AKIBA.
Jacob, admonished by Mann, bantered by Henri, lectured by his former
guardian, and opposed by Bartold, had, nevertheless, commenced his
apostleship. He essayed to group around him the youth of Israel, for
the old men were against all reform.
The most polished and the best educated did not like to recall their
origin, nor to hear of the religion of their fathers. This was
grievous. The disciples did not appear; all minds were absorbed in the
revolutionary movement. Jacob's activity became more and more
circumscribed. His co-religionists avoided him; but in spite of this
abandonment, in spite of his isolation, he still clung to his ideas. He
hoped to convince by his example, and to gain followers when calm
should succeed the present political agitation and society regain its
normal condition.
He was sadly afflicted to see the irreligion of the youth of Israel,
irreligion much more widespread than he had at first supposed. In the
desert around him any mark of sympathy would naturally move him, touch
him, and console him, and Muse profited by these circumstances.
She put herself in possession of Jacob's ideas, procured the books
recommended, and reading the ones he lent her, learned some things,
guessed more, and thus armed, went forth to combat with fair chances of
victory. Madame Wtorkowska had adroitly seized the opportunity of
drawing nearer him whom she already called, to herself, her son-in-law.
She took possession of the first story of a house of which the Jew
occupied the second. As there was nothing easier to ascertain than when
the recluse was at home, they sent to his rooms under pretext of
returning books or to ask the loan of new ones. Then they begged him to
come down to them. They also met him often on the stairs.
Emusia became a fervent and intelligent disciple, and the apostle felt
more and more flattered by this adhesion.
"Would you believe it," said she one evening to her mother, "the fool
imagines that I am nearly ready to embrace Judaism, while in reality
his Bible and his Talmud, with all their silly old legends and their
stupid stories, weary me dreadfully."
"Do you believe that the idea of marriage has entered his head?"
"Bah! I will put it there when I wish."
"In that case you had better do it as soon as possible."
"I am awaiting a favourable opportunity. With this man it is not the
senses, but the heart, on which we must count, and we must not be in
haste. Be tranquil, I lie in wait for the moment."
"How do you watch for it? Flirting with Henri? God knows that if you
were only safely married to Jacob I would not care how much you saw of
Henri; but as you are not, I think these badinages are very ill-timed
and take your mind off the principal business."
"I know what I am doing, mamma; the best tactics with Jacob are to
proceed slowly. If we try to hasten matters we may lose all."
"Well, work it your own way."
This phrase always terminated the altercations between Muse and her
mother.
The young girl's calculation was not destitute of judgment. Jacob did
not love her, but he was becoming accustomed to her. As for the thought
of marriage, it had never entered his head. His heart was filled with
Mathilde, this fading flower that charmed him more each day. One thing
only drew him to Emusia; it was the fervour that she manifested for the
Bible and the Hebrew traditions, nothing more.
The mother did not altogether approve her daughter's plans, and
shrugged her shoulders, saying:--
"If he escapes we are lost."
"Oh, no! It is not my Waterloo. I have not staked all on him. I have
still the stage," said she laughing; and she continued to simulate an
ardent admiration for the Jew and his doctrines, while at the bottom
she detested them all. With Henri, on the contrary, full of familiarity
and enjoyment, she was in her element.
The better to insinuate herself in Jacob's good graces, she flattered
his mania by suggesting to him the thought of giving lectures on
Judaism. He fell into the trap with enthusiasm, in spite of the
obstacles which he knew he would encounter. His friends, under one
pretext or another, refused to give their houses for this edifying
purpose. At last Bartold, against his will, but for friendship's sake,
put his at the Jew's disposition.
Israelites alone were invited. The only exceptions were Madame
Wtorkowska and her daughter, as was very natural. Many Jews, for fear
of being accused of superstition and ridicule, excused themselves at
the last moment, feigning indisposition.
The room was large and commodious. It had no Jewish features, for the
master of the house lived in European style, although without luxury.
Ostentation was nowhere to be seen in the dwelling of this descendant
of Levi, who, with all his boasting of his biblical nobility, was
really an honest and a modest man and a good Polish citizen.
That evening Madame Bartold had put her children to bed at an early
hour. She was dressed in good taste, and took great care that nothing
should be wanting in any direction.
