Last night, when everybody was busy with the preparations for my wedding, a poor man came in, but nobody seemed to notice him, so busy every body was. I saw that the poor man was very hungry, so I took my portion of the wedding-feast and gave it to him."

Rabbi Akiba had always known that his daughter was very devoted to the poor, but this was something special, and he was very happy indeed. "Tzedakah  (charity) delivereth from death," he exclaimed.

Did you know that he was also a diamond merchant? Well, when he became a great man, his father-in-law, Kalba Sabua, who was one of the three richest men in Jerusalem, gave him all his fortune to make up for the way he treated him when Akiba was a poor ignorant shepherd of his. So from time to time Akiba bought and sold diamonds and precious stones to earn his own living. Here is a story about a strange customer who wanted to buy a precious pearl from him.

Rabbi Akiba knew the man and had always thought him poor, for he was poorly dressed, and would always sit in the Beth Hamidrash among the poor people. "I want to buy the pearl," the man said, "and I'll pay your price. But I have no money with me. If you will be good enough to come with me to my home, I will pay you.
Rabbi Akiba thought that the man was joking, but nevertheless he decided to go along with him.
As they came into the house of the 'poor' man, many servants came out to greet their master. They washed his dusty feet and seated him on a golden chair. The man offered his servants to bring the box where he kept his money, and he paid Rabbi Akiba the full price of the pearl. Then he ordered that the pearl be pounded into a fine powder.

Rabbi Akiba was greatly surprised and asked the man, "you paid so much money for this precious pearl, and now you made a powder of it. Why did you do it?"

"You see, dear Rabbi," the man replied. "I buy pearls and beat them into powder, and mix them with certain medicines to give to the poor."

The man ordered the table set with the finest food and wines, and invited Rabbi Akiba and his students to have dinner with him. After dinner, Rabbi Akiba asked the man, "I see that you are very rich; tell me, why do you dress so poorly and sit among the poor men, as though you were one of them?"

"I often hear our great Sages teach us that God does not like proud men. And anyway, how can I be proud of my wealth? What is man's life, and isn't man's wealth but a passing shadow? Today I am alive, tomorrow, who knows? Today I am rich, tomorrow who knows? Maybe I will be poor, and so it will not be difficult for me to find my place among the poor. If I do not climb high, the fall will not hurt me. But that is only where it concerns me personally, when it comes to giving Tzedakah and supporting Torah institutions, you will not find me poor, only I like to do it quietly for I seek no honor for myself."

Rabbi Akiba blessed the man to live long, and to remain rich all his life, so that he would continue to do so much good in his wonderful way.

"Whoever has these three things is of the disciples of Abraham our father…A good eye, a humble mind and a lowly spirit…The disciples of Abraham our father enjoy this world and inherit the world to come…" (Pirkei Avoth, 5:23)

Akiba ben Yossef (ca.50–ca.135 CE) (Hebrew: רבי עקיבא) or simply Rabbi Akiva was a Judean 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-Chachomim" (Head of all the Sages).

.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.

Akiba ben Joseph (written עקיבא in the Babylonian talmud, and עקיבה in the Jerusalem talmud — another form for עקביה) who is usually called simply Akiba, was of comparatively humble parentage. 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.

Of the romantic story of Akiva's marriage with the daughter of the wealthy Jerusalemite, Kalba Savua, whose shepherd he is said to have been. Only this is known to be true: that Akiva was a shepherd (Yeb. 86b; ). His wife's name was Rachel ,and she was the daughter of an entirely unknown man named Joshua, who is specifically mentioned (Yad. iii. 5) as Akiva's father-in-law. She stood loyally by her husband during that critical period of his life in which Akiva, thitherto the mortal enemy of the rabbis and an am ha-aretz (ignoramus) (Pes. 49b), decided to place himself at the feet of those previously detested men. Prior to this change of heart, he used to say: "O that I would find a Talmid Chacham and bite him like a donkey"   (Pesachim, 49b).

