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Home / Jewish law and estates / The Talmud says Kalba Savua disinherited his daughter for marrying the shepherd Akiva, then…
Case file s1366 · Jewish law and estates · 70
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20171212 130500-rachel-wife-of-rabbi-akiva-grave-tverya: Tomb of Rachel in Tiberias
20171212 130500-rachel-wife-of-rabbi-akiva-grave-tverya. Rakoon. CC0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
about 70 CE (traditional dating)
Place
Jerusalem · Israel and Palestine
Field
landowner and merchant; Torah scholarship · Land and agriculture on the timeline
Legal tradition
Jewish law of vows (a father's vow barring a child from his property) · Jewish and biblical law
Historical event
Roman siege of Jerusalem, 70 CE
Jewish law and estatesCut out of the willConditions from the graveAncient worldMiddle EastIsrael and Palestine

Scripture: this account comes from a sacred text. Court and archive records of it do not exist.

The Talmud says Kalba Savua disinherited his daughter for marrying the shepherd Akiva, then gave him half his fortune

The Babylonian Talmud says Akiva was a shepherd for Ben Kalba Savua, one of the richest men in Jerusalem. Kalba Savua's daughter saw that Akiva was modest and refined. She betrothed herself to him in secret on condition that he go and study Torah. Her father found out, threw her out of his house and took a vow that she would have no benefit from any of his property. Akiva studied for 12 years. Coming home, he heard a man tell his wife that her father had been right to disinherit her. She answered that her husband should study 12 more years. Akiva turned back. He returned after 24 years with 24,000 students. His wife, in poor clothes, fell at his feet; his students pushed her away; he told them that his learning and theirs was hers. Kalba Savua went to the great rabbi to have his vow annulled, not knowing who he was. Akiva asked whether he would have made the vow had he known the man would become a scholar. He said no. Akiva said, "I am he." Kalba Savua gave him half his wealth. The Talmud also names Kalba Savua as one of three men whose storehouses could feed besieged Jerusalem, and says the Zealots burned them. The Jewish Encyclopedia calls the marriage story "probably without any historical foundation"; it does not appear in Palestinian sources.

What the law took from it

A vow of disinheritance made in anger was annulled when the father learned what his son-in-law had become.

Sources
  1. sefaria.orgPress
  2. sefaria.orgPress
  3. sefaria.orgPress
  4. jewishencyclopedia.comPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “The Talmud says Kalba Savua disinherited his daughter for marrying the shepherd Akiva, then gave him half his fortune,” story s1366, https://www.celebrity.estate/kalba-savua-rabbi-akiva-70, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Jewish law and estatesCut out of the willConditions from the graveAncient worldMiddle EastJewish and biblical lawIsrael and Palestine