R' Akiva
Personal Anecdotes and Characteristics
Love/Respect for the Medeans for 3 outstanding attributes: Berachot 8b
Giving candies to children so that they would stay awake and be involved with the rememberance of our delivery from Egypt, on Pesach night: Pesachim 109a
R' Akiva honored the wealthy: Eruvin 86a
Told the students to leave the Study Hall on the day before Pesach to put the young children to sleep, so that they could stay awake on Pesach night: Pesachim 109a
Told the students to leave the Study Hall on the day before Yom Kippur to feed their children: Pesachim 109a
Speaking of his Life as a lay-person and animosity towards Torah Scholars, before he started learning: Pesachim 49b
Explaining the word "Et [The]" which Nechemiah/Shimon Ha'Amsuni [who had explained all of the rest] couldn't: Pesachim 22b
"LeChayyim" ["To Life"] toast R' Akiva used at a party for his son: Shabbat 67b
Son-in-law was Yehoshua Ben Kefisai: Shabbat 147a
He was told by a Chaldean Astrologer that his daughter would die on her wedding day, but she was saved in the merit of her Charity: Shabbat 156b
Determining law from Jail: Yevamot 105b (See Tos.), 108b
When R' Akiva was in jail, R' Yehoshua haGarsi would bring him water. Once the jailor poured out half the water, and R' Akiva insisted on using what remained to wash his hands for his meal rather than to drink, saying, "What can I do? The punishment for violating the words of the rabbis is Death!": Eruvin 21b
Was a collector of Charity for the poor: Kiddushin 27a; Bava Metzia 11b
Thanking those who came to console him on the loss of his two sons: Moed Katan 21b
How much he loved Mitzvot: Succah 41b
R' Akiva was "Chochaich leHachmir" on a case: Nedarim 2a
R' Akiva personally visited a sick student and swept his room, when nobody else did: Nedarim 40a
R' Akiva and R' Tarfon said that had they been on the courts, capital punishment would never have been administered. R' Shimon ben Gamliel responded that they would then be increasing the number of murders: Makkot 7a
R' Akiva said that a student's Halachic statement, citing R' Yishmael, was not actually something R' Yishmael had said, but the Halachah would follow that student anyway. He either said this to make a point of encouraging students to think independently, or as a simple statement that he agreed with that student's thinking: Eruvin 13a
When an anonymous student cites R' Yishmael in front of R' Akiva, that is R' Meir: Eruvin 13a
R' Yochanan said, "The early ones [a reference to R' Akiva or R' Elazar ben Shamua] had hearts like the entrance to the Temple's large hall, and the later ones [a reference to R' Elazar ben Shamua or R' Oshia Berebi (Berebi=leader of his generation)] like the entrance to the Temple's smaller hall, and ours are like the eye of a clothes-needle." Abayye added, "Our ability to understand is like that of a peg jammed into a small hole in a wall." Rava added, "Our minds' ability to understand is like a finger stabbing into thick wax." Rav Ashi added, "We forget as easily as a finger fits into a cistern's entrance.": Eruvin 53a
Anecdotes involving other Sages
Nachum Ish Gam Zu whispered a leniency to R' Akiva, who whispered it to Ben Azzai, for fear that if it spread it might lead to improper practices: Berachot 22a
R' Yochanan on the Romans: "As for those who destroyed the Temple, it can be rebuilt. But woe to those who killed R' Akiva and his peers!": Rosh HaShanah 23a
7 Instructions to his son, R' Yehoshua: Pesachim 112a
5 Instructions to R' Shimon Bar Yochai, from jail: Pesachim 112a-b
R' Akiva refusing to teach R' Shimon Bar Yochai from jail, for fear of the government grabbing R' Shimon as well: Pesachim 112a
R' Akiva on a boat with Rabban Gamliel: Succah 23a
Rabban Gamliel, R' Yehoshua, R' Elazar ben Azaryah and R' Akiva on a boat: Succah 41b
Whether R' Yehoshua Ben Karchah was R' Akiva's son or not: Tos. Pesachim 112a #1
R' Akiva and R' Dosa ben Harkinas comforting R' Yehoshua, when Rabban Gamliel forced him to forgo his own ruling for Rabban Gamliel's: Rosh HaShanah 25a, 25b
Called "Akiva" by R' Elazar Ben Azaryah: Shabbat 132a; Makkot 24b
Called "Akiva" by R' Eliezer, and he called R' Eliezer "Rebbe": Pesachim 66a
