[Illustration: _GEORGE JACOB HOROWITZ (born in New York, 1894),
educated in the Public Schools of New York, College of the City of New
York (A. B. 1915), Talmud Torah, and Teachers' Institute of Jewish
Theological Seminary; President (1915) of Menorah Society of City
College of New York; now a graduate student in Romance Languages at
Columbia._]
AKIBA ben Joseph, deservedly called the father of Rabbinical Judaism,
was one of the most original and the most talented of all the great
galaxy of ancient Rabbis. In him was typified the great ideal of a
Jewish Rabbi--a man of heart, of hand, and of head. But Akiba is still
more remarkable for the charm and romance of his life. He is indeed
the one Rabbi with a great romance. The story of his life, stripped of
all exaggeration or literary artifice, reads more like a tale of
"knight and lady" than like the simple facts of a scholar's life. His
great love, his sudden rise from the humblest obscurity, his brilliant
intellectual and spiritual achievements, and his glorious death, make
up the successive scenes of one of the most inspiring chapters in
Jewish history.
_His Youth and Romantic Marriage_
AKIBA was born about the year 50, at a time when the Roman Empire at
its height was about to turn all its mighty forces against his people,
the little state of Judea; and he died a martyr to his faith, in about
the year 132, on the eve of the last great rebellion against Roman
domination. His origin and early years are shrouded in darkness. We
know that he was an unlettered shepherd in his youth and mistrustful
of Rabbis and their learning. His master, Kalba Sabua--so the story
goes--was one of the richest men in Jerusalem, one of the three
wealthy philanthropists who offered to prevent the famine occasioned
by the last great siege of Jerusalem.
While in the service of Kalba Sabua, young Akiba made the acquaintance
of his daughter Rachel. They were immediately drawn to one another, he
attracted by her great beauty, and she by his innate refinement and
superiority. A deep attachment soon sprang up between them. Akiba was
still an illiterate man, however, and Rachel made him promise that if
she were betrothed unto him he would go to the Beth Hamidrash to
study. In those days this was equivalent to acquiring education and
culture. To this Akiba assented and there followed a secret marriage.
When her father learned of what she had done, he became furious. He
disinherited her, and cast her off, leaving her without a roof over
her head and absolutely penniless, and he swore that as long as Akiba
remained her husband she would receive no help from her father. Then
set in a period of bitter poverty for the young pair. Akiba's heart
was rent with pain to see his young wife, who had been accustomed from
earliest youth to a home of luxury, pass her days in a miserable
hovel, with the barest necessities and sometimes even lacking bread to
eat. In winter they slept on a pallet and Akiba would pick the straws
out of her wonderfully long and beautiful hair. She was beautiful even
in her rags and tatters, and once Akiba was moved to exclaim: "Oh,
that I had a fitting ornament for thee: a golden image of Jerusalem
the Holy City!" Both indeed were nearest his heart. Once a man came to
the door of their hut and asked for some straw, saying that his wife
was confined to child-bed and he had no couch for her. "Ah, see," said
Akiba to his wife, "there are those even poorer than we. This man has
not even straw to lie on." This seeming poor man, the Rabbis say, was
none other than Elijah, who had come to comfort them in their misery.
_Struggles and Sacrifices for an Education_
THE incident did indeed give them new heart, for until then Akiba
could not summon enough resolution to go off and study while his wife
remained behind in such abject circumstances. Nor could she insist.
But now her old strength came back to her, and she reminded Akiba of
his promise: "Go thou, and study in the Beth-Hamidrash." She must have
felt undoubtedly that there were great possibilities in him, and in
truth she was not mistaken. Akiba, however, in his modesty, had no
confidence that he could master the intricate subtleties of Rabbinic
law. How could he, who had now reached forty years of age without once
attending even an elementary school, hope to make any progress at all
so late in life? One day, musing thus, as he stood by the village
well, his interest was suddenly roused by observing that one of the
stones had a deep hollow, caused probably by the drippings of the
buckets. "Who hollowed out this stone?" he asked; and he was answered:
"Canst thou not read Scripture, Akiba? 'The waters wear the
stones,'--the water, that falls on it continually day after day, has
hollowed out the stone." Immediately Akiba argued _a fortiori_ (Kal
Vahomer) with respect to himself. "If what is soft can cut what is
hard, then the words of the Torah, which are as hard as iron, will
surely impress themselves upon my heart, which is only flesh and
blood." So Akiba repaired forthwith to a _Melammed Tinokoth_, a
teacher of children, and, seated beside his own little son, he began
learning his letters. Akiba held one end of the A. B. C. board and his
son the other.
