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Akiva ben Joseph (Mishnaic Hebrew: עֲקִיבָא בֶּן יוֹסֵף, ʿĂqīḇāʾ ben Yōsēp̄; c. 50 – 28 September 135 CE), also known as Rabbi Akiva (רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא), was a leading Jewish scholar and sage, a tanna of the latter part of the first century and the beginning of the second century.
Akiva, Hammer notes, was the first rabbi to assert that the Torah in its entirety (not just the Ten Commandments) came directly from heaven. His methodology in interpreting the Torah was highly meticulous and detailed; one legend relates that the reason God placed “crowns” on the letters of the Torah , a calligraphic detail, was so that ...
Rabbi Akiva was one of the most prolific and inspiring teachers of Judaism, who formed a crucial link in the chain of transmission of Jewish tradition that began with Moses and continues to this very day.
- He Started as a Poor Shepherd. The descendant of converts to Judaism, Akiva began as a poor and ignorant shepherd tending the flocks of Kalba Savua, one of the wealthiest men in Jerusalem in the waning years of the Second Temple.
- His Father-in-Law Disowned Him. When Kalba Savua caught wind of Rachel’s choice, he swore that the young couple would not benefit from his wealth, and they started their home in a barn filled with straw and little else.
- He Left Home for 24 Years. Despite their meager means, Rachel wholeheartedly encouraged Akiva to leave home for 24 years to study Torah in yeshivah at the feet of Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua.
- A Water-Worn Rock Inspired Him at Age 40. Forty years old and entirely unlearned, Akiva observed how the water of a well had eroded a stone and arrived at the following conclusion: If the soft water can carve the hard stone, the solid words of Torah can surely penetrate my mind.
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Akiva ben Yosef (born 40 ce —died c. 135, Caesarea, Palestine [now in Israel]) was a Jewish sage, a principal founder of rabbinic Judaism. He introduced a new method of interpreting Jewish oral law (Halakha), thereby laying the foundation of what was to become the Mishna, the first postbiblical written code of Jewish law.
- Nahum N. Glatzer
Rabbi Akiva was a Tanna, one of the initial teachers of the Mishna in the 1 st and 2 nd century of the Common Era. During the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE), sages under the leadership of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai fled to Yavneh to establish an academy of Torah learning. Rabbi Yochanan passed the leadership to Rabban Gamliel.
Rabbi Akiva and his disciples died because they were a threat to new religions. They were not Israel’s military because they lived as scholars, sages, and students, therefore they were supposed to flee or escape the revolt not “surrender or die” as human sacrifice.
