רבי עקיבא איגר

Rabbi Akiva Eiger is the sharpest of the sharp of the last generations, and one whose greatness in Torah was matched only by his humility. The rabbi of Posen, a genius whose difficulties every yeshiva student knows, 'a hard question of Rabbi Akiva Eiger,' which pierced to the depth of every passage and revealed in it what no one had seen. His novellae and responsa are studied in every house of study.

But one who reads his letters discovers a man humble to the dust. He asked that no eulogy be given for him and called himself by names of smallness, and when honor was offered him he avoided it. The immense sharpness and the deep humility lived in him together, as tradition teaches: where you find his greatness, there you find his humility.

And here too is kindness: during the cholera epidemic in Posen, Rabbi Akiva Eiger personally organized the care of the sick, saw to conditions of hygiene, and even permitted reducing public prayer to prevent infection. The great genius did not sit within his four cubits but came down to the distress of his city and saved lives.

What do we learn from him? That the greatest sharpness must sit together with the deepest humility, and that a true genius is not detached from the distress of his townspeople. Rabbi Akiva Eiger teaches that greatness in Torah is measured also by care for human life, and that one whose difficulties shake houses of study can with that same heart come down to the sickbed.