The ladies were in the minority,--Madame Wtorkowska, Emusia, Mathilde,
and two others. Among the men were missing Mann and Mathilde's father,
who thought all this Hebrew nonsense the issue of a diseased
imagination. Kruder was there, for he desired admittance to all
reunions. Ivas also, and Wilk, who sought everywhere converts to the
revolutionary cause. Henri had come, ostensibly to escort his wife, but
really to converse freely with Muse. He often visited her; but her
mother was always present, and she frequently took advantage of his
attentions to her daughter to borrow money of the gallant visitor,
whose passion disposed him to pecuniary sacrifices.
At nine o'clock the room was full. Madame Bartold, crimson with
fatigue, and redder still with timidity, sought to give every one a
seat.
On a table loaded with books was a carafe of water, a glass, and some
sugar. All awaited the lecturer.
They commenced by serving tea to the company; then Jacob appeared. A
solemn silence indicated that his audience was prepared to listen
attentively. Not being accustomed to speaking in public, he looked
around him, and commenced in a weak and hesitating voice, which
gradually grew stronger.
"Ladies and Gentlemen: It is not without apprehension that as a Jew I
present myself before Jews, many of whom blush for their origin; before
Jews who know the history of France and England better than their own
history; before Jews who know more of Sanscrit literature than of the
Bible. From all sides we have been reproached for our spirit of
retirement and of separation. We have been constrained to it, and the
fault was not with us. How much more justly could men to-day make the
merited reproach of our having ceased to be ourselves, and of losing
our own identity without identifying ourselves with others. We are here
in continual antagonism with the country we inhabit, to which many ties
should unite us. It appears that even that does not suffice us, and we
have divorced ourselves from our own past.
"It is this past, with its poetry, that I would recall to you; for the
time has come to appreciate it, and I wish to show you some of its
characteristic beauties.
"Without culling here and there detached fragments of this treasure, I
prefer to relate to you the entire life of a man who holds a place in
sacred and legendary history. My hero is the celebrated Akiba.
"Akiba was so poor in his youth that he served as a shepherd for the
wealthy Kalba Chaboua. He became enamoured of his master's daughter,
and this love was the source of his wisdom. The young girl responded to
the tender sentiment, but she made it the spur of an intelligence of
which she had divined the value and the extent.
"'If you wish me to marry you,' said she, 'you must promise to devote
your life to science.'
"Akiba promised, and they were married clandestinely. Kalba Chaboua
discovered the secret, disowned his daughter, and drove them from his
house. They wandered a long time without shelter, sleeping at night
under the open sky. For a bed they had only a small bundle of straw,
and tradition relates that one morning the beautiful black hair of the
young woman was full of straws. Akiba drew them out gently, and
lamented their hard fate.
"'Dearest,' said he tenderly, 'if I could I would give thee rich
garments, and I would hang on thy neck a golden Jerusalem,'--an
ornament which represented the city of Jerusalem, and which was much
worn among the Jewish women.
"As he said the words he was accosted by a beggar clothed in rags.
"'Have pity on me,' cried he, 'and give me a handful of straw to put
under my wife's head. She is sick, and lying over there on the cold
ground.'
"Akiba gave the poor man what he demanded.
"'Behold,' said he, 'an unfortunate still more wretched than
ourselves!'
"Akiba, in order to keep his promise to his wife, decided, in spite of
his repugnance, to enter the school of Nakhum Gamsu. He was obliged to
leave his wife, who entered service, and never ceased during the twelve
years that separated them to write her husband encouraging letters,
completely forgetting her own discomforts.
"One day, pensive and sad, Akiba followed a solitary path. A little
brook attracted his attention. The water had pierced a rock by gradual
dropping, and flowed gently through.
"'If drops of water,' remarked the future sage, 'have such power, what
force will not then the human will have.'
"He presented himself before his teachers without weakness and without
false shame. He commenced with the letters of the alphabet, and in his
free moments he gathered wood and sold the fagots in the market-place.
Half of his earnings fed him, the other half clothed and lodged him.
"Akiba soon astonished his masters. From a scholar he became an eminent
professor. Thousands of disciples grouped around him.
"During this time his wife waited. A wicked neighbour insinuated that
he had abandoned her and would never return.
"'It was I,' replied the wife, 'twelve years ago, who begged him to
leave me and devote himself to science. If he prolong his studies
twelve years longer, it will be well.'
"Akiba heard of this advice, given indirectly, and profited by it.
After the lapse of this time he returned to his native place. His
renown had preceded him. All the population turned out to see him, and
his wife was in the crowd. The wicked neighbour asked her how she dared
present herself in rags before such an illustrious man.
"'My husband knows my heart,' replied she simply. Before she was
perceived, she ran out and threw herself at his feet. The pupils of
Akiba would have repulsed her, but he said:--
"'Let her come to me. She is my wife, and it is to her that you and I
owe much.'