A reliable tradition  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. It is known that in 95–96 Akiba had already attained great prominence  , and, further, that he studied for 13 years before becoming a teacher himself . Thus the beginning of his years of study would fall 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, if we accept the 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  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 Akiba's masters (Ket. 84b), but the pupil outranked his teacher, and Tarphon became one of Akiba's greatest admirers (Sifre, Num. 75). Akiba probably remained in Lod (Rosh. HaShan. 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). Akiba also lived for some time at Ziphron (Num. xxxiv. 9), the modern Zafrân (Z. P. V. viii. 28), near Hamath (see Sifre, Num. iv ).

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, Akiba owed almost everything to his wife. Akiba 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 Akiba remained her husband. Akiba, 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 Akiba'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. Akiba 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 Akiba (Ned. 50a).

By agreement with his wife, Akiba 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, Akiba 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 Akiba 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.).

The greatest tannaim of the middle of the 2nd century came from Akiba's school, notably Rabbi Meir, Judah ben Ilai, Simeon ben Yohai, Jose ben Halafta, Eleazar ben Shammai, and Rabbi Nehemiah. Besides these, who all attained great renown, Akiba 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 Akiba'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 Akiba 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, Akiba is said to have made, cannot have been in any way connected with politics. In 95–96 Akiba 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 Akiba visited en route numerous other places having important Jewish communities ,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 "Akiba" 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 Akiba, just as the PesiḲta (ed. S. Buber, iv. 33b) has it. A sufficient ground for refusing credence in any participation by Akiba 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.

Akiba's death, which according to Sanh. 12a occurred after several years of imprisonment, must have taken place about 132, before the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt,. That the religious interdicts of Hadrian preceded the overthrow of Bar Kokba, is shown by Mek., Mishpaṭim, 18, where Akiba 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 Akiba's death are numerous, but  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 this was happening, astonishingly - especially for those performing the torture - he was saying the Shema prayer. As they got to his forehead area where a Jewish man lays Tephillin  he expired.

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 Akiba; 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 Akiba, 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 Akiba 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, Akiba 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 Akiba 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. Concerning Akiba'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. Akiba filled the office of an overseer of the poor.

Eminent as Akiba 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, Akiba was the one who definitely fixed the canon of the TaNaK. He protested strongly against the canonicity of certain of the Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus, 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 Akiba'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 Ecclesiasticus . Akiba stoutly defended, however, the canonicity of the Song of Songs, and Esther (Yad. iii.5, Meg. 7a).  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 Akiba's own heart; under Akiba's guidance he gave the Greek-speaking Jews a rabbinical Bible (Jerome on Isa. viii. 14, Yer. ḳid. i. 59a). Akiba 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 Akiba's opinions completely .

Akiba'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 first 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 Akiba 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,) 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 Akiba" 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 Akiba 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 Akiba; 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 Akiba for a model in their works and followed him" (Sanh. 86a). One recognizes here the threefold division of the halakic material that emanated from Akiba: (1) The codified Halakah (which is Mishnah); (2) the Tosefta, which in its original form contains a concise logical argument for the Mishnah,  (3) the halakic Midrash.

The following may be mentioned here as the halakic Midrashim originating in Akiba'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, and the Sifre to Deuteronomy, the halakic portion of which belongs to Akiba'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 Halakah by Akiba, his hermeneutics and halakic exegesis—which form the foundation of all Talmudic learning—surpassed it.

The enormous difference between the Halakah before and after Akiba may be briefly described as follows: The old Halakah 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 B.C.—originated the halakic 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 halakic Midrash would also have disappeared, seeing that the Halakah could now dispense with the Midrash. This probably would have been the case had not Akiba created his own Midrash, by means of which he was able "to discover things that were even unknown to Moses" . Akiba 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 Halakah is to be considered as the product of the internal struggle between Phariseeism and Sadduceeism, the Halakah of Akiba must be conceived as the result of an external contest between Judaism on the one hand and Hellenism and Hellenistic Christianity on the other. Akiba 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 Akiba 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.
Akiba 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 intercourse, and he succeeded in furnishing a firm foundation for his system. As the fundamental principle of his system, Akiba 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 who saw in the Hebrew construction of the infinitive with the finite form of the same verb—which is readily recognizable in the Septuagint—and in certain particles (adverbs, prepositions, etc.) some deep reference to philosophical and ethical doctrines, Akiba perceived in them indications of many important ceremonial laws, legal statutes, and ethical teachings .