The elements once mastered, the next step was the Rabbinical academy.
Bitter poverty, however, would not permit Akiba to leave home, and he
would probably have remained in his little village for the rest of his
life, an obscure and unknown man, if it were not for his wife. It was
her noble self-sacrifice that enabled him to become the greatest Rabbi
of his time and perhaps of all time. Unknown to him, she stole out
into the market-place and sold all that beautiful hair of hers, so
that he might continue his studies. Indeed no sacrifice, no
self-abnegation, was too great for her. She sent Akiba away and for
twelve long years dwelt alone in sorrow and in want, a "living widow,"
and at the end of that period she crowned it with a renewal of the
same great sacrifice. As Akiba was crossing the threshold, home again
after twelve years of study, he overheard Rachel talking with a
neighbor. "It served thee right," said the neighbor, "for marrying a
man so far beneath thee. Now he has gone off and forsaken thee." "If
he hearkened to me," was Rachel's reply, "he would stay away another
twelve years." At these words Akiba exclaimed: "Since she gives me
permission, I will go back to my studies,"--and he went and stayed
away another twelve years. Such was the noble renunciation of Rachel,
wife of Rabbi Akiba, for his sake and for the sake of the Torah.
_Akiba's Rise to Recognition and Fame_
AKIBA studied assiduously at the schools of R. Nahum of Geniso and of
R. Eliezer and R. Joshua, both renowned teachers, who in their youth
had been favorite pupils of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai. It is
illuminating to consider Akiba's general method of study. He had the
habit, the Talmud tells us, of going alone to meditate over every
Halakah (law) that he learned. After this bit of hard thinking, as we
would call it, he usually came back with some very difficult
questions. Only when these questions were answered did he feel
satisfied that he knew the Halakah. That this thorough method of study
bore fruitful results Akiba's subsequent achievements showed. At
first, however, his genius was not evident and R. Eliezer paid no
attention to him. But one day Akiba gave him his first answer and R.
Eliezer was astounded at its profundity. Said R. Joshua then to R.
Eliezer, in a slightly modified Scriptural phrase, "Is not this he
whom thou hast despised? Go thou now and contend with him." From that
time on Akiba was acknowledged a master of Rabbinic law.
All that confused mass of traditional rules, precepts, laws,
discussions and opinions which composed the Oral Law, and which it
usually took a lifetime to master, Akiba made his own within the space
of a few years, and at an age when the mind is no longer fresh and
impressionable. Akiba's genius showed itself even more brilliantly in
his subsequent labors in the same field, which were marked by three
great achievements. These were his arrangement of the Oral Law into a
systematic code, the Mishnah (substantially as later edited by R.
Judah Ha-Nasi), his establishment of a logical foundation for each
Halakah, and his discovery and formulation of new and original methods
of hermeneutics and exegesis. To appreciate the magnitude of these
achievements, we must remember that up to and for some time after
Akiba's day, instruction in the rabbinical academies was oral. Each
teacher taught, as well as he could recall, exactly what he had heard
from the lips of his master, and his pupils in their turn did
likewise. Every great Rabbi therefore had his own set of Halakic
traditions, his own Mishnah.
The results of this system or rather lack of system were mainly two:
the reasons for many of the Halakoth were forgotten, and of the laws
that were taught an immense number were uncoordinated, confused and
often contradictory. The greatest fault, however, of these early
Mishnayoth (Mishnayoth Rishonoth) was their general lack of
arrangement. The Halakoth were usually strung together without
connection and without any logical grouping. It was Akiba who first
organized them into an orderly system. He put all the Halakoth dealing
with one particular subject in one group, and then he divided the
groups into the six general divisions that our Mishnah has today.
Besides this he introduced number mneumonics wherever possible, in
order to facilitate memorization. The second work that we owe to
Akiba's influence is the Tosephta or Supplement to the Mishnah, as
later edited by his pupil R. Nehemiah. Akiba's purpose in this
Supplement was to give explanatory matter on the Halakoth of the
Mishnah in the form of citations of cases, discussions, and opinions.
Here there was more room for originality than in the first work, for
when the reason for any law had been forgotten Akiba discovered it
again.
