Twelve Years and Twelve More

By agreement with his wife, Akiva spent twelve years away from home, learning Torah. When he returned at the end of that time, he stood at the threshold, about to enter, and overheard his wife speaking with a neighbor who criticized his long absence. “If I had my way,” she answered, “he would stay another twelve years at the yeshivah.”

Without crossing the threshold, Akiva turned back to the yeshivah. He returned twelve years later as a famous scholar, escorted by 24,000 talmidim.

When his wife came forward to embrace him, some of his students, who did not know who she was, tried to hold her back. “Leave her alone,” Akiva said. “What I am, and what you are, is hers.”