Akiva ben Joseph

Akiva ben Joseph (Hebrew: עקיבא בן יוסף‎; c. 40 – c. 137 CE), widely known as Rabbi Akiva (Hebrew: רבי עקיבא‎), was a tanna of the latter part of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century (3rd tannaitic generation). Rabbi Akiva was a leading contributor to the Mishnah and Midrash Halakha. He is referred to in the Talmud as Rosh la-Chachamim (Head of all the Sages).

He recognized Bar Kokhba as Messiah, and was executed by the Romans in the disastrous aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt.

Biography

Akiva ben Joseph (written עקיבא in the Babylonian Talmud, and עקיבה in the Jerusalem Talmud — another form for עקביה) came of humble parentage. When he married the daughter of Kalba Savu'a, a wealthy citizen of Jerusalem, Akiva was an uneducated shepherd in Kalba Savua's employ. His wife's first name is not given in the earlier sources, but a later version of the tradition gives it as Rachel (Ab. R. N. ed. S. Schechter, vi. 29). She stood loyally by her husband during that critical period of his life in which Akiva dedicated himself to the study of Torah. Rabbi Akiva has many famous quotes in the Babylonian Talmud.