_"The Third Founder of Judaism after Moses and Ezra"_
THE achievement, however, in which Akiba's mind revealed itself in all
its brilliant originality, and which more than anything else delighted
and astonished his colleagues, was his new system of Biblical, or
rather Pentateuchal, interpretation, his Midrash ha-Torah. The
importance of these new methods cannot be overestimated. The Oral Law
is nothing more than the Jewish interpretation of the Torah, and
consequently new methods of Pentateuchal exegesis meant the further
growth and development of the Oral Law. Akiba thus gave Judaism the
capacity for vigorous further development. He was indeed a firm
believer in the principle that the Oral Law, even as life itself, is
always in process of evolution--"immer in Werden," as the Germans put
it--but never completed. His main exegetical principle is quite
simple. The language of the Torah is not like the language of an
ordinary book. In the Torah every syllable, every letter is fraught
with meaning. It is all essence. Hence every detail in the Torah must
be interpreted. There is absolutely nothing superfluous. It was these
exegetical methods that excited the unbounded admiration of his
fellow-rabbis. They said of him that things that were not even
revealed to Moses were revealed unto Akiba. By his preservation of the
old Halakoth in the Mishnah and by his stimulation of newer
developments with his exegesis, Akiba laid the foundations of Talmudic
and Rabbinic learning, and truly earned for himself the title of third
founder of Judaism after Moses and Ezra.
Akiba's method of teaching also was extraordinary. The order and
system that he had brought into the Rabbinic curriculum coupled with
his novel methods of exegesis rendered his lectures clear, simple and
most interesting. Multitudes flocked to hear him. With hardly an
exception all the prominent Rabbis of the following generation
attended Akiba's academy. Notable amongst them was R. Meir, who handed
down Akiba's Mishnah to R. Judah Ha-Nasi and through him to posterity.
_Happiness and Affluence_
TOWARDS the end of the twenty-four years thus devoted to study, Akiba
turned his steps homewards, accompanied by a large band of disciples,
which tradition numbers in the thousands. At the rumor that a great
Rabbi was coming, Rachel's heart was all aflutter with hope and
expectation. Perhaps it was he at last! The whole village went out to
meet him, she with the rest. When she saw that it was indeed he, she
fell on her knees before him sobbing and began kissing his feet. The
pupils surrounding Akiba wanted to push her aside, but he said, "Let
her be. What knowledge I possess and what knowledge you possess
belongs to her." When Kalba Sabua heard that a great Rabbi had come to
town, not dreaming that it was his son-in-law, he made up his mind to
go to him and have his vow absolved, for at the sight of his
daughter's misery his heart had softened, and but for his vow he would
long since have taken her back. He came to the Rabbi and the Rabbi
said to him, "If thou hadst known that her husband would one day be a
great scholar, wouldst thou have vowed?" "If he knew even one chapter
or even one Halakah, I would not have vowed," was the reply. "I am
he," said Akiba simply. At these words Kalba Sabua stared in
amazement, and then fell at his feet and begged pardon for all his
past unkindness towards both Akiba and Rachel. To make more
substantial amends he gave them half his fortune and they lived in
comfort ever after. The affluence in which Akiba henceforth lived,
contrasted with the poverty of his student days when he used to cut
wood for a living, is thus quaintly described in the Talmud: "When he
was a student Akiba used to fetch a bundle of wood every day. Half he
sold for food and half for clothing. But before Akiba departed from
this world, he had tables of silver and of gold, and he climbed into
his bed on golden ladders." His wife too had the satisfaction of
receiving from him and wearing the "Golden Jerusalem," that Akiba had
wished he could give her in the days of their poverty. Indeed the
magnificence of Rachel's jewels called forth a protest on the part of
the students of Akiba's academy. "Thou hast put us to shame before our
wives," they said, "for our wives do not possess any such precious
ornaments." "Ah, yes," said Akiba, "but she has suffered much with me
in the Torah."
_Akiba's Virile Ethics and Philosophy_
AKIBA'S philosophical speculations were no less famous than his
Halakic activities. Just about this time all sorts of hybrid religions
made up of decadent Greek philosophy and of dying Pagan creeds were in
vogue--the various forms of Gnosticism. Christianity--Jewish
Gnosticism, that is--was only one of the many perversions that Judaism
had to combat. These religions exercised a particular fascination
because they dealt largely in esoteric doctrines and in theosophic
speculation. There was great danger that Jewish minds might be led
astray, as in fact some were. Of the four great Rabbis, who the Talmud
says entered upon theosophic studies, only Akiba came through safely.
Upon ben Azzai and ben Zoma, both brilliant young students, and upon
Aher (Elisha ben Abuya) it had disastrous effects. Ben Azzai died
young. Ben Zoma went mad and Elisha ben Abuyah repudiated Judaism.
Wherefore the Rabbis never mentioned his name but always spoke of him
as "_Aher_" ("the Other").
Akiba's philosophy and ethics are revealed in the following sayings:
"Labor is honorable to man."
