An excerpt from "The Fathers"

The following is excerpts from Jewish Thought and Practice course materials. Both stories are a beautiful vision of a passion for Torah, God's teaching:

"It was reported about Hillel the Elder that every day he used to work and earn one days wage, half which he would give to the guard at the House of Learning, the other half being spent for his food and for that of his family. One day he found nothing to earn and the guard at the House of Learning would not permit him to enter. He climbed up and sat upon the window, to hear the words of the living GOd from the mouth of Shemayah and Abtalion. They say, that day was the eve of Sabbath in the winter solstice and snow fell down upon him from heaven. When the dawn rose, Shemayah said to Abtalion: Brother Abtalion, on every day this house is light and today it is dark, is it perhaps a cloudy day. They looked up and saw the figure of a man in the window. THey went up and found him covered by three cubits of snow...

"[Another ancient Rabbi Akiba] was told: 'It is the water which falls upon it every day, continually.' It was said to him: '"Akiba, hast thou not heard, The waters wear away the stones"?' (Job 14:19) Thereupon Rabbi Akiba drew the inference with regard to himself: If what is soft wears down the hard, all the more shall the words of the Torah, which are as hard as iron, hollow out my heart, which is flesh and blood! Forthwith he turned to the study of Torah.