nts, and upon
Aher (Elisha ben Abuya) it had disastrous effects. Ben Azzai died
young. Ben Zoma went mad and Elisha ben Abuyah repudiated Judaism.
Wherefore the Rabbis never mentioned his name but always spoke of him
as "_Aher_" ("the Other").

Akiba's philosophy and ethics are revealed in the following sayings:

"Labor is honorable to man."

"They err who say I will sin now and repent after. The day of
atonement brings no forgiveness to the insincere." This saying is
strikingly similar to Dante's famous line in the Inferno: "No one can
repent and will at once."

The eternal problem why the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper is
answered by Akiba in this way. The righteous are punished in this
world for their few sins, so that in the next world they may receive
only reward. The wicked on the other hand are rewarded here for what
little good they do, so that in the next world they may receive only
punishment.

"Beloved are Israel, for they are called children of the All-present,
as it is said, 'Ye are children unto the Lord your God.' Beloved are
Israel for unto them was given the desirable instrument by which the
world was created, as it is written 'For I give you good doctrine,
forsake ye not my Torah.'" Israel is therefore the Chosen People. Nay
more. In another place Akiba says, "Even the poorest of Israel are
looked upon as nobles," and even R. Ishmael agreed with him that
"Every Jew is a royal prince." Our motto to-day of "noblesse oblige"
is the same thought in a strange tongue. "By which the world was
created" means that Akiba identified the Torah with "Wisdom," which is
described in Proverbs, in that famous chapter beginning "Doth not
wisdom cry and understanding put forth her voice?" as having been "set
up from everlasting, from the beginning before the earth was."
Adapting the opening verse of John, Akiba could very well have said,
"In the beginning was the Torah and the Torah was with God," but he
certainly would not have said, "and the Torah was God."

"Everything is foreseen," Akiba goes on to say, "yet freedom of choice
is given; and the world is judged by grace, yet all is according to
the amount of work." His doctrine of "grace" and "works" was that
"grace" is acquired through works, or in non-theological language,
God's favor goes to the man of good deeds. This was in opposition to
the Christian teaching that "grace" came through faith alone. God's
justice is tempered with mercy; yet even di