Rabbi Akiva and the Alef Bet

In the Shavuos edition of this year's Inyan magazine I saw an article about Alef Beis that asks the following question on this passage from Avos D'Rabbi Noson, Ch.6 (Version A):

What were Akiva's beginnings? 

It is said: Up to the age of forty, he had not yet studied a thing. One time, while standing by the mouth of a well in Lydda, he inquired, "Who hollowed out this stone?" and was told, "Akiva, haven't you read that 'water wears away stone' (Job 14:19)? - it was water falling upon it constantly, day after day."

At that, Rabbi Akiva asked himself: Is my mind harder than this stone? I will go and study at least one section of Torah. He went directly to a schoolhouse, and he and his son began reading from a child's tablet. Rabbi Akiva took hold of one end of the tablet, and his son of the other end. The teacher wrote down alef and get for him, and he learned them; alef to tav, and he learned them; the book of Leviticus, and he learned it. He went on studying until he learned the whole Torah.

 

Why was there a need for Akiva to study Alef Bet, when his knowledge of Tanach must have been prodigious, He knew the verse from Job 14:19, so he must have known how to read, and quite a bit of Tanach as well.

The author, whose name I unfortunately no longer recall, suggests that what R. Akiva learned was not the just the shapes and forms of the letters but the entire mystical tradition relating to the alphabet.

 

If so, however, why was his young son studying it with him?

 

I would suggest two other approaches:

 

1.R. Akiva certainly knew how to read but now he was about to launch on the study of Torah Shebaal Peh. The Alphabet is the most basic expression of Oral law, as indicated in this Talmudic passage in Shabbos 31a, and he had to relearn it as a part of Torah Shabbal Peh, or this dimension of the Oral tradition would be missing from him:

 

A case occurred, a Nochri came in front of Shamai; he asked, how many Toros do you have.

1.Shamai: We have two, written and oral.

2.The Nochri: I believe you about the written Torah, not about the oral Torah - convert me on condition that you will teach written Torah to me!

3.Shamai angrily drove him away.

4.The Nochri came in front of Hillel; Hillel converted him. The first day, Hillel taught him Aleph, Beis, Gimel, Dalet; the next day, Hillel reversed the order of the letters.

5.The Nochri: Yesterday you taught differently!

6.Hillel: You rely on me to know the letters - you can also rely on me regarding oral Torah!

 

2. Some day , he knew that he will no longer be Akiva, but Rabbo Akiva, the great Sage from whom many will come to learn. He will receive many questions. One day a questioner will ask him how to teach Alef Beis, and he would not know. This is why he started again from the beginning.

One sometimes encounters rabbis whose learning did not start from Alef Beis. They gained a lot of knowledge but missed absorbing the authentic attitude and feeling of Yiddishkeit. They can handle the data but not the Spirit of the Law. They can answer technical questions but not teach the inner dimension. They don't understand why something that is not clearly forbidden might still be inadvisable. R. Akiva did not want to become such a rabbi, and, even though he could read, he elected to start his education again from the beginning.

 

 

Three Rabbis: