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Akiva the Shepherd and Rachel

Akiva was born into a poor family and in his youth was a simple shepherd, unable to read or write. To earn his living, he had to work from early morning until late evening. Akiva chopped firewood and sold it at the market, and sometimes shepherded sheep.

In 67 CE, Akiva decided to move to Jerusalem. There, too, he chopped wood and sold it in the market, until he finally found work as a shepherd on the estate of a very wealthy Jerusalemite named Kalba Savua, which means “well-fed dog” in Hebrew. He was such a hospitable man that even dogs entering his courtyard would leave well-fed. He strove to emulate the patriarch Abraham, who, along with his wife Sarah, pitched a tent and invited travelers to visit.

Kalba Savua had a beautiful daughter named Rachel. Young and educated, she loved to read and, despite being the mistress, was always willing to help around the house.

Akiva liked Rachel very much, but he did not dare tell her about it: after all, she was the daughter of Kalba Savua himself, and he was a simple shepherd.

Rachel often observed how carefully Akiva handled the sheep, caring for each one, and thought that if this shepherd had been a literate man, he would have eventually become an excellent rabbi.

One day, Akiva proposed marriage to Rachel. Seeing the shepherd’s modesty and honesty, the young heiress agreed, but with one condition:

“Akiva, I’ll marry you if you learn to read and write. I’m sure you’ll make a good rabbi.”

“Rachel,” Akiva answered sadly, “literacy is taught from childhood, but I’m already thirty-five years old, but I don’t even know the alphabet.”

“It’s never too late to learn,” Rachel said. “I will help you and support you in everything. If you study hard and diligently, the words of the Torah will penetrate your heart.”

Akiva promised his chosen one that he would definitely go to school and thanked her for agreeing to marry him.

Rachel hastened to share the good news with her father, hoping he would approve of her choice and welcome Akiva into the family. But when Kalba Savua learned that his only daughter was marrying a shepherd who could neither read nor write, nor even know a single prayer from the Torah, he banished both her and the shepherd from the estate. Furthermore, he even vowed never to speak to his daughter again and disinherited her.

Life in the stable

Rachel tried repeatedly to convince her father, but he refused to listen. Akiva and Rachel wandered around the city for a long time looking for a place to live, but they found nothing suitable. Realizing that Akiva’s savings would not provide them with a decent place to live in Jerusalem, they decided to settle in an abandoned stable near the city.

Rachel ran the household. Akiva, as before, collected brushwood in the forest or chopped it and sold it at the city market. The money they earned was barely enough to subsist. They ate very modestly all week, but on Friday evening, the eve of Shabbat, Rachel prepared a special Shabbat meal.

In winter, gathering firewood became more difficult, as the journey to the forest was long and Akiva lacked warm clothing. But with the arrival of spring, Akiva began collecting more firewood and earning more money for his labor, and so the couple moved to a cozy home on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Years passed. Akiva and Rachel had a son, whom they named Joshua. Then they had a daughter, Shulyamit, whom Akiva loved dearly. All this time, he continued to work hard. Early in the morning, he would head to the forest to gather firewood, then sell it at the market, and return home late at night. And so it went for several years, day after day. But when the time came for Joshua to learn to read and write, Rachel reminded her husband of his promise. She explained to him that children needed a literate father, one they could look up to.

Akiva remembered his promise, but he hesitated for a long time to go to school, believing that at forty it was too late to learn to read and write. But Rachel refused to back down and insisted that Akiva go to yeshiva. She believed he could become a good rabbi and said that if he started studying, he would succeed.

…One day, while gathering firewood in the forest near a river, Akiva noticed a huge stone with a large depression. “Where did it come from?” he wondered. It turned out to be the droplets of water dripping onto the stone. “Just as drops of water, falling one after another, day after day, year after year, were able to make a hole in a large stone, so too will the words of the Torah be able to penetrate my heart,” Akiva thought.

Akiva hurried home and delighted Rachel by announcing that he was finally ready to fulfill his promise. Thus, at the age of forty, Akiva set out to learn to read and write with his son.

A donkey with a flower on its back

On the very first day of school, the children pointed at Akiva and laughed loudly at him. They were thrilled to have an adult sitting at their desk.

Akiva and Joshua sat at a narrow desk on two low chairs. The chairs, of course, were designed for children, so Akiva was extremely uncomfortable. The teacher had to interrupt several times, as the child’s chair creaked at Akiva’s slightest movements, distracting the students. And at the end of class, the chair beneath Akiva completely collapsed, causing loud laughter from both the students and the teacher. Akiva fell to the floor, amidst the jeers of his young classmates. He was deeply hurt. Although he barely suffered any injuries, he vowed never to attend school again.

Having patiently sat through the end of class, Akiva headed home with his son. All the way, he scolded himself for giving in to Rachel’s entreaty and agreeing to sit down with his textbooks at such a venerable age. He dreamed of only one thing: to quickly return home, lock himself in, and forget the shame he had endured.

Ishra, who lived next door. The mischievous old man also didn’t miss the opportunity to make a sarcastic joke about his neighbor.

— “So, Akiva, how was your first day of school?” the neighbor asked sarcastically. “Have you made any friends in class yet?”

Akiva did not answer, but, with his head down, he hurried into the house where his wife, beaming with joy, was waiting for him.

After dinner, Akiva told Rachel he wasn’t going to go to school anymore: he’d rather continue working hard to ensure their children, Joshua and Shulyamit, had the opportunity to learn and grow up literate. Rachel listened to her husband’s words with tears in her eyes: she was deeply hurt that Akiva cared so much about what strangers thought of him, and was completely uninterested in his wife’s opinion. She understood that it was difficult for him at his age to endure ridicule, but she still refused to accept his decision to quit his studies. She didn’t sleep a wink all night, and as soon as dawn broke, she took all the money they had and went to the city market.

Returning home and preparing breakfast, Rachel woke her husband and son. After feeding them, she sent Joshua off to school and asked her husband to come with her into the yard. There, Akiva saw a donkey tied to a tree growing in the yard.

“What is this, Rachel?” Akiva asked in amazement.

“It’s a donkey,” Rachel answered her husband calmly.

— Where did you get it? And why is it so old, and with a dent in its back like a two-humped camel?

— I bought it at the market today.

— How much did you pay for it?

“Everything we had,” Rachel looked expectantly at Akiva.

“Rachel!” Akiva cried out loudly, clutching his head. “You gave all our savings for this old donkey?! What do you need him for? Do you want to show him off to people at the market for money? He can’t do anything except eat and sleep!”

“You need something to carry firewood, right? Here’s a helper for you.”

“Is this really a helper? For our money, you could buy a good donkey! This one might even make it to the forest, but on the way back, I’ll have to carry it and the brushwood. I think I’ll soon have a similar dent in my back…”

“Akiva, I ask you: do everything I tell you, and then we will decide what to do next,” Rachel turned to her husband.

“What have you come up with this time?” Akiva asked curiously.

Rachel took a handful of soil, filled the hollow on the donkey’s back, and planted a flower from its pot in the center. Then she covered everything with a small old rug and said, “You’ll take this donkey to market for a whole week, okay?” She looked at her husband with a questioning, hopeful look.

“Rachel, what’s wrong with you? Are you out of your mind?! People are already looking for every excuse to make fun of me. Why are you helping them?”

“Akiva, make a choice,” Rachel’s gaze became stern, “either you do what I say, or you go to school with your son tomorrow.”

Akiva had to agree:

— Okay, I’ll do what you ask, but only to end this conversation once and for all.