When the Romans made it a capital offense to study Torah, Rabbi Akiba continued to teach openly, gathering great assemblies of students in public. Pappos ben Yehuda found him and was horrified.
"Akiba, are you not afraid of the government?" Pappos demanded. The Romans were executing anyone caught studying Torah. Why was Rabbi Akiba courting death?
Rabbi Akiba answered with the parable of the fox and the fish, preserved in the Talmud (Berakhot 61b). "A fox was walking along a riverbank and saw fish darting back and forth in the water, fleeing from something. 'What are you running from?' asked the fox. 'From the nets that humans cast for us,' the fish replied."
"The fox said: 'Come up onto dry land, and we will live together as my ancestors lived with your ancestors.' But the fish answered: 'Are you the one they call the cleverest of animals? You are not clever — you are a fool. If we are in danger in the water, which is our element and our life, how much more so on dry land, which is our death?'"
Rabbi Akiba turned to Pappos. "We are like those fish. Torah is the water in which we live. Yes, we are in danger while we study it. But if we abandon Torah, we are surely dead — not merely in body, but in soul. If we must choose between danger with Torah and safety without it, the choice is clear."
Pappos understood. And when Rabbi Akiba was later arrested and executed by the Romans, he died with the words of the Shema on his lips — still swimming in the waters of Torah.