Rabbi Akiva
Sage of the Talmud
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A compelling and lucid account of the life and teachings of a founder of rabbinic Judaism and one of the most beloved heroes of Jewish history
Born in the Land of Israel around the year 50 C.E., Rabbi Akiva was the greatest rabbi of his time and one of the most important influences on Judaism as we know it today. Traditional sources tell how he was raised in poverty and unschooled in religious tradition but began to learn the Torah as an adult. In the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E., he helped shape a new direction for Judaism through his brilliance and his character. Mystic, legalist, theologian, and interpreter, he disputed with his colleagues in dramatic fashion yet was admired and beloved by his peers. Executed by Roman authorities for his insistence on teaching Torah in public, he became the exemplar of Jewish martyrdom.
Drawing on the latest historical and literary scholarship, this book goes beyond older biographies, untangling a complex assortment of ancient sources to present a clear and nuanced portrait of Talmudic hero Rabbi Akiva.
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Given the paucity of the historical record about Rabbi Akiva his name only rarely and briefly appears outside of the Talmud it's hard to see how his life's story can be told, but National Jewish Book Award winner Holtz (Back to the Sources) resolves this challenge by appropriately labeling this work "a kind of imagined biography rooted in the best that contemporary scholarship can teach us about rabbinic tales, about Akiva himself, and about the historical context of the world of the rabbis in the first century and a half of the Common Era." Holtz begins his lively and thought-provoking account with a survey of the world of the Jews during Akiva's lifetime, making good use of recent research that has debunked many popular impressions; for example, he explains that the rabbis of the period were "a small and insulated group... not interested in spreading their teachings to the masses." The bulk of the book consists of close readings of the Talmud's sparse accounts of moments in Akiva's life; Holtz makes the convincing argument that "what ends up being truly important is the shared memory of people down the ages, no matter what the historical facts may have been." Those shared memories yield a moving portrait of a humble intellectual giant who turned to study of the texts later in life. As with other volumes in the Jewish Lives series, this biography works for experts and neophytes alike.