He thus gave the Jewish mind not only a new field for its own employment, but, convinced both of the unchangeableness 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 Akiba shared in common with most other Pharisees, induced him to abolish the Oriental custom that banished women at certain periods 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 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 Kilaim; 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.

Goethe's saying, that "in self-restraint is the master shown," is contradicted by Akiba, who, though diametrically opposed to all philosophical speculation, is nevertheless the only tanna to whom we can attribute something like a religious philosophy. A tannaitic tradition (Ḥag. 14b; Tosef., Ḥag. ii. 3) mentions that of the four who entered paradise, Akiba 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).

Akiba's utterances (Avot, 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.

Akiba'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 ( Sifre, Num. 103; Sifra, Lev., 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, 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 contingent upon faith in Christ, and baptism. 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, 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 Palestinian theology of the מדת הדין ("the attribute of justice") and מדת הרחמים ("the attribute of mercy") (Gen. R. xii., end, 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.). 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". 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:

Akiba, 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"

 
Akiba's grave is in Tiberias
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.   

Akiba'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 Akiba to the hand of the executioner, it was just the time to recite the Shema. Full of devotion, Akiba recited his prayers calmly, though suffering agonies; and when Rufus asked him whether he was a sorcerer, since he felt no pain, Akiba 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 .

Akiba 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 Nehemiah, Jose ben Halafta and Shimon bar Yochai. Akiba was martyred before he could ordain these 5 students, so Rabbi Judah ben Baba, disobeying a Roman decree, took these five to a valley, far from any town, as the Romans vowed to destroy a town if a rabbi was ordained there, and gave one on one Semikha to these 5 rabbis. (Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 14a). This then began the tradition of Semikha being granted from one rabbi to another, without the need of a beth din, or in modern terms, attending a rabbinic college, model after the Christian minister schools of Europe. As we will see below, Rabbi Judah was martyred when the Romans caught him ordaining these  5 rabbis.

His wealth and influence Akiba'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 Akiba, 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, Akiba named God and the sea, on the shore of which the matrona's house stood. Akiba, 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 Akiba'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 Akiba arrived to discharge his indebtedness, the matrona not only refused to accept the money, but insisted upon Akiba'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). Akiba'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 Akiba 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 (Av. Zarah, 10b).

Another Roman, concerning whose relations with Akiba 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 Akiba'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 Akiba into a corner by his strange question; for he expected quite a different answer from the sage, and intended to compel Akiba 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 Akiba's ready answer, "that the duty of man is to perfect himself" (Tan., Tazri'a, 5, ).

 

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 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 him." 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, wherefore dost thou labor so hard? If thou art a slave and hast a harsh master, I will purchase thee of him. If it be out of poverty that thou doest thus, I will care for thy requirements." "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 thee?" 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, "Wherefore givest thou thyself so much trouble concerning this one?" "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 ye 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]



Another sage martyred was [4] Rabbi Haninah ben Teradion, who was wrapped in a Torah scroll and burned alive. Damp wool was packed into his chest to ensure he would not die quickly. When he was being burnt, he told his students that he could see the letters of the sacred torah "flying up" to heaven.
Rabbi Haninah ben Teradion or Hananiah ben Teradion (Hebrew: חנניה בן תרדיון) was a teacher in the third Tannaitic generation (2nd century). He was a contemporary of Eleazar ben Perata Iand of Halafta, together with whom he established certain ritualistic rules (Ta'anit ii. 5). He was one of the Ten Martyrs murdered by the Romans for ignoring the ban on teaching Torah .
 

His residence was at Siknin, where he directed religious affairs as well as a school. The latter came to be numbered among the distinguished academies with reference to which a baraita says: "The saying (Deuteronomy 16:20), 'That which is altogether just shalt thou follow' may be construed, 'Follow the sages in their respective academies. ... Follow Rabbi Haninah ben Teradion in Siknin'" (Sanhedrin 32b).

 

 Haninah administered the communal charity funds, and so scrupulous was he in that office that once when money of his own, designed for personal use on Purim, chanced to get mixed with the charity funds, he distributed the whole amount among the poor. Eleazar ben Jacob II so admired Haninah's honesty that he remarked, "No one ought to contribute to the charity treasury unless its administrator is like Haninah ben Teradion" (Bava Batra 10b; Avodah Zarah 17b).

