In Roman-occupied Judea, after the Temple had burned and the sacrificial system that held a people together had been reduced to ash, an illiterate shepherd who didn't pick up a scroll until his forties became one of the most important legal minds his tradition ever produced. His name was Akiva ben Joseph, and what he understood about justice --- that it must be rooted in love, that law exists to serve the person and not the other way around, that the quality of a civilization's justice is the truest measure of its spiritual advancement --- still matters more than we have yet fully reckoned with. This is his story.

Read the transcript

Share and read comments.