Rabbi Akiva on What Each Word of Torah Is Worth

Gaster, Exempla of the Rabbis No. 90

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

R. Akiba when asked how great was the value of the Law, said “Each word is worth thousands of gold and silver coins.” Citing Ps. CXIX, 72.

Themes

Torah Study Rabbis Wisdom

Biblical References

Psalm 119:72

Continue Reading

The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)Rabbi Safra Roughly Handled for a Haggadah He Could Not AnswerThere is a brief, bruising story preserved in Gaster's Exempla (no. 294, 1924) about Rabbi Safra, a well-known legal scholar of the Babylonian tradition. One da The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)Why God Gives Wisdom Only to the WiseA Roman matrona once posed a sharp question to Rabbi Yose ben Halafta. "Your Bible says, 'He gives wisdom to the wise' (Daniel 2:21). But this makes no sense. A Hebraic Literature (1901)The Eighty Disciples of Hillel and the Least of ThemThe venerable Hillel had eighty disciples. That number is not a boast but a ledger. The rabbis kept careful count. Thirty of those eighty, they said, were worth Hebraic Literature (1901)Maimonides Escapes Egypt and Writes the Mishneh TorahA folk legend survived about how Moses ben Maimon, known to the world as Maimonides or the Rambam (1138-1204), supposedly fled the court of his king in Egypt. T Hebraic Literature (1901)Rabbi Eliezer's Last Words on Unasked QuestionsNear the end of his life, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus lay on his sickbed and pressed his disciples with a strange complaint. Had you come to study with me during Hebraic Literature (1901)Maimonides and the Second Law for the Whole WorldRabbi Moshe ben Maimon, known by Jews as the Rambam and by the wider world as Maimonides (1138 to 1204), did something no one had done before him. He took the v