Rabbi Akiva was a Tanna, one of the sages of the Mishnah. A baraita (a teaching from the time of the Mishnah that was not put into the Mishnah) names Bnei Brak as the place to go to learn from him. The Gemara in Ketubot tells that he was a shepherd who went away to learn for many years and came back with thousands of students. Rabbi Yochanan says that the unnamed teachings in the Mishnah and in three other early collections are the words of four named sages, and that all of them teach according to Rabbi Akiva. A baraita in Berakhot tells that he went on gathering crowds for Torah in public after the government forbade it, and that he was taken out to be killed.
A baraita (a teaching from the time of the Mishnah that was not put into the Mishnah) lists the great sages and the towns where they taught. It tells a student to follow Rabbi Akiva to Bnei Brak.
Rav Yehuda, one of the Amoraim (the sages of the Gemara), says in the name of Rav that when Moshe went up on high, he found Hashem tying crowns onto the letters of the Torah, and asked, "Who is holding back Your hand?" Hashem told him about a man who would live many generations later. His name would be Akiva ben Yosef, and he would learn piles and piles of laws from every single point. This passage gives his father's name, Yosef.
The Gemara quotes Rabbi Yochanan: a Mishnah with no name on it is Rabbi Meir. An unnamed teaching in the Tosefta is Rabbi Nechemya, in the Sifra it is Rabbi Yehuda, and in the Sifrei it is Rabbi Shimon. The Tosefta, the Sifra and the Sifrei are early collections of teachings from the time of the Mishnah. Rabbi Yochanan ends: and all of them teach according to Rabbi Akiva. This segment does not call the four his students.
Rav Huna says in the name of Rav, in the name of Rabbi Meir, and the Gemara adds that it was also taught in the name of Rabbi Akiva: a person should always be in the habit of saying, "All that the Merciful One does, He does for good."
From Pirkei Avot, the tractate of the Mishnah that collects the sages' sayings on character: "Beloved is the human being, for he was created in the image." The Mishnah goes on: it was a greater love that this was made known to him. (The numbering in this chapter differs between printings.)
Also from Pirkei Avot: "Everything is foreseen, and permission is given." The Mishnah does not explain the line, and this page only translates it.
Each link below has a passage behind it.
The Gemara in Ketubot tells that Rabbi Akiva was a shepherd who worked for a man called Ben Kalba Savua. Ben Kalba Savua's daughter saw that he was modest and fine. She said she would be betrothed to him if he went to the house of study, and he agreed. They were betrothed in secret and she sent him off. Her father heard, put her out of his house and vowed that she would get nothing from his property. This passage does not give her name.
The name Rachel does not come from the passages in Ketubot or Nedarim. It comes from Avot d'Rabbi Natan, an early collection of teachings built around Pirkei Avot. That book says poor people will not be able to claim that poverty kept them from learning, because Rabbi Akiva was very poor. If they say it was because of their children, they will be told that he had sons and daughters too. In that answer the book mentions "Rachel his wife" and says that she had merit. The wording of this line is not clear in the printed text, which has words in brackets.
The Gemara in Nedarim says where he went to learn. His wife told him to go to the house of study, and he spent twelve years in front of Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua.
Rabbi Yishmael, another Tanna, once asked Rabbi Akiva a question while they were walking on the road. He began by saying that Rabbi Akiva had served Nachum Ish Gamzu for twenty-two years. To "serve" a sage means to stay close to him and learn from him day by day.
The baraita continues: the world was left desolate, until Rabbi Akiva came to "our Rabbis in the south" and taught the Torah to them. It names five: Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yose, Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua. It says they are the ones who kept the Torah standing at that time. (Our note: these five are a different group from the students who died.)
Each story is told from one book, named under the quote.
The same segment in Ketubot goes on. He went and sat for twelve years in the house of study. When he came back, he brought twelve thousand students with him. Then he heard an old man begin to speak to his wife.
The story continues on the next page of Ketubot. The old man asked her how long she would go on living like a widow while her husband was alive. She answered that if he listened to her, he would stay twelve more years. Rabbi Akiva said that he was acting with her permission, and he went back for twelve more years. He returned with twenty-four thousand students. His wife heard and went out to meet him. When she reached him she fell on her face and kissed his feet, and his attendants pushed her away. He told them to leave her: "What is mine and what is yours is hers."
The Gemara in Nedarim tells the story in its own way. There, in the winter they slept in a straw shed, and he picked the straw out of her hair. He told her that if he had the means, he would put a "Jerusalem of gold" on her. The Gemara does not explain here what that is. Then Eliyahu the prophet came, looking to them like a man, and called at the door. He asked for a little straw, because his wife had given birth and he had nothing for her to lie on. Rabbi Akiva said to his wife: look, here is a man who does not even have straw.
Avot d'Rabbi Natan tells how he started. It says he was forty years old and had learned nothing. He stood at a well and asked who had carved the stone there. He was told it was the water that fell on it every day. He reasoned that if soft water can carve hard stone, the words of Torah can carve into his heart. He and his son went to a teacher of young children and learned the alphabet. The age of forty and the well are in this book, not in the Gemara's stories in Ketubot and Nedarim.