Comparatively few halakot are preserved from him (Ta'anit ii. 5, 16b; Rosh Hashanah 27a; Tosefta, Miḳ. vi. 3; see also Yoma 78b; Menachot 54a). Haninah ingeniously proved that the Shekhinah rests on those who study the Law (Avodah Zarah iii. 2).

Haninah's life proved that with him these were not empty words. During the Hadrianic persecutions decrees were promulgated imposing the most rigorous penalties on the observers of the Jewish law, and especially upon those who occupied themselves with the promulgation of that law. Nevertheless, Hananiah conscientiously followed his chosen profession; he convened public assemblies and taught Torah.

Once he visited Jose ben Kisma, who advised extreme caution, if not submission. The latter said: "Haninah, my brother, seest thou not that this Roman people is upheld by God Himself? It has destroyed His house and burned His Temple, slaughtered His faithful, and exterminated His nobles; yet it prospers! In spite of all this, I hear, thou occupiest thyself with the Torah, even calling assemblies and holding the scroll of the Law before thee."

 

 To all this Haninah replied, "Heaven will have mercy on us." Jose became impatient on hearing this, and rejoined, "I am talking logic, and to all my arguments thou answerest, 'Heaven will have mercy on us!' I should not be surprised if they burned thee together with the scroll." Shortly thereafter Haninah was arrested at a public assembly while teaching with a Torah scroll before him. Asked why he disregarded the imperial edict, he frankly answered, "I do as my God commands me."

For this he and his wife were condemned to death, and their daughter to degradation. His death was terrible. Wrapped in the scroll, he was placed on a pyre of green brush; fire was set to it, and wet wool was placed on his chest to prolong the agonies of death. "Woe is me," cried his daughter, "that I should see thee under such terrible circumstances!" Haninah serenely replied, "I should indeed despair were I alone burned; but since the scroll of the Torah is burning with me, the Power that will avenge the offense against the law will also avenge the offense against me."

His heartbroken disciples then asked: "Master, what seest thou?" He answered: "I see the parchment burning while the letters of the Law soar upward."

"Open then thy mouth, that the fire may enter and the sooner put an end to thy sufferings," advised his pupils. But Haninah replied, "It is best that He who hath given the soul should also take it away: no man may hasten his death." Thereupon the executioner removed the wool and fanned the flame, thus accelerating the end, and then himself plunged into the flames (Avodah Zarah 17b et seq.).

It is reported that, on hearing his sentence, Haninah quoted Deuteronomy 32:4, "He is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment"; while his wife quoted the second hemistich, "A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he"; and his daughter cited Jeremiah 32:19, "Great in counsel, and mighty in work; for Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings" (Sifre, Deut. 307; Avodah Zarah loc. cit.; Semachot viii.).

[Of the surviving members of Haninah's family are mentioned two daughters: the learned Bruriah, who became the wife of Rabbi Meir; and the one marked for degradation, whom Rabbi Meïr succeeded in rescuing from a brothel in Rome (Avodah Zarah 18a).

Haninah had also a learned son. It is related that Simon ben Haninah applied to this son for information on a point of ritual, and that the latter and his sister, presumably Bruriah, furnished divergent opinions. When Judah ben Baba heard of those opinions, he remarked, "Haninah's daughter teaches better than his son" (Tosefta, Kelim, Bava Kama iv. 17).

Elsewhere it is reported of that son that he became a degenerate, associating with bandits. Subsequently he betrayed his criminal associates, wherefore they killed him and filled his mouth with sand and gravel. Having discovered his remains, the people would have eulogized him out of respect for his father, but the latter would not permit it. "I myself shall speak," said he; and he did, quoting Proverbs 5:11 et seq. The mother quoted Proverbs 17:25; the sister, Proverbs 20:17 (Lamentations Rabbah iii. 16; comp. Semachot xii.).

 

 

The others mentioned in the poem are [5] Rabbi Chutzpis the Interpreter (so named, because he would interpret the words of the Rosh Yeshiva - the head of the Yeshiva - for the masses, who could not follow all his words); [6] Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua; [7] Rabbi Hanina ben Hakinai ; [8]Rabbi Yesheivav the Scribe; [9] Rabbi Yehuda ben Damah  ; and [10] Rabbi Judah ben Baba.

