Rabbi Akiva ben Yosef was one of the greatest sages of Israel, a Tanna of the third generation. His year of birth is unknown: some place it around 50 CE, while tradition puts it around 16-17 CE. According to tradition, his father was a convert or descended from converts. He began as an unlearned shepherd in the service of the wealthy Kalba Savua.

Rachel, Kalba Savua's daughter, noticed his modesty and fine character and betrothed herself to him on condition that he go and study Torah. Her father, enraged, disinherited her, and the couple lived in great poverty. According to Avot deRabbi Natan, Akiva was forty and had learned nothing when, seeing a stone hollowed out by the water of a well, he reasoned that the words of Torah could all the more engrave his heart. He learned the alphabet together with his son, and then studied under Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua. After twelve years he overheard his wife say she would gladly accept twelve more years of absence, and went back; he returned after twenty-four years surrounded by thousands of disciples and told them: "What is mine and what is yours is hers."

He lived in Bnei Brak and in Lod. He developed a method of interpretation that finds meaning in every word and letter of the Torah, and was a leading contributor to the Mishnah and to Midrash Halakha. Among his fundamental teachings: on the verse "Love your neighbor as yourself" he said, "This is a great principle of the Torah"; and in Pirkei Avot, "All is foreseen, yet freedom of choice is given." According to tradition, his twenty-four thousand students died of a plague during the Omer period, and he passed the Torah on to five disciples: Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yosei, Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua.

He was among the supporters of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Arrested by the Romans for teaching Torah in public in defiance of their decree, he was tortured with iron combs in Caesarea and gave up his soul while reciting the Shema, on the word "Echad." He is counted among the Ten Martyrs. Tradition places his death on 9 Tishrei, the eve of Yom Kippur (other traditions: 5 or 10 Tishrei), around 132-136 CE. His burial place is debated: early sources point to Caesarea, while popular tradition, attested since the early thirteenth century, venerates his tomb in Tiberias.