The Jewish Herald-Voice (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 62, No. 27, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 5, 1967 Page: 65 of 115
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PAGE 62
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To the Jews the arrival of the
Emperor Hadrian, in the year
130, seemed a most opportune oc-
casion to present their petitions
and their grievances in person.
It must have been obvious to
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Rabbi Simeon and Rabbi Ishmael.
Some of the moderate national-
ists were tempted to seek in exile
both safety and the opportunity to
observe the Law. But their con-
sciences would not let them find
so easy an escape. To dwell in
Palestine was itself a command-
ment and, in the minds of many,
one which outweighed all others.
While the scholars, like the peo-
ple at large, were finding them-
selves involved in the various fac-
tions, the conclave assembled once
more in Ludd to determine on a
national policy. Standing between
the extremists on both sides, Akiba
insisted that the practical problem
could not be solved until the schol-
ars agreed on the basic theory of
the place of observance in Juda-
ism.
cepted by everyone. Only one in-
strument could fulfill those re-
quirements—Scripture itself.
The duty of teaching seemed
to him paramount. “Though you
have given instruction to some dis-
ciples in your youth, you must
continue to teach in old age,” he
said. “This is the meaning of Ec-
clesiastes 11:6, which reads, ‘In
the morning sow thy seed, and in
the, evening withhold not thy hand;
for thou knowest not which shall
prosper, whether this or that, or
whether they both shall be alike
good.’ ”
The years 110-112 were epoch-
al both in the life of Akiba and in
the history of the Jewish people.
In his seventieth year the great
sage had retained all the physical
and mental vigor of his youth, and
in his new activity. The effective
combination of brevity and preci-
sion was a boon to the student
who had to memorize the text, and
it set a good example for all fu-
ture codifiers. His Mishnah be-
came so popular in his own life-
time that even those parts which
he rejected in his later years con-
tinued to be studied. Being oral
texts, they could not be issued in
new editions; once memorized they
could not be withdrawn from cir-
culation, as it were. The original
statements were repeated in acad-
emies, with the qualifying re-
mark that Akiba had changed his
mind about them, in part.
The later Talmudists rated
these achievements so high that
they declared Akiba had saved the
Torah from oblivion. They rank-
ed his work with the rediscovery
of the Law in the days of Josiah.
“Had not Shaphan arisen in his
time, and Ezra in his time, and
Akiba in his time,” a homilist of
the next century remarked, “would
not the Law have been forgotten
in Israel?”
In time Akiba, while still at-
tending the sessions of the con-
clave, founded a private academy
at the little village of Bene Berak.
a short distance from Yavneh.
Akiba’s pow er over his disciples
arose not merely from his tender-
ness with them, but mainly from
his pedagogic ability. In addition
to the codification of the Law, he
also arranged the laws and tradi-
tions as comments on the biblical
verses from which they were de-
rived.
Akiba’s mode of interpretation
of Scripture is a development of
that which he derived from his
master Nahum of Gimzo. Super-
fluous letters, words, and verses
were the meat whereon he thrived.
By the use of them he was able
to read his whole juristic program
into Scriptures.
Akiba was trying to change
the complexion of the inherited
law. To accomplish this he had
to find an authority superior to
that of his predecessors and ac-
his native genius was now supple-
mented by the skill born of thir-
teen years of intellectual leader-
ship.
Never since the destruction of
Jerusalem had Judea been eco-
nomically more prosperous or
politically more tranquil. The af-
termath of the war had passed,
and the ruined population had
once more settled down to normal
habits of work and trade; the city
of Ludd in the lowland had partly
replaced Jerusalem as the metrop-
olis of Judea and had absorbed
some of the destitute artisans and
merchants. A new generation had
grown up, accustomed to the Ro-
man yoke and apparently willing
to bear it. In distant Rome, the
affairs of the Empire had for a
dozen years been in the capable
hands of Nerva and Trajan, the
first and second of the “five good
emperors.”
To Akiba and many others it
seemed that the Messianic era
was at hand. Gradually, however,
new oppressions were suffered,
and about the year 125 the rela-
tions between Jews and Romans
took a turn for the worse. It is
not known whether the increasing
rigor was due to the suspicion of
nationalist activity on the part of
some rabbinic scholars, especially
Hadrian that the Romans had
committed an act of unjustified
waste in razing Jerusalem to the
ground. The interests of the Em-
pire demanded the re-establish-
ment of the great wealth-produc-
ing metropolis, w hich was the cen-
ter of the country’s commerce,
industry, and religion. Hadrian
decided to grant the request of the
Jews and to rebuild their city.
The emperor also granted the
Jews a temple, but like so many
others he had founded, it was to
be dedicated to the worship of
himself, as identified with the
Capitoline Jupiter. The effect of
this pronouncement on Akiba,
then in his ninetieth year, was
crushing. The last hope for im-
proved relations with Rome had
disappeared; the teachings of his
whole1, lifetime, that a pacific at-
titude toward the Empire would
call forth reasonable treatment
from it, were refuted by the event.
The blow stimulated the masses
of the people to furious action.
Continued on Page 69
ae gem - mta maanseu gmaum-mnuuzaknamuab
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White, D. H. The Jewish Herald-Voice (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 62, No. 27, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 5, 1967, newspaper, October 5, 1967; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1527819/m1/65/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .