When Akiva Visited a Sick Student

Gaster, Exempla of the Rabbis, No. 197; Talmud, Nedarim 40a

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·April 19, 2026

R. Akiba visited one of his students, who was very ill. The lady greatly impressed thereby took special care of him and he got well.

Themes

Rabbis Healing Community Ethics

Continue Reading

The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)Rabbi Yose Wept Because Israel Was a Ship of Many BeamsOn his deathbed, Rabbi Yose began to weep. His students, surprised, asked why. He had been a great scholar, a faithful teacher, a man whose life by any reasonab Hebraic Literature (1901)The Rabbi Who Valued Wealth but Honored the Man Beneath ItBuneis, son of Buneis, came to pay a call on Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi. Rabbi, the Prince, the redactor of the Mishnah, the wealthiest and most celebrated sage of h The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)Why Every Jew Is Full of Pious Deeds Like a PomegranateA min, a sectarian or heretic, came to Rabbi Kahana with a pointed question. Jewish law permits a husband and wife to lie in the same bed even when she is nidda Hebraic Literature (1901)Akiva, the Oath, and the Mother in the MarketplaceA difficult case came before the elders. A young man was suspected of illegitimate birth, and the Rabbis disagreed about his status. Rabbi Yehoshua ruled that h The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)Matia ben Heresh Blinds Himself and Is Healed by RaphaelRabbi Matia ben Heresh, a second-century Tanna who founded a Torah academy in Rome during the age of the later Roman emperors, was known among his peers for an Hebraic Literature (1901)How Rabbi Yochanan Kept and Broke an Oath at OnceRabbi Yochanan was suffering from scurvy, a miserable, bleeding affliction of the gums. And the standard remedies were not helping. In desperation he went to a