Our 5th martyr is Rabbi Chutzpis the Interpreter . Rabbi Chutzpas the Miturgaman (Interpreter). The Talmud relates that on the day he was killed by the Romans he was one day shy of his 130th birthday. He begged his executioners to allow him one more day of life so that he could recite the Shema one last evening and morning. The Romans did not grant him his wish and he was tortured to death. (By the way, it was the torturing and death of Rabbi Chutzpas that had been witnessed by Elisha ben Avuyah - otherwise known as Acher, that motivated him to become a heretic.)

 

Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 39a asks what exactly Acher saw that led him astray. The first answer is that he saw an incident similar to the one described by Rabbi Ya'akov; a person engaged in the fulfillment of honoring his parents and shilu'ach ha-ken was tragically killed. Alternatively, he saw the tongue of [Rabbi] Chutzpit the meturgeman being dragged by a pig ("another thing," "davar acher," being a rabbinic euphemism for this paradigm of impurity). In earlier times, when a sage would teach Torah, he would speak in a soft voice to an assistant, known as the meturgeman, who would repeat the lesson in a loud voice for all to hear. Chutzpit was the spokesman for Rabban Gamliel the Nasi (Bekhorot 36a), and was one of the ten eminent sages killed by the Romans for publicly flouting their ban on Torah study; these sages are known as the Asara Harugei Malkhut (Ten Martyrs), and are memorialized in the liturgy of Yom Kippur and Tisha Be-Av. In the aftermath of the death of Chutzpit, Acher saw his disembodied tongue being dragged by a pig. This utter desecration of the holy man, and specifically the fact that the very organ that was the vehicle of his great contribution to the spreading of Torah met such a disgraceful end, led Acher to conclude that there is no Divine justice. Rav Yosef thus bemoans the fact that he was not able to come to the understanding promulgated by his grandson, Rabbi Ya'akov.

 

Because of Chutzpit's age, people asked the Emperor to spare him. Chutzpit asked the Emperor for one more day to live so he could do two more mitzvoth...saying the morning and evening Shema. The Emperor scoffed and said "If your God was going to save you He would have done so." Chutpit said "Woe to you, Emperor. You and your people will be held account for what you have done." The Emperor said, "I have had enough of this debating. Stone him and then hang him.''

 

 

 

 

 

Our 6th martyr is Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua. Rabbi Elazar Ben Shamua lived around 160 C.E., about 90 years after the destruction of the Second Temple (Tractate Avoda Zara 8b). He was also a student of the famed Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva, after losing all of his students in a deadly plague, for which we observe laws of mourning during the days between the holidays of Pesach and Shavuot, entrusted five scholars with the Torah he received from his own teachers: Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yose, Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Elazar Ben Shamua, who subsequently became his new students (Tractate Yevamoth 62b). The transmission of Torah to these five was a crucial link in the chain of the Mesorah; without them we would have lost the tradition of the Oral Torah. Rabbi Elazar was part of these same five when they received Semicha ordination from Rabbi Yehuda ben Bava, starting the tradition of one-on-one Semicha, without the need of a beth din.  Rabbi Yehuda ben Bava was then brutally executed by the government for doing so (Tractate Sanhedrin 14a).

 

Whenever the name Rabbi Elazar is mentioned in the Mishna and Beraisot (earlier sources cited in Talmud) it is referring to Rabbi Elazar Ben Shamua ( Tractate Shabbat 19b). He was the teacher of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the codifier of the Mishna. His students in general were known to be particularly knowledgeable (Yevamot 84a) and it is said that these students crowded six of themselves into one square amma (at most 2 feet) to hear his precious teachings.

 

He was a Cohan and lived a long life. He attributed his longevity to respect for the synagogue, respect for his students, and for always saying the prescribed blessing when he did the Cohan's service (Tractate Megilla 27b). He is actually known for saying, "The respect for your students should be as precious to you as your own respect…(Pirkei Avot, 4:12 and in some editions 4:15)." The Talmud in Eruvin 53a says he had a heart as big as the entrance hall to the Holy Temple.   Midrash Koheles 11:2 tells a fascinating story of how he saved the Jewish People with his care for a non-Jewish refugee.

