The Jew Part 35

"'Have pity on me,' cried he, 'and give me a handful of straw to put under my wife's head. She is sick, and lying over there on the cold ground.'

"Akiba gave the poor man what he demanded.

"'Behold,' said he, 'an unfortunate still more wretched than ourselves!'

"Akiba, in order to keep his promise to his wife, decided, in spite of his repugnance, to enter the school of Nakhum Gamsu. He was obliged to leave his wife, who entered service, and never ceased during the twelve years that separated them to write her husband encouraging letters, completely forgetting her own discomforts.

"One day, pensive and sad, Akiba followed a solitary path. A little brook attracted his attention. The water had pierced a rock by gradual dropping, and flowed gently through.

"'If drops of water,' remarked the future sage, 'have such power, what force will not then the human will have.'

"He presented himself before his teachers without weakness and without false shame. He commenced with the letters of the alphabet, and in his free moments he gathered wood and sold the f.a.gots in the market-place.

Half of his earnings fed him, the other half clothed and lodged him.

"Akiba soon astonished his masters. From a scholar he became an eminent professor. Thousands of disciples grouped around him.

"During this time his wife waited. A wicked neighbour insinuated that he had abandoned her and would never return.

"'It was I,' replied the wife, 'twelve years ago, who begged him to leave me and devote himself to science. If he prolong his studies twelve years longer, it will be well.'

"Akiba heard of this advice, given indirectly, and profited by it.

After the lapse of this time he returned to his native place. His renown had preceded him. All the population turned out to see him, and his wife was in the crowd. The wicked neighbour asked her how she dared present herself in rags before such an ill.u.s.trious man.

"'My husband knows my heart,' replied she simply. Before she was perceived, she ran out and threw herself at his feet. The pupils of Akiba would have repulsed her, but he said:--

"'Let her come to me. She is my wife, and it is to her that you and I owe much.'

"Kalba Chaboua at last forgave his daughter and his son-in-law, and received them into his house.

"Akiba had two remarkable teachers,--Eliezer and Nahum. The former was called the sealed vase, for he never lost a drop of acquired science.

The latter, subtle and penetrating, shone by the fineness of his a.n.a.lysis. Their pupil united to the erudition of the one the critical spirit of the other.

"When he commenced his teaching the Jews had many traditions acc.u.mulated for ages and transmitted orally. He collected and wrote them down, accompanying them with commentaries intended to reconcile the legends with the sacred writings. He founded a school which attracted universal admiration.

"At the epoch when he lived religious spirit fermented; by the side of the philosophical sects of Greece, Christianity developed; Gnosticism grafted its poetical reveries on monotheism, and differences multiplied.

"Many Jews were converted to the gospel under one form or another.

Akiba remained faithful to the Mosaic belief. He was so profoundly absorbed in the mystery of the divine essence, that the angels wished to chastise him for his presumption in wis.h.i.+ng to know all, to penetrate all. G.o.d restrained the wrath of these messengers, and said to them:--

"'He is worthy of meditating on my grandeur.'

"Devout as was Akiba, he excelled in modern science. He destroyed by his criticisms many things which his contemporaries called miraculous, rejected the prodigious pretensions credited by superst.i.tion, and was pleased to demonstrate the immutability of the laws of nature.

"Contrary to the other rabbis, he rejected the belief in eternal punishment. One day, when travelling, having with him a c.o.c.k and an a.s.s, he arrived at a village, and went in vain from door to door asking hospitality.

"'G.o.d doeth all things well,' said he. This was his favourite saying.

Then he entered a deep forest, where he sought by the light of his lantern a place to repose. The wind put out his light, and he lay down repeating, 'G.o.d doeth all things well.' Just then a wild-cat strangled his c.o.c.k and a wolf came and tore his a.s.s in pieces; still Akiba repeated 'G.o.d doeth all things well.'

"In reality, though he had met these misfortunes he had saved his life, which had been surely lost had he slept in the village. His humility and confidence in G.o.d were his chief characteristics.