"They err who say I will sin now and repent after. The day of
atonement brings no forgiveness to the insincere." This saying is
strikingly similar to Dante's famous line in the Inferno: "No one can
repent and will at once."
The eternal problem why the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper is
answered by Akiba in this way. The righteous are punished in this
world for their few sins, so that in the next world they may receive
only reward. The wicked on the other hand are rewarded here for what
little good they do, so that in the next world they may receive only
punishment.
"Beloved are Israel, for they are called children of the All-present,
as it is said, 'Ye are children unto the Lord your God.' Beloved are
Israel for unto them was given the desirable instrument by which the
world was created, as it is written 'For I give you good doctrine,
forsake ye not my Torah.'" Israel is therefore the Chosen People. Nay
more. In another place Akiba says, "Even the poorest of Israel are
looked upon as nobles," and even R. Ishmael agreed with him that
"Every Jew is a royal prince." Our motto to-day of "noblesse oblige"
is the same thought in a strange tongue. "By which the world was
created" means that Akiba identified the Torah with "Wisdom," which is
described in Proverbs, in that famous chapter beginning "Doth not
wisdom cry and understanding put forth her voice?" as having been "set
up from everlasting, from the beginning before the earth was."
Adapting the opening verse of John, Akiba could very well have said,
"In the beginning was the Torah and the Torah was with God," but he
certainly would not have said, "and the Torah was God."
"Everything is foreseen," Akiba goes on to say, "yet freedom of choice
is given; and the world is judged by grace, yet all is according to
the amount of work." His doctrine of "grace" and "works" was that
"grace" is acquired through works, or in non-theological language,
God's favor goes to the man of good deeds. This was in opposition to
the Christian teaching that "grace" came through faith alone. God's
justice is tempered with mercy; yet even divine mercy is dealt out
fairly, says Akiba. He had such a strong sense of right that he even
condemned the action of the Israelites in despoiling the Egyptians.
"It is equally wrong to deceive a heathen as to deceive an Israelite,"
he said. Akiba agreed with Hillel that the chief commandment of the
Torah is, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Lev. XIX, 18),
which again is nothing more than an application of the principle of
justice in our dealings with our fellow-men.
_A Man of the People_
IN spite of his great fame Akiba was the most modest of men. While
still a student at Jamnia Akiba was noted for his humility. R.
Jochanan ben Nuri told how he had occasion several times to complain
of Akiba to the Patriarch and how each time Akiba took his reprimand
meekly. Nay more. Despite these reproofs Akiba was all the more
affectionate towards R. Jochanan, so that the latter was moved to
exclaim in admiration, "Reprove a wise man and he will love thee!"
(Prov. IX, 8.) Another notable example of Akiba's modesty is his
speech at the funeral of his son, which was attended by a great
gathering of men, women, and children from all parts of Palestine.
"Brethren of Israel," said Akiba, "listen to me. Not because I am a
learned man have ye appeared here so numerously. There are those here
more learned than I. Nor because I am a rich man. There are those here
far richer than I. The people of the South know Akiba; but whence
should the people of Galilee know him? The men know him; but whence
should the women and children that I see here know him? But I know
full well that ye have not given yourselves the trouble to come but
for the sake of fulfilling a religious precept and to do honor to the
Torah, and your reward will indeed be great." Practising it as he did,
Akiba did not fail likewise to preach modesty. "He who esteems himself
highly on account of his knowledge," said he, "is like a corpse lying
at the wayside; the traveler turns his head away in disgust and walks
quickly by." Again, in words almost identical with Luke (XIV, 8-11),
Akiba says: "Take thou a seat a few places 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.'"
Akiba was likewise famous for his kindness and charity. He was a man
of the people. His heart was full of charity and affection for the
multitude. His interest in their welfare was so deep and genuine that
he ultimately came to be called the "Hand of the Poor." As overseer of
the poor, Akiba made many long and arduous journeys to collect funds
for their relief. It was his opinion that the funds of charity ought
not to be invested, in order that ready money might always be at hand,
should a poor man present himself. Once Akiba received some money from
R. Tarphon, for the purpose of buying some land. But instead Akiba
distributed the money to the poor. When Tarphon asked him where the
property was, Akiba showed him the verse in Psalms, "He hath
scattered, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth
forever; his horn shall be exalted with honor." Thereupon Tarphon
kissed Akiba on the forehead and exclaimed, "My master and my guide!"
