“Ye ask me why I am merry,” said he; “come now, tell me why ye weep?”

“Because the Bible tells us that a stranger (one not descended from Aaron) who approaches the holy of holies shall be put to death, and now behold the foxes make of it a dwelling-place.  Why should we not weep?”

“Ye weep,” returned Akiba, “from the very reason which causes my heart to be glad.  Is it not written, ’And testify to me, ye faithful witnesses, Uriah, the priest, and Zachariah, the son of Berachiahu?’ Now what hath Uriah to do with Zachariah?  Uriah lived during the existence of the first Temple, and Zachariah during the second.  Know ye not that the prophecy of Uriah is compared to the prophecy of Zachariah.  From Uriah’s prophecy we find, ’Therefore for your sake Zion will be plowed as is a field, and Jerusalem will be a desolation, and the mount of Zion shall be as a forest;’ and in Zachariah we find, ’They will sit, the old men and women, in the streets of Jerusalem.’  Before the prophecy of Uriah was accomplished I might have doubted the truth of Zachariah’s comforting words; but now that one has been accomplished, I feel assured that the promises to Zachariah will also come to pass, therefore am I glad.”

“Thy words comfort us, Akiba,” answered his companions.  “May God ever provide us comfort.”

Still another time, when Rabbi Eleazer was very sick and his friends and scholars were weeping for him, Rabbi Akiba appeared happy, and asked them why they wept.  “Because,” they replied, “our beloved Rabbi is lying between life and death.”  “Weep not, on the contrary be glad therefor,” he answered.  “If his wine did not grow sour, if his flag was not stricken down, I might think that on earth he received the reward of his righteousness; but now that I see my teacher suffering for what evil he may have committed in this world, I rejoice.  He hath taught us that the most righteous among us commit some sin, therefore in the world to come he will have peace.”

* * * * *

While Rabbi Eleazer was sick, the four elders, Rabbi Tarphon, Rabbi Joshua, Rabbi Eleazer, the son of Azoria, and Rabbi Akiba, called upon him.

“Thou art better to Israel than the raindrops to earth, or the raindrops are for this world only, while thou, my teacher, have helped the ripening of fruit for this world and the next,” said Rabbi Tarphon.

“Thou art better to Israel than the sun, for the sun is for this world alone; thou hast given light for this world and the next,” said Rabbi Joshua.

Then spoke Rabbi Eleazer, the son of Azoria:—­

“Thou art better to Israel,” said he, “than father and mother to man.  They bring him into the world, but thou, my teacher, showest him the way into the world of Immortality.”

Then said Rabbi Akiba:—­

“It is well that man should be afflicted, for his distresses atone for his sins.”

“Does the Bible make such an assertion, Akiba?” asked his teacher.