 

The Midrash relates an interesting story about a Roman whose ship sank and he was washed up naked and helpless on the beach. The Jews, victims of Roman tyranny and persecution (the Romans destroyed the Second Temple), refused to help him. He pleaded to Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua in the name of human dignity to help him. Rabbi Elazar provided him with clothing, food, money, accompanied him for part of his way home, and gave him much honor. Sometime later, this Roman became the emperor and issued an edict of destruction against the Jews. Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua was sent to the emperor with a bribe of 4,000 dinars, hoping he would get the emperor to change his mind.  When the emperor recognized Rabbi Elazar, he jumped off his throne and bowed with his face to the ground before Rabbi Elazar. In the end, the emperor rescinded the decree and gave many gifts to Rabbi Elazar.

 

Eleazer ben Shammua or Eleazar I (Hebrew: אלעזר בן שמוע) was a Mishnaic teacher of the 4th generation, frequently cited in rabbinic writings without his patronymic (Ab. iv. 12; Giṭ. iii. 8, incorrectly "Eliezer"; compare Gemara Giṭ. 31b; Yer. Giṭ. iii. 45a, Mishnah and Gemara). He was of priestly descent (Meg. 27b; Soṭah 39a) and rich (Eccl. R. xi. 1), and acquired great fame as a teacher of traditional law.

 

Eleazer ben Shammua was a disciple of Akiba (Zeb. 93a, 110b), but owing to the Hadrianic proscriptions of Jewish observances, was not ordained by him. After Akiba's death, however, R. Judah ben Baba ordained Eleazar, together with Rabbi Meïr, Jose ben Ḥalafta, Judah bar Illai, and Simon bar Yoḥai, at a secluded spot between Usha and Shefar'am. The ordainer was detected in the act and brutally slain, but the ordained escaped, and eventually became the custodians and disseminators of Jewish tradition (Sanh. 13b; Ab. Zarah 8b). And the start of the tradition of one-on-one semikah without the need of a beth din, which lasts even now, begun.

 

Mention is made of a controversy between Eleazar and R. Meïr at Ardiska (Tosef., Naz. vi. 1;  ). He also maintained halakic discussions with R. Judah bar Illai and Rabbi Jose (  Zeb. v. 4, x. 10), and quite frequently with R. Simon bar Yoḥhai (Sheḳ. iii. 1; Yoma v. 7); but he never appeared with them at the sessions of the Sanhedrin at Usha. Hence it may be assumed that he did not return to the scene of his ordination. Wherever he settled, he presided over a college to which large numbers of students were attracted (Er. 53a; Yer. Yeb. viii. 9d; ]among whom are named Joseph or Issi ha-Babli (Zeb. ii. 17; Men. 18a), and the compiler of the Mishnah, R. Judah I ('Er. 53a); thus, while his name does not appear in rabbinic lore as often as the names of his colleagues at the ordination, Eleazar had an ineradicable influence on the development of the Talmud. Abba Arika styles him "the most excellent among the sages" (טובינא דחכימי, Ket. 40a; Giṭ. 26b), and R. Johanan expresses unbounded admiration for his large-heartedness (Er. 53a).

 

His Motto was Let the honor of thy pupil be as dear to thee as that of thy colleague; that of thy colleague, as the reverence of thy master; and the reverence of thy master, as that of the Most High

 

– Eleazer ben Shammua, Avot. iv. 12; Ab. Rab. Nathan. xxvii. 4

 

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His disciples once requested him to tell them whereby he merited unusual longevity, when he replied, "I have never converted the Synagogue into a passageway [for the sake of convenience]; have never trodden over the heads of the holy people [i.e., come late to college and stepped between the rows of attentive students], and have never pronounced the priestly blessing before offering the benediction preceding it" (Meg. 27b; Soṭah 39a). When asked what merits will save man from the tribulations which are to precede the Messianic epoch, he replied, "Let him engage in the study of the Law and in deeds of benevolence" (Sanh. 98b). According to Eleazar, children as well as pious adults share in the glory of God (Midr. Teh. xxii. 31). He also taught that the world rests on a single pillar, the name of which is Righteousness, as the Bible says (Prov. x. 25, Hebr.), "The righteous is the foundation of the world" (Ḥag. 12b).