The word "et" (את) usually just marks the object of a verb. A baraita tells that a sage named Shimon HaAmsoni, and some say Nechemya HaAmsoni, used to learn something from every "et" in the Torah. The baraita says this about him. About Rabbi Akiva it tells only the one verse that follows. When he reached the verse "You shall fear (et) Hashem your God", he stopped. The baraita does not say why. His students asked what would become of all the readings he had already given. He answered that just as he was rewarded for the reading, he would be rewarded for stopping. The baraita ends with what Rabbi Akiva added: he came and taught that the "et" in this verse comes to include Torah scholars.
Rav Yehuda says in the name of Rav that Moshe asked to be shown this man. He was told to turn around, and he went and sat at the end of eight rows. He did not know what they were saying, and his strength left him. Then they reached a certain matter, and the students asked Rabbi Akiva where he had it from. He answered that it was a law given to Moshe at Sinai. Moshe's mind was put at ease.
A baraita in Yevamot says that Rabbi Akiva had twelve thousand pairs of students, from a place called Gevat to a place called Antipatris. All of them died in one period, because they did not treat each other with respect.
The Gemara adds a short teaching about when this happened: all of them died between Pesach and Atzeret. Atzeret is the name the sages use for Shavuot.
The Gemara in Makkot tells that another time he was going up to Jerusalem with other sages. When they reached Mount Scopus they tore their clothes. When they reached the Temple Mount they saw a fox come out of the Holy of Holies, the most sacred room of the Temple. The others began to cry, and Rabbi Akiva laughed. They asked him why he was laughing, and he asked them why they were crying. They said: this is the place that a stranger may not come near, and now foxes walk in it. Should we not cry?
He explained with two prophecies. One says that Zion will be plowed like a field. The other says that old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem. As long as the first had not come true, he was afraid the second might not. Now that the first had come true, he knew the second would too. The sages answered him, "Akiva, you have comforted us."
A baraita in Chagigah says that four sages "entered the Pardes", which means the orchard, and that of the four, Rabbi Akiva came out in peace.
A baraita in Berakhot tells that the government, which the baraita calls "the wicked kingdom", once ordered that Jews may not be busy with Torah. A man named Pappus ben Yehuda came and found Rabbi Akiva gathering crowds in public and busy with Torah. He asked him, "Akiva, are you not afraid of the government?"
The same baraita tells that when he was taken out to be killed it was the time for saying the Shema, the verses "Hear, O Israel". His students asked him, "Our teacher, this far?" He answered that all his life he had been troubled by the words "with all your soul", meaning even if He takes your soul. He had said: when will it come to my hand so that I can keep it? Now that it has come, should I not keep it? He drew out the word "One" until his soul left him.
Every item says who is making the claim: the Gemara itself, a classical commentator, or a modern writer.
Rabbi Yochanan explains why Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yishmael read verses differently. Rabbi Yishmael served Rabbi Nechunya ben HaKaneh, who read the whole Torah by "general rule and detail", so he reads that way too. Rabbi Akiva served Nachum Ish Gamzu, who read the whole Torah by "inclusion and exclusion", so he reads that way too. (These are the names of two ways of reading a verse. The segment itself does not explain them.) This is Rabbi Yochanan's account of his method, quoted by the Gemara: he got it from his teacher.
The Gemara then asks where we see Rabbi Akiva reading by inclusions and exclusions, and brings a baraita about the verse on oaths. The words "or a person who swears" include. The words "to do bad or to do good" exclude. The words "anything that a person utters" include again. The baraita ends with the rule: when a verse includes, excludes and includes, it includes everything.
These are general rules. The Gemara itself lists exceptions.
Two Amoraim, Rabbi Yaakov and Rabbi Zerika, state a rule: the law follows Rabbi Akiva against his colleague. The word is in the singular. In the same sentence they say the law follows Rabbi Yose against his colleagues, in the plural, and then give the rule in the singular again for Rabbi (Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi). The segment does not say what follows from the difference.
The Gemara at once asks what this means in practice, and three Amoraim give three different answers. Rabbi Asi says it is the law. Rabbi Chiyya bar Abba says "we lean" that way. Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Chanina says it "appears" so. The segment does not explain the three words.
The Gemara in Ketubot brings up a limit on the rule. It is explaining a disagreement between Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish, and it offers three explanations without choosing one. In the second one, everyone agrees that the law follows Rabbi Akiva against his colleague and not against his teacher, and the two sages disagree about whether Rabbi Tarfon, another Tanna, was his teacher or his colleague. In the explanation before it, the limit itself is the disagreement: one side holds that the law follows him even against his teacher. The third explanation is about something else: whether the rule was said as "the law" or as "we lean".
Last checked 2026-10-11. Found a mistake? Tell us.
Every Hebrew and Aramaic quote on this page was checked by script against the passage it cites. The texts come from Sefaria: the Talmud Bavli is the William Davidson Edition (Koren Publishers, vowels by Dicta, CC BY-NC), and the Mishnah is the Torat Emet edition. English translations and explanations are Torah Tech originals, and any mistakes are ours.
This page is for learning. It is not a halachic ruling.
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