"Kalba Chaboua at last forgave his daughter and his son-in-law, and
received them into his house.
"Akiba had two remarkable teachers,--Eliezer and Nahum. The former was
called the sealed vase, for he never lost a drop of acquired science.
The latter, subtle and penetrating, shone by the fineness of his
analysis. Their pupil united to the erudition of the one the critical
spirit of the other.
"When he commenced his teaching the Jews had many traditions
accumulated for ages and transmitted orally. He collected and wrote
them down, accompanying them with commentaries intended to reconcile
the legends with the sacred writings. He founded a school which
attracted universal admiration.
"At the epoch when he lived religious spirit fermented; by the side of
the philosophical sects of Greece, Christianity developed; Gnosticism
grafted its poetical reveries on monotheism, and differences
multiplied.
"Many Jews were converted to the gospel under one form or another.
Akiba remained faithful to the Mosaic belief. He was so profoundly
absorbed in the mystery of the divine essence, that the angels wished
to chastise him for his presumption in wishing to know all, to
penetrate all. God restrained the wrath of these messengers, and said
to them:--
"'He is worthy of meditating on my grandeur.'
"Devout as was Akiba, he excelled in modern science. He destroyed by
his criticisms many things which his contemporaries called miraculous,
rejected the prodigious pretensions credited by superstition, and was
pleased to demonstrate the immutability of the laws of nature.
* * * * *
"Contrary to the other rabbis, he rejected the belief in eternal
punishment. One day, when travelling, having with him a cock and an
ass, he arrived at a village, and went in vain from door to door asking
hospitality.
"'God doeth all things well,' said he. This was his favourite saying.
Then he entered a deep forest, where he sought by the light of his
lantern a place to repose. The wind put out his light, and he lay down
repeating, 'God doeth all things well.' Just then a wild-cat strangled
his cock and a wolf came and tore his ass in pieces; still Akiba
repeated 'God doeth all things well.'
"In reality, though he had met these misfortunes he had saved his life,
which had been surely lost had he slept in the village. His humility
and confidence in God were his chief characteristics.
"Once Akiba appeared in great spirits at the bedside of a dying man who
lamented his approaching end, and whose friends were weeping around his
bed. When asked the cause of his gayety,--
"'There is no man without sin,' said he, 'and I am rejoiced that this
one has expiated his during his life.'
"Another time it was a wise man who was tortured with frightful pains.
Three old savants, his friends, came to console him, and spoke in
praise of his wisdom.
"'Science,' said the first, 'is more useful to Israel than the dew to
the earth. The dew gives the earth temporary life, wisdom prepares the
soul for eternal life.'
"'Wisdom,' continued the second, 'is more necessary than the light of
the sun. The one guides us here below, the other conducts us to
heaven.'
"Then the third spoke thus:--
"'You have been to Israel more than a father and a mother. Our parents
give us earthly life; you, the life celestial.'
"When Akiba's turn came to speak, he said simply:--
"'It is sweet to suffer here below.'
"'Raise me up,' cried the dying man; 'I wish to hear the second time
these words, for they comfort me.'
"Akiba deemed suffering salutary for individuals and for nations. He
compared Israel, stained with blood by Vespasian and his successors, to
a white horse adorned with purple reins. He was not over-scrupulous in
religious observances. His prayers were short. He wore his usual simple
garments on holy days, notwithstanding the biblical command to array
one's self with particular care.
"'God,' said he, 'will more readily pardon sins committed against
himself than evil done a neighbour. The Israelite owes justice not only
to the Israelites, but to the pagans.'
"He loved to discuss morals under anecdotal form. Here is a specimen of
his method:--
"Two men were in the midst of a desert. They had only water enough for
one. What ought they to do? To share the water was certain death to
both. 'That is not the solution of the dilemma,' added Akiba; 'one must
sacrifice himself for the other, that one, at least, should live.'
"In advance of his times, the sage had a profound respect for human
life, and he was one of the first opponents of the death penalty.
"Having become rich, thanks to his father-in-law, he was a benefactor
to the poor and a promoter of all charitable associations.
"'Whoever,' he used to say, 'does not relieve a sick person, when it is
in his power to do so, is an assassin.'
"The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple did not weaken Akiba's
faith in divine justice. While Israel wept over the smoking ruins of
the holy city, he smiled and predicted a brighter future. He always
taught resignation to the divine will. But incessant persecutions
aroused in him a violent irritation against the Romans, and a thirst
for martyrdom. He lived in an epoch when the Jews were most
unfortunate. Domitian continued the horrors of Vespasian and of Titus.