 

The following anecdote concerning Eleazar is twice told in the Midrashim (Midrash Lev. Rabbah. xxiii. 4; R. Eleazar visited a certain place where he was invited to lead the people in prayer, but he avowed inability to do so. "What!" cried the astonished people; "is this the celebrated R. Eleazar? Surely he deserves not to be called 'Rabbi'!" Eleazar's face colored with shame, and he repaired to his teacher Akiba. "Why art thou so crestfallen?" inquired Akiba; whereupon Eleazar related his unpleasant experience. "Does my master wish to learn?" asked Akiba; and, on receiving Eleazar's affirmative answer, Akiba instructed him. Later, Eleazar again visited the scene of his mortification, and the people again requested him to lead them in prayer. This time he readily complied with their request, whereupon the people remarked, "R. Eleazar has become unmuzzled" (איטחסם, from חסם = "to muzzle"), and they called him "Eleazar Hasma" .

 

The hero of this anecdote is doubtless the subject of the present article, and not, as is generally assumed, Eleazar Ḥisma. The latter was never Akiba's pupil. Indeed, he was Akiba's senior, and in the account of a halakhic discussion between him and Eleazar ben Azariah and Akiba, his name precedes that of Akiba (Ned. vii. 2; Sifre, Deut. 16). Eleazar I was an acknowledged disciple of Akiba, and the Midrashim explicitly state that he "went to Akiba, his teacher."

 

Eleazer was 105 and was scheduled to day on Yom Kippur. His students asked him what he saw. He said he saw rabbis Judah ha Baba and Akiva arguing a point of law with Rabbi Ishmael moderating the debate. He said rabbi Akiva was winning because he poured his life's energy into Torah study. The execution concluded and a Heavenly voice said "Happy are you Rabbi Eleazer ben Shammua. Rure in your living,Pure in your going.(Sanhedrin 14a).

 

 

Our 7th martyred sage is Rabbi Hanina ben Hakinai aka Chanina ben Chakina. Hanina ben Hakinai or Hanania ben Hakinai (Hebrew: חנינא בן חכינאי) was a Tanna of the 2nd century; contemporary of Ben 'Azzai and Simon the Temanite (Tosef., Ber. iv. 18; see Ḥalafta). Sometimes he is cited without his prænomen (Sifra, Emor, vii. 11; Shab. 147b).

 

Who his early teachers were is not certainly known. From some versions of the Tosefta (l.c.) it appears that Tarfon was one of them, but that his regular teacher was R. Akiba. It is related that he took leave of his wife and attended Akiba 12 or 13 years without communicating with his family, whom he recovered in a remarkable way (Ket. 62b; Lev. R. xxi. 8). He was one of the few who, though not regularly ordained, were permitted to "argue cases before the sages" (דנין לפני חכמים: Sanh. 17b; comp. Yer. Ma'as. Sh. ii. 53d). Several halakot have been preserved in his name, owing their preservation to Eleazar b. Jacob II (Kil. iv. 8; Mak. iii. 9; Tosef., Ṭoh. vi. 3; Ḳid. 55b); and he also left some halakic midrashim (Sifra, Meẓora', v. 16; Sifra, Emor, vii. 11, comp. Shab. 110b; Men. 62b, comp. Sifra, Emor, xiii. 8).

 

Hananiah also delved into the "mysteries of the Creation," concerning which he consulted R. Akiba (Ḥag. 14b); and he appears as the author of several homiletic remarks. According to him, God's relation to distressed Israel is expressed in Solomon's words (Prov. xvii. 17): "A brother is born for adversity"; by "brother" is understood "Israel," for it is elsewhere said (Ps. cxxii. 8): "For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee" (Yalḳ., Ex. 233; comp. Mek., Beshallaḥ, iii.). With reference to Lev. v. 21 (vi. 2) ("If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbor," etc.), he remarks, "No man lies [acts dishonestly] against his fellow man unless he first becomes faithless to God" (Tosef., Shebu. iii. 6). From a comparatively late date comes the statement that Hananiah b. Ḥakinai was one of the "ten martyrs" .

