Rabbi Akiva
Akiva ben Joseph (Mishnaic Hebrew: ; – 28 September 135 CE), also known as Rabbi Akiva (), was a leading Jewish scholar and sage, a tanna of the latter part of the first century and the beginning of the second century. Rabbi Akiva was a leading contributor to the Mishnah and to Midrash halakha. He is referred to in the Talmud as Rosh la-Hakhamim "Chief of the Sages". He was executed by the Romans in the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Biography Early years Akiva ben Joseph (written in the Babylonian Talmud and in the Jerusalem Talmud), born , was of humble parentage. According to some sources, he was descended from converts to Judaism. When Akiva married the daughter of Ben Kalba Sabuaʿ (), a wealthy citizen of Jerusalem, Akiva was an uneducated shepherd employed by him. The first name of Akiva's wife is not provided in earlier sources, but a later version of the tradition gives it as Rachel. She stood loyally by her husband during the period of his late initiation into rabbinic studies after he was 40 years of age. and in which Akiva dedicated himself to the study of Torah. A different tradition narrates that