The story has been told that late one afternoon, as the sun was beginning to set in the west, Rabbi Akiva was walking along the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee on his way home to Capernaum. Rabbi Akiva was doing what most God-fearing, God-honoring Jews would be doing with their spare time, he was meditating and reciting the Hebrew Scriptures.
Rabbi Akiva was so focused upon the text that he didn’t realize that instead of taking a left turn toward the city gates of Capernaum, he had taken a right turn and as the sun sank behind the mountains, he found that the path he had followed had taken him to the large gate of a Roman fortress. As Rabbi Akiva stood in front of the gate realizing what had happened, he heard a loud voice coming down from above the gate. It was the voice of a Roman Century Guard standing on the top of the wall. The guard had shouted down to this stranger:
“WHO ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?”
Rabbi Akiva was startled and could only respond to these frightening words with, “WHAT?”
Again the guard called out,
“WHO ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?”
Rabbi Akiva had a few moments to gather his thoughts and he shouted back up into the dark at the Roman Guard:
“HOW MUCH DO YOU GET PAID TO ASK ME THESE QUESTIONS?”
The guard was now confused as to why this stranger would ask such a question in response, so after a few moments of silence he said, “TWO DRACHMA PER WEEK!” (Now a drachma was worth about a day’s wage.)
Then Rabbi Akiva, with intense conviction shouted back to this Roman Century:
“I’LL PAY YOU DOUBLE IF YOU STAND OUTSIDE OF MY HOUSE AND ASK ME THOSE TWO QUESTIONS EVERY MORNING!”
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“WHO ARE YOU?” and “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?”