Called "Akiva" by R' Yehudah Ben Betaira in a discussion: Shabbat 96b
Called "Akiva ben Yosef" by Rabban Gamliel: Kiddushin 27a; Bava Metzia 11b
Called "Akiva" by Rabban Gamliel: Succah 23a; Makkot 24b
Called "Akiva" by R' Yehoshua: Rosh HaShanah 25a; Makkot 24b
R' Akiva calling R' Yehoshua "Rebbe": Rosh HaShanah 25a
Rabban Gamliel, R' Elazar ben Azaryah and R' Yehoshua cried about the happiness of Roman idolaters as compared to the destruction of the Temple, but R' Akiva laughed, saying that those who follow Gd will be all the more rewarded, as compared to those idolaters: Makkot 24a-b
Rabban Gamliel, R' Elazar ben Azaryah and R' Yehoshua cried when they saw a fox walking in the former Holy of Holies, but R' Akiva laughed, saying that just as the prophecy of a fox walking there had been fulfilled, so the prophecy of the Jewish elders returning to the streets of Jerusalem would be fulfilled, too. The sages responded, "Akiva, you have comforted us, Akiva, you have comforted us!": Makkot 24b
R' Akiva, R' Yehoshua, Rabban Gamliel and R' Elazar ben Azaryah were at sea on Shabbat. R' Akiva and R' Yehoshua chose to be strict on themselves and remain in a four-cubit space, whereas Rabban Gamliel and R' Elazar ben Azaryah travelled the breadth of the boat: Eruvin 41b
R' Akiva, R' Yehoshua, Rabban Gamliel and R' Elazar ben Azaryah were at sea on Shabbat, and arrived at a port on Shabbat. The sages asked Rabban Gamliel what they could do, and he replied they were all right, since he had noted their arrival within the borders of the town before Shabbat began: Eruvin 41b, 43a
R' Akiva reporting the practice of Rabban Gamliel and R' Yehoshua, presumably to consider that as the correct practice: Succah 37b
R' Akiva asked R' Nechunyah HaGadol how he merited a long life. When R' Nechunyah's aides chased him away, he proved his knowledge to demonstrate his sincerity: Megillah 28a
R' Akiva was told by R' Yehudah Ben Beteira that one may not allege that a righteous figure [from the Torah] committed a sin, if the Torah concealed it: Shabbat 96b-97a
Accurately Predicted R' Yehudah Bar Nachmeni's death, for his joy at answering R' Tarfon's question: Menachos 68b
Rebbe changing a personal practice when he found out that R' Akiva ruled it was forbidden: Shabbat 147a
R' Akiva asking questions of Rabban Gamliel and R' Yehoshua in a butcher's shop in Imaum: Makkot 14a; Keritot 15a-b
R' Tarfon, R' Yosi HaGelili, R' Elazar ben Azaryah and R' Akiva attempting to console R' Yishmael on the loss of his sons: Moed Katan 28b
R' Tarfon said he had heard a lesson on a subject but he could not explain it, and then R' Akiva explained it. R' Tarfon swore "ha'Avodah," by the service in the beit hamikdash [or by the Name of Gd, per some commentators], that R' Akiva was correct, and declared that anyone who departed from R' Akiva was as though he was departing from his own life: Zevachim 13a
Anecdote in which R' Akiva [or actually an official] detained witnesses who were travelling unnecessarily on Shabbat to testify on the New Moon, and Rabban Gamliel chastised him: Rosh HaShanah 21b, 22a
A law was stated in one way, until R' Akiva came along and revolutionized it: Nedarim 25b
Rabban Gamliel wept at a verse in which King David gave a list of eleven Mitzvah practices and said that a person who fulfilled them would not fall. Rabban Gamliel interpreted that to mean one must fulfill all of them in order not to fall, but R' Akiva showed that even a person who properly fulfilled one of them would not fall: Makkot 24a
R' Meir tried to learn before R' Akiva, but R' Akiva was too sharp, and so he learned before R' Yishmael, and then before R' Akiva: Eruvin 13a
R' Yehudah reporting a pedagogic practice R' Akiva performed when R' Yehudah learned before him: Eruvin 41a
R' Akiva informing R' Eliezer of his ex-communication: Bava Metzia 59b
Rav Yosef, or perhaps R' Akiva, second-guessing R' Yochanan ben Zakkai's replies to Vespasian: Gittin 56b
Rabbi Akiva replying to Rabbi Yehoshua: If your halachic statement is a received tradition, I accept it. If it is a result of "kal vachomer" logical deduction, though, then I can refute it thus: Keritot 15b
Personal Legal Topics/IssuesCitations
