Rachel reminds Akiva that it is now time to go off to Yeshiva and learn. He studies at the Yeshiva run by Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua. In time he attains equal footing. After twelve years, he acquires a following of twelve thousand students!
Rabbi Akiva returns home to visit his wife. Neighbors question how he stays away from family obligations for such a long period. The Gemara does not relate what happens with Rachel during this period.
As Rabbi Akiva approachs his residence, he hears a nosy neighbor ask Rachel “how long will you allow yourself to be treated like a widow and wait for your husband to return from Yeshiva? Your father is right about telling you not to marry this man! He does not come from as fine a family as yours.” Rachel replies that she does not mind because it is for a good cause and will even wait another twelve years if she must. When he hears this, Akiva decides to return back to Yeshiva for another twelve years.
Twelve years pass again without any recorded communication between Rachel and Akiva. At the end of twenty-four years, He now has twenty-four thousand students!
He returns home, to stay. Rachel hears that he is on his way back and goes out to greet him.
Neighbors tell her to go and put on better clothing so that he will not be disappointed in her looks. She replies that she does not need to as Akiva knows her for what she is and will not be disappointed.
Upon sightng, Rachel runs to him and falls to the ground and kisses his feet. His students who escort him are upset and try to push her away. They admonish her that a woman should not show such display of affection to a man in public. Rabbi Akiva tells his students to leave her alone. He says that whatever merits he and the students have in learning all these years are all because of her.
In the meantime Ben Kalba Savu’a hears that a famous and powerful Rabbi is coming to town and thinks that it is a good idea to publicly greet him. He has remorse over his vow to disown his daughter for marrying a poor ignoramus. He takes pity on her struggles and hears that a great Rabbi by himself can annul a vow whereas one normally needs three Rabbinical judges.
He does not realize that it is his son-in-law, the person he rejects many years earlier that he is coming to greet.. When they meet he tells Akiva of his desire to take back his oath. Akiva asks him if he had known that his son-in-law would master Torah, would he have made such a vow?
Savu’a replies that if his son-in-law had known only even one verse, he would not have made such a vow. The commentators of later years use this response as proof that when Akiva is still a shepherd even at the age of 40, he is totally unlearned in Torah.
Akiva reveals himself to his father-in-law. Savu’a falls on the ground and kisses Akiva’s feet. He now vows to give half of his property to his daughter. This makes the couple now of means but the Gemara goes on to elaborate on a total of five incidents that makes them even wealthier. They are:
1. From the head of a ram on the top of a ship.
All ships have a masthead symbol that represents its ownership and power. When the sailors unload cargo, they also remove the masthead for safekeeping. One such ship has a masthead made of precious metal. At one call to port, the sailors neglect to bring back the ram’s head with them to the boat. One day, Akiva comes across the ram’s head. Inside the ram, he finds it is stuffed with gold. Since there is no way to know to whom the masthead belongs, he is allowed to keep the gold.
2. A treasure chest.
He gives four coins to sailors to find a specific item. They bring him a chest that is lying on the shore that has been left as an apparently discarded storage container. They tell him to sit on it while they go get the item that he wants.
After they leave, Akiva opens up the chest and finds gold coins. How did it get there? He presumes it is from a ship that has sunk in the water and the spoils floated to shore. The sailors never return. Either they think they have taken him for four coins or their captain orders them back.
3. He recovers money lost apparently by traveling Arab merchants.
4. From a wealthy Roman lady.
One time, Akiva borrows money from a wealthy matron to be returned after a designated period of time. She stipulates that he must use Hashem as my co-signer. She believes that Hashem will not let him make a promise in vain. In the meantime, she goes on a sea voyage while he is quite sick. She resigns herself to believing that he will not pay back the loan at the proscribed time. Standing at the boat’s railing, she looks up to Heaven and tells Hashem that she knows that he is unable to pay back the loan but hopes that Hashem will keep his part of the bargain.
At the same time, the daughter of the Emperor is on a pleasure cruise and the heat gets to her. She takes a chestful of money and throws it overboard. The treasure chest floats over to the boat of the matron. She grabs it and discovers her new-found treasure and apparent payback. She also sees how Hashem has seemingly answered her request with even more than is owed her. She feels that Hashem has a special hand in this and decides to give the money in excess of what he owes her to Akiva.
5. The wife of Turnus Rufus, the Governor of Judea appointed by the Romans.
The Gemara does not elaborate on how he acquires money from her but the commentary of Ran explains that he gets into much debate with both Turnus and his wife. He admits that he baits them and usually wins the arguments. This frustrates both of them and they conspire to trap him into being publicly shamed. Turnus gives his wife permission to seduce Akiva. She dresses up in romantic clothing and approaches him. When Akiva sees her, he does three things- laugh, cry and spit. Exasperated, she asks why he does such things.
Akiva explains he spits because he is reviled that such beauty comes from something so despicable (a drop of semen), He says he cries because she will eventually die and her beauty will turn to rot in the ground.
to be continued