Rabbi Akiva was a shepherd, who at the age of forty could not read the Alef-Beis. He subsequently developed into one of the greatest scholars in the history of Jewish learning. He was once watching a stone notched by the steady dripping of water. He concluded that if water could penetrate stone, Torah could penetrate his head. His employer’s daughter heard of his resolve and was so touched by his sincerity to learn that she married him. She encouraged him to go away to learn Torah in a Yeshivah where he remained for twelve years. After his return from the academy, his wife once again agreed that he should again go away to learn. He reappeared a second time with twenty four thousand students.
Upon his return when his wife came out to greet him, he, R. Akiva publicly told his students that all his Torah, and all the twenty four thousand students Torah belonged to her.(From this we learn the rule that the Torah learned by a husband with the permission of his wife is equally credited to the merit of the wife.)
R. Akiva died a martyr’s death. It had been ordered by the Romans that no Torah was to be learned in public. R. Akiva ignored this edict and, when detected, was tortured to death by the Romans, combed with combs of red hot metal. He died, although in horrible pain, in a state of ecstasy having fulfilled all the mitzvot including that of dying a martyr’s death to glorify the Name of G-d.
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