Page "Akiva ben Joseph" Paragraph 66

Rachel's response ( Don't you see, rachel answered, " the greater, the higher a man's task is the more he must endure, the more he must fight and suffer.

An ordinary simple man who doesn't bother about anything usually lives a quiet undisturbed life.

The man who wants to do something, who is concerned with the general welfare has troubles and worries.

When God elevated Isreal and chose us from all the nations to make us a people of priests among the family of nations.

He placed us in the midst of every conflict.

" whenever something great is fought for, Israel must be there.

Few people rise abopve the others to put their foot on the neck of the nations.

The various generations come up, grow, flourish and disappear.

Israel must play its part in all of them.

Of course that involves suffering and sorrow.

Sometimes we are hurled down to the earth, and the ploughs are drawn across our backs and we are marked by the long furrows.

But God has always raised us up again.

He has never letus perish. He has never punished us as He has punished those who torment us.

He has never doomed us to die like those nations who oppress us.

If we must suffer more than other peoples, God has given us the strenghth to bear our troubles, to endure.

"< ref Akiba-The Story of Rabbi Akiba and his times by Rabbi Dr M. Lehmann ) moved Akiva, and he told her that he could only dedicate himself to Torah if he had a wife like her by his side.

She said that she would accept his " wooing " if he would devote himself to the study of God's law.

He said he would, and they married in secret.

Her father, hearing this, drove her out of his house and prohibited her by vow of having any share in his assets.