Rabbi Akiva used to say, " Beloved is man, for he was created in God's image ; and the fact that God made it known that man was created in His image is indicative of an even greater love.

The Talmud suggests that this was a result of Divine Providence: God had granted the Jewish people another leader of great stature to succeed Rabbi Akiva.

Although Rabbi Lipschutz has faced some controversy in certain Hasidic circles, he was greatly respected by such sages as Rabbi Akiva Eiger, whom he frequently cites, and is widely accepted in the Yeshiva world.

This midrash collection was redacted into its final form around the 3rd or 4th century ; its contents indicate that its sources are some of the oldest midrashim, dating back possibly to the time of Rabbi Akiva.

He was given the surname Bar Kokhba ( Aramaic for " Son of a Star ", referring to the Star Prophecy of, " there shall step forth a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite through the corners of Moab ") by his contemporary, the Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva.

* Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi or Judah haNasi, Talmudic scholar ( according to Jewish tradition, he was born the same day Rabbi Akiva died a martyr's death )

In 2006, Straczynski was hired to write a feature film based on the story of King David for Universal by producers Erwin Stoff and Akiva Goldsman.

On April 7, 2010, Kaufman confirmed that a PG-13 remake of The Toxic Avenger was happening and will be produced by Akiva Goldsman.

Zundel Salant was a student of Rabbis Chaim Volozhin and Akiva Eiger whose profoundly good-hearted and humble behavior and simple lifestyle attracted Yisrael Salanter's interest, and Zundel Salant allegedly urged Salanter to focus himself on Musar.

Akiva ben Joseph ( ca. 40 – ca. 137 CE ) simply known as Rabbi Akiva (), was a tanna of the latter part of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century ( 3rd tannaitic generation ).

Akiva ben Joseph ( written עקיבא in the Babylonian talmud, and עקיבה in the Jerusalem Talmud — another form for עקביה ) who is usually called simply Akiva, was of comparatively humble parentage.

) narrates that Akiva at the age of 40, and when he was the father of a numerous family dependent upon him, eagerly attended the academy of his native town, Lod, presided over by Eliezer ben Hyrkanus.

Hyrcanus was a neighbor of Joseph, the father of Akiva.

The fact that Eliezer was his first teacher, and the only one whom Akiva later designates as " rabbi ," is of importance in settling the date of Akiva's birth.

Consequently, according to the legendary tradition that Akiva was 40 when beginning the study of the Law, he must have been born about 40 – 50.

Akiva was a shepherd in the employ of the rich and respected Kalba Sabu ' a, whose daughter took a liking to him, the modest, conscientious servant.

" This pretended poor man was none other than the prophet Elijah, who had come to test Akiva ( Ned.

In 95 – 96 Akiva was in Rome ( H. Grätz, Gesch.

Though so modest, yet when an important matter and not a merely personal one was concerned Akiva could not be cowed by the greatest, as is evidenced by his attitude toward the patriarch Gamaliel II.

Eminent as Akiva was by his magnanimity and moral worthiness, he was still more so by his intellectual capacity, by which he secured an enduring influence upon his contemporaries and upon posterity.

8b should read " Simon ben Gamaliel " instead of Akiva, just as the PesiḲta ( ed.

The following account of his martyrdom is on a high plane and contains a proper appreciation of his principles: when Rufus —" Tyrannus Rufus ," as he is called in Jewish sources — who was the pliant tool of Hadrian's vengeance, condemned the venerable Akiva to the hand of the executioner, it was just the time to recite the Shema.

Akiva refers to the description of God in the Book of Jeremiah as the " Mikveh of Israel ", and suggests that " just as a mikveh purifies the contaminated, so does the Holy One, blessed is he, purify Israel ".

It was just such non-observance of customs that excited the anger of Akiva ( Sotah 27b ).

Rabbi Akiva argued that just as a house proves the existence of the builder and a garment of the weaver, so the world testifies to God as the creator.

Convinced of the necessity of a central authority for Judaism, Akiva became a devoted adherent and friend of Gamaliel, who aimed at constituting the patriarch the true spiritual chief of the Jews ( R. H. ii.

