Rabbi Akiva's Wife אשת רבי עקיבא

Ketubot tells it thus. Akiva tended the flocks of Ben Kalba Savua. The master's daughter saw that he was modest and good, and said: if I betroth myself to you, will you go and study? He said yes. She betrothed herself to him secretly and sent him away. Her father, on learning of it, made a vow cutting her off from all his property.

They lived in such poverty that they slept on straw, and he would pick the straw out of her hair. It was then that the words most often quoted were said: if I had the means, I would give you a Jerusalem of gold.

He went away for twelve years and came back with twelve thousand students. Standing at the door, he heard a neighbour taunt her: how many years will you live as a widow with a living husband? — and heard her answer: if he listened to me, he would stay there another twelve. He turned and went for another twelve years.

He returned with twenty-four thousand. She came out to meet him in rags, and the students, not knowing who she was, began to push her aside. He said: let her be. "What is mine and what is yours is hers."

On the name. In the Gemara itself — neither in Ketubot nor in Nedarim — is she named: everywhere she is "the daughter of Ben Kalba Savua." The name Rachel comes from later tradition, and so this article calls her what the source calls her.