Read the story then click on the links below it to do the exercises.
DROP BY DROP BY DROP
The great Rabbi Akiva was not always so great. Until he was 40 years old, Rabbi Akiva was known as ‘Akiva, the poor, ignorant shepherd’. He did not know many laws of the Torah – not even the letters of the Torah, the Aleph Bet. So how did he become so learned and great?
Every day, when he came home, Akiva would sit by the fire and wonder what it would be like to be able to learn the Torah. His wife, Rachel, wished she could do something to help her husband.
“Akiva, you are a wise man,” Rachel assured him as he stared into the fire, “You just need to study and gather knowledge. Then you’ll see how wise you really are.”
“But I’m too old to study,” Akiva said,” It’s so much easier to learn and remember things when you’re young. Nothing stays in my head now.” Then he would tap his head, saying, “It’s as hard as a rock.”
Rachel only smiled and added, “Nonsense. I’m sure you could learn all the laws of the Torah, if you put your mind to it. After all, it says in the Torah, ‘Waters wears away stones.’”
But Akiva just sighed and continued to stare into the fire, wishing he could learn Torah.
One day, as he was watering the sheep, Akiva saw a big rock in the stream. The top of the rock had a hole the size of a small bowl. Akiva watched as the water from above the rock splashed onto the rock – drop by drop by drop.
Suddenly, he smiled.
“It has taken many years for those soft drops of water to make this bowl in the rock. But, drop by drop by drop, the water has worn away the hard stone and made its mark on the rock.”
“Now I understand what Rachel meant. I may be old, but I am not too old to learn. By slowly adding knowledge – word by word, sentence by sentence – my mind will be able to learn the wisdom of the Torah.”
That day, when Akiva came home, he said to his wife, “Rachel, you were right. Soft water does wear away hard stone. I know that if I study little by little, the knowledge of the Torah will enter my head.”
“Wonderful,” cried Rachel, “And I know you will be a great teacher someday, a great learned rabbi among our people. I just know it.”
“Rachel,” Akiva said, with tears in his eyes, “you are such a wonderful help to me. Someday, I will buy you a special gift, a golden crown engraved with the shape of Jerusalem.”
Akiva left home that very same day. He went to learn in the great House of Study and did not see his wife again for 24 years. Word by word, letter by letter, question by question, Akiva learned the entire Torah.
When he returned to Rachel, he was called ‘The Great Rabbi Akiva’. He had 24,000 students who listened to his words of Torah every day.
After many years, Akiva was able to buy a golden crown engraved with the shape of Jerusalem. With great love and honour, he gave it to his wife, as he had promised.
And the rock? Well, drop by drop by drop, the water hollowed it out until it looked like a very large bowl. Everyone who saw the rock marvelled at how much water it held.
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