If the older Halakhah is to be considered as the product of the internal struggle between Phariseeism and Sadduceeism, the Halakhah of Akiva must be conceived as the result of an external contest between Judaism on the one hand and Hellenism and Hellenistic Christianity on the other.

Akiva no doubt perceived that the intellectual bond uniting the Jews — far from being allowed to disappear with the destruction of the Jewish state — must be made to draw them closer together than before.

The two perspectives of Torah and Avoda are united together by the ribbon which says Bnei Akiva on it-symbolizing that the two aspects can only and must work hand in hand.

The Jewish Encyclopedia writes that the mention of the " Holy of Holies " in this passage is not an anachronism, as Grätz thinks, for while it is true that Eliezer and Joshua were present as the geonim par excellence at Elisha's circumcision — which must, therefore, have occurred after the death of Johanan ben Zakkai ( 80 )— it is also true that the " Holy of Holies " is likewise mentioned in connection with Rabbi Akiva ( Makkot, end ); indeed, the use of this expression is due to the fact that the Rabbis held holiness to be inherent in the place, not in the building ( Yevamot 6b ).

The part which Akiva is said to have taken in the Bar Kokba revolt cannot be historically determined.

Zarah, 34a, where for " Akiva " should be read " UḲba ," the Babylonian, as Rashi on Ta ' anit, 11b, points out.

2, are probably not to be understood as independent Mishnayot ( δευτερώσεις ) existing at that time, but as the teachings and opinions of Akiva contained in the officially recognized Mishnayot and Midrashim.

But at the same time it is fair to consider the Mishnah of Judah ha-Nasi ( called simply " the Mishnah ") as derived from the school of Akiva ; and the majority of halakic Midrashim now extant are also to be thus credited.

The enormous difference between the Halakhah before and after Akiva may be briefly described as follows: The old Halakhah was, as its name indicates, the religious practice sanctioned as binding by tradition, to which were added extensions, and, in some cases, limitations, of the Torah, arrived at by strict logical deduction.

Akiva made the accumulated treasure of the oral law — which until his time was only a subject of knowledge, and not a science — an inexhaustible mine from which, by the means he provided, new treasures might be continually extracted.

Upon his inquiry as to what these might be for, he received the answer, " There will come a man, named Akiva ben Joseph, who will deduce Halakot from every little curve and crown of the letters of the Law.

: Akiva, noticing a stone at a well that had been hollowed out by drippings from the buckets, said: " If these drippings can, by continuous action, penetrate this solid stone, how much more can the persistent word of God penetrate the pliant, fleshly human heart, if that word but be presented with patient insistency " ( Ab.

By making use of the Rabbinically paradigmatic figures of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael in their writings, the generators of the Heikhalot literature, quite arguably, seem to be attempting to show some sort of connection between their writings and the Chariot / Throne study and practice of the Rabbinic Movement in the decades immediately following upon the destruction of the Temple.

Immediately after this Akivian " solution " to the puzzle of thrones referred to in Song of Songs and the two thrones spoken of in Daniel, Chapter Seven, the text presents Akiva as being pressured — and then acquiescing to — a domesticated version of this twoness theme for the single Jewish God which would be acceptable to Rabbinic officialdom.

In the " four-entered-pardes " section of this portion of the Bavli Gemara on tractate Hagigah, it is the figure of Akiva who seems to be lionized.

Hence, a convert named Akiva would be known, for ritual purposes in a synagogue, as " Akiva ben Avraham Avinu "; in cases where the mother's name is used, such as for the prayer for recovery from an illness, he would be known as " Akiva ben Sarah Imenu ".

During Bar Kokhba's revolt against Roman Empire ( 132-135 ), the supreme religious authority Rabbi Akiva sanctioned Simon bar Kokhba to be a war leader, whereas during the 2nd century Judah haNasi was not only the supreme temporal leader sanctioned by Rome, but also edited the original work of the Mishnah which became the " de-facto constitution " of the world's Jewry.

For example, Hoffmann in The First Mishna sees the present Mishna Avot as having been redacted from three different sources, a Mishna of Rabbi Akiva, a Mishna of Rabbi Meir, and a Mishna of Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi, the originals of which cannot be completely reconstructed due to their thoroughgoing fusion and subsequent manipulation.