 

When he was taken to be killed at the age of 95 on Friday late afternoon, his students offered him some food. He said that since he was 12, he fasted all Friday so he could enjoy the Erev Shabbat meal. He began to recite the Shabbat prayers as sun down was approaching but the Romans killed him. A Heavenly voice shouted : Happy are you Hananiah. In holiness you lived and in holiness you died! "

 

 

Our 8th martyred sage is Yesheivav the Scribe.  When he was lead out to be slain his students asked "What will become of Torah?'' He said that Israel is destined to forget it, as there is no street in the Roman Empire that does not or will not have the blood of innocent Jews. They asked "What will happen to us?'' Yesheivav answered : Strengthen one another, love peace and justice and there will be hope for you." The Emperor asked Yesheivav how old he was. " I am 90 years old and from my mother's womb I was destined to be handed over to you. But your fate is sealed as well!'' The Emperor said 'Kill this one and let's see the power of his God.'' And they burned him alive.

 

Our 9th martyred sage is Rabbi Yehuda ben Damah . He was due to die on Shavuot. He asked the Emperor to delay for one day so he could pray and celebrate this giving of the Torah. The Emperor said he was a fool be believing in his God and an afterlife. Yahuda retorted with that the Emperor was a fool for denying God. The Emperor, now angry, ordered that Yahuda be dragged by a horse tied to his hair thru the streets of Rome. The Yahuda was torn limb by limb. Elijah came and gathered all of Yehuda's body and buried them in a cave near the Tiber River in Rome.

 

Our tenth and last martyred rabbi is Rabbi Judah ben Baba. As we discussed he started the tradition of one-on-one semikah, from one rabbi to another new rabbi. Ordination was illegal by Roman decree. As soon as he finished granting semikah to these 5 rabbis who would carry on Talmudic Judaism, the Romans found him. He blocked them from attacking the 5 new rabbis, who ran, and Judah stood fast, while the Romans killed him with 300 spears.

 

A section from Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 14a) tells the story of Rabbi Judah Ben Baba which relates to this site. This Rabbi defied the orders of the Romans to avoid ordinating (=giving a degree of a Rabbi) to others. These orders  followed the second revolt against the Romans (131-135 AD: Bar-Kochva), and his act resulted in his death by the Romans, but helped to continue the Jewish leadership during these tragic days.

 

 "... because once the wicked Government, decreed that whoever performed an ordination should be put to death, and whoever received ordination should he put to death, the city in which the ordination took place demolished, and the boundaries wherein it had been performed, uprooted. What did R. Judah b. Baba do? He went and sat between two great mountains, between two large cities; between the Sabbath boundaries of the cities of Usha and Shefaram and there ordained five elders: R. Meir, R. Judah, R. Simeon, R. Jose and R. Eliezer b. Shamua'. R. Awia adds also R. Nehemia in the list. As soon as their enemies discovered them he urged them: 'My children, flee.' They said to him, 'What will become of thee, Rabbi?' 'I lie before them like a stone which none overturn, he replied. It was said that the enemy did not stir from the spot until they had driven three hundred iron spear-heads into his body, making it like a sieve".

Rabbi Judah ben Baba was a rabbi in the second century who ordained a number of rabbis at a time when the Roman government forbade this ceremony. The penalty was execution for the ordainer and the new rabbis. The rabbis ordained by Rabbi Judah ben Baba include Judah ben Ilai. Rabbi Judah ben Baba was killed by Hadrian's soldiers at the age of seventy, and is known as one of the Ten Martyrs.

 

Rabbi Judah ben Baba is the subject of many sayings and legends. He was known as "the Ḥasid," and it is said that wherever the Talmud speaks of "the Chasid," it is a reference either to him or to Judah ben Ilai.

 

He authored several decisions in the Halakah, including the ruling that one witness to the death of the husband is sufficient to justify permitting the wife to marry again .Rabbi Akiva was his most powerful opponent in halakic disputes .

 

May their names be for an every lasting blessing.

 

Shalom:

Rabbi Arthur Segal

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notes from on Wiki, online Encyclopedia Judaica, online Chabad, and my own Talmud and Midrash study