"Once Akiba appeared in great spirits at the bedside of a dying man who lamented his approaching end, and whose friends were weeping around his bed. When asked the cause of his gayety,--

"'There is no man without sin,' said he, 'and I am rejoiced that this one has expiated his during his life.'

"Another time it was a wise man who was tortured with frightful pains.

Three old savants, his friends, came to console him, and spoke in praise of his wisdom.

"'Science,' said the first, 'is more useful to Israel than the dew to the earth. The dew gives the earth temporary life, wisdom prepares the soul for eternal life.'

"'Wisdom,' continued the second, 'is more necessary than the light of the sun. The one guides us here below, the other conducts us to heaven.'

"Then the third spoke thus:--

"'You have been to Israel more than a father and a mother. Our parents give us earthly life; you, the life celestial.'

"When Akiba's turn came to speak, he said simply:--

"'It is sweet to suffer here below.'

"'Raise me up,' cried the dying man; 'I wish to hear the second time these words, for they comfort me.'

"Akiba deemed suffering salutary for individuals and for nations. He compared Israel, stained with blood by Vespasian and his successors, to a white horse adorned with purple reins. He was not over-scrupulous in religious observances. His prayers were short. He wore his usual simple garments on holy days, notwithstanding the biblical command to array one's self with particular care.

"'G.o.d,' said he, 'will more readily pardon sins committed against himself than evil done a neighbour. The Israelite owes justice not only to the Israelites, but to the pagans.'

"He loved to discuss morals under anecdotal form. Here is a specimen of his method:--

"Two men were in the midst of a desert. They had only water enough for one. What ought they to do? To share the water was certain death to both. 'That is not the solution of the dilemma,' added Akiba; 'one must sacrifice himself for the other, that one, at least, should live.'

"In advance of his times, the sage had a profound respect for human life, and he was one of the first opponents of the death penalty.

"Having become rich, thanks to his father-in-law, he was a benefactor to the poor and a promoter of all charitable a.s.sociations.

"'Whoever,' he used to say, 'does not relieve a sick person, when it is in his power to do so, is an a.s.sa.s.sin.'

"The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple did not weaken Akiba's faith in divine justice. While Israel wept over the smoking ruins of the holy city, he smiled and predicted a brighter future. He always taught resignation to the divine will. But incessant persecutions aroused in him a violent irritation against the Romans, and a thirst for martyrdom. He lived in an epoch when the Jews were most unfortunate. Domitian continued the horrors of Vespasian and of t.i.tus.

They struck blows on all sides, and sought particularly a descendant of David, of whom popular rumour proclaimed the existence, and who intended, it was said, to avenge Israel's woes.

"Akiba converted many Romans to the Hebrew monotheism, Flavius Clemens, a relative of the emperor, was put to death for having embraced this doctrine, and his wife was, for the same reason, condemned to exile.

After the death of this Caesar, Israel breathed again during the two years' reign of Nerva and during the first ten years of the reign of Trajan; but they paid dearly for this short respite. The Jews of Syria, of Mesopotamia, of Armenia and Persia, took arms in favour of the Parthians, and drew on themselves the wrath of Rome, whose soldiers ma.s.sacred them in great numbers. They soon took up arms again upon the Euphrates, and revolted at Cyprus and in Egypt. New persecutions and repressions followed under the reign of Adrian.

"Akiba, a man of science, was changed by these troubles into a man of action. He travelled over the different parts of the empire to prepare a general uprising. He entered into relations with Simon, or Bar Kokhba, called the child of destiny when he was in the height of his prosperity, the child of lies after he had lost his fortune.

"This Simon, intrepid, daring, and of attractive manner, had with his majestic height all the qualities required for the leader of an insurrection. He pleased Akiba, who proclaimed him Messiah. The t.i.tle attracted thousands of volunteers, for the idea of a deliverer sent by G.o.d was attached to the name of Messiah. Simon admitted to the ranks of his army only the strong and vigorous, many of whom were able to tear a large tree from the earth with their hands. Full of a confidence which he communicated to others, Bar Kokhba often addressed to G.o.d this strange prayer:--

"'If thou dost not wish to come to my aid, at least do not favour my foes; for if thou dost not support them I will vanquish them.'