They struck blows on all sides, and sought particularly a descendant of
David, of whom popular rumour proclaimed the existence, and who
intended, it was said, to avenge Israel's woes.
"Akiba converted many Romans to the Hebrew monotheism, Flavius Clemens,
a relative of the emperor, was put to death for having embraced this
doctrine, and his wife was, for the same reason, condemned to exile.
After the death of this Caesar, Israel breathed again during the two
years' reign of Nerva and during the first ten years of the reign of
Trajan; but they paid dearly for this short respite. The Jews of Syria,
of Mesopotamia, of Armenia and Persia, took arms in favour of the
Parthians, and drew on themselves the wrath of Rome, whose soldiers
massacred them in great numbers. They soon took up arms again upon the
Euphrates, and revolted at Cyprus and in Egypt. New persecutions and
repressions followed under the reign of Adrian.
"Akiba, a man of science, was changed by these troubles into a man of
action. He travelled over the different parts of the empire to prepare
a general uprising. He entered into relations with Simon, or Bar
Kokhba, called the child of destiny when he was in the height of his
prosperity, the child of lies after he had lost his fortune.
"This Simon, intrepid, daring, and of attractive manner, had with his
majestic height all the qualities required for the leader of an
insurrection. He pleased Akiba, who proclaimed him Messiah. The title
attracted thousands of volunteers, for the idea of a deliverer sent by
God was attached to the name of Messiah. Simon admitted to the ranks of
his army only the strong and vigorous, many of whom were able to tear a
large tree from the earth with their hands. Full of a confidence which
he communicated to others, Bar Kokhba often addressed to God this
strange prayer:--
"'If thou dost not wish to come to my aid, at least do not favour my
foes; for if thou dost not support them I will vanquish them.'
"To excessive presumption he owed his ultimate defeat after many
brilliant triumphs. The Roman governor of Palestine was completely
routed. Fifty cities or towns and nine hundred and eighty-five villages
fell into the power of the insurgents. Established at Bitar, Bar Kokhba
made that city his capital, fortified it, and coined money in his own
name. Adrian was troubled. The Jews everywhere refused to pay taxes. He
sent to Britain for one of his most able lieutenants, Julius Severus.
Severus advised patience; he attacked the Jews by detachments, and
finished by surrounding Bitar, whose inhabitants he reduced to famine.
Bar Kokhba defended his city until death.
"It is sad to remember that this valiant chief soiled his life by an
unpardonable act. During the siege, the wise Eliezer, Akiba's teacher,
gave himself up to fasting and prayer. This contemplative life in the
midst of general activity was called treasonable; the Messiah ordered
him put to death, and the devout scholar was killed. It is estimated
that a half-million of Israelites lost their lives in this formidable
revolt. After the combat the fugitives were pitilessly pursued. Many
died of hunger in the forests and caverns, the survivors nourished
themselves on the corpses of their brothers, and those who fell into
the power of the Romans were massacred or sold as slaves. Adrian
renewed the edict of Trajan, forbidding the Jews to perform their
religious rites or to teach their faith. All literature that might
maintain or propagate the national sentiments was suppressed. Jerusalem
was peopled with Romans, and on the site of the Temple of Solomon arose
a temple to Jupiter, adorned with his statue. They even changed the
name of the violated city, calling it [OE]lia Capitolina, from the name
[OE]lius. The Jews were forbidden to stay there, or even to enter. At
the gate which led to Bethlehem the head of a pig was exposed as a
permanent insult.
"After the peace, Akiba was not immediately molested in spite of his
participation in the insurrection,--a moral participation, perhaps, but
very efficacious. He continued, contrary to the imperial edict, to
explain the holy books. He was soon arrested, on the order of that same
Rufus who had conquered the 'child of destiny,' and who was the new
governor of Judea. The old man was shut up in a dark dungeon, and his
only nourishment was bread and water. Instead of drinking this water he
used it for the ablutions prescribed by the law. He was condemned to
torture and to death. In the midst of the most excruciating sufferings,
when the hour of prayer, called Chema, arrived, he began to recite in a
loud voice. The executioner was astonished, and asked him if he had
charms to banish his pains.
"'I have no charms,' replied he calmly; 'but I have always desired to
offer God the sacrifice of my life. My wish is granted, and I rejoice.'
"He continued his prayer, and reaching the words, 'There is but one
God,' gave up the ghost."