_His Fervent Patriotism_
FOR us to-day, however, the most striking thing about Akiba is his
nationalism. Other Rabbis were men of great intellect, other Rabbis
were learned, modest, and benevolent, other Rabbis lived, worked and
died for Judaism, but no other Rabbi was conspicuously and so
zealously a nationalist. Akiba loved "Eretz Yisrael" passionately, not
only with the visionary fervor of the pious Jew, but with the
practical idealism of a patriot. In all his extended journeys for the
collection of alms, he took care to spread and keep alive in the
breast of his fellow-Jews the desire for the rebuilding of Zion as a
practical and immediate reality.
It was Akiba's spirit that inspired and animated the last great
rebellion against Rome. This "final polemos," as the Talmud calls it,
was preparing for a number of years. Akiba openly acknowledged Bar
Kochba, who was to be the leader of the revolt, as the promised
Messiah, as "the star that would come out of Jacob." All the great
influence, therefore, of Akiba's moral support was behind Bar Kochba's
military preparations. The Jews had indeed much to complain of.
Hadrian had broken faith with them; he had failed to rebuild their
Temple as he had promised, and now (about the year 130), to make
matters worse, he was beginning a systematic persecution of their
religion. He forbade circumcision, the study of the Torah, the keeping
of the Sabbath, the ordination of disciples, in short everything that
went to express the Jewish religion. The Jews determined upon war. But
even before the outbreak of hostilities their greatest loss occurred.
Akiba and several other great Rabbis were captured by the Romans,
imprisoned, condemned to death, and executed. Their crime was simply
that they had continued teaching the Torah in spite of the Imperial
decree.
_"Even Unto Death"_
THIS was the manner of Akiba's death. When he heard that the renowned
R. Ishmael and a certain Simon were captured, he was stirred all the
more to persevere in his teaching. "Prepare ye for death, for terrible
days are awaiting us," said Akiba to his pupils. A certain Pappos ben
Judah met Akiba assembling the people and teaching the Torah in
public. "Dost thou not fear the Government?" said Pappos. "Thou art
considered a wise man, Pappos," answered Akiba, "but verily thou art
but a fool. I shall give thee a parable to the matter. Once a fox was
walking along the edge of a stream. He saw the fishes in commotion,
hurrying hither and thither. 'Before what do ye flee?' said he to
them. 'We are fleeing before the nets of the fishermen that are cast
out to catch us.' 'Would ye be willing to come up on dry land and live
with me, even as your fathers and my fathers were wont to live?' 'Art
thou he who is called the most discerning among beasts? Verily thou
art but a fool. If even in the element that means life to us, we are
fearful of death, how much more so in the element that means our
death.' Even so are we. If even in the time that we are occupied with
the Torah, of which it is said, 'For it is thy life and the length of
thy days,' we are fearful of death, how much more so if even for a
moment we cease its study." Not many days later Akiba was captured and
thrown into prison. Pappos ben Judah also found himself imprisoned
with Akiba. "How camest thou here?" asked Akiba. "Happy art thou,"
replied Pappos, "that thou hast been taken prisoner for the sake of
the Torah; woe is me, Pappos, that I have been taken prisoner for vain
things."
When they led Akiba out to execution it was the hour of the reading of
the "Shema." Tinnius Rufus, the governor, caused his skin to be torn
off with hot irons; but Akiba was directing his heart towards
accepting the yoke of God's kingdom, that he might accept it with
love. He recited the "Shema" with a peaceful smile on his face. Rufus,
astounded at his insensibility to pain, asked him whether he was a
sorcerer. "I am no sorcerer," replied Akiba. "All the days of my life
have I grieved that I could not carry out the commandment, 'Thou
shalt love thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all
thy might,'--even unto death. But now that I am able to fulfill it
shall I not rejoice?" And with the last syllable of the "Shema"--Hear,
Oh Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is One--Akiba expired.
[Illustration: Signature: George J. Horowitz]
EDITORS' NOTE.--_This is the third in a series of
sketches of "Jewish Worthies," of which the fourth
will have "Judah the Prince" for its subject._
_HEBREWS willingly neglectful of their own inheritance
cannot hope to be of much value as Americans. Nor is
the republic interested in suppressing this or any
other valuable legacy from the past. Our "assimilative
process" is far off from being the terrible thing
which European critics sometimes charge against us. We
do reshape peoples who come to us from the old world,
but not at the cost of the things they cherish or of
the gifts they bring. Our civilization is enriched,
not impoverished, by these diverse race traits,
loyalty to which helps to make a loyalty worth having.
If the future world order is to be founded on the
harmonization of ethnic differences, there should be
place enough for such differences in our own
peace-aspiring republic._--_From an Editorial in The
Boston Herald._