Gertcel Davydov - Akiva the Shepherd. English edition

When he reached the gate of his house, Akiva heard the voice of his elderly neighbor, Ishra. The mean old man could not miss an opportunity to jeer at his neighbor either:

What do you say, Akiva? How was your first day at school? – the neighbor asked with a sneer. – Did you make any friends in class?

Akiva said nothing in response and, lowering his head, rushed into the house, where his wife waited for him, her face flushed with delight.

After dinner Akiva told Rachel that he would not be going back to school. He would be better off working more to enable their children, Yehoshua and Shulamit, to study and grow up literate. Hearing her husband say this, Rachel became teary-eyed. She was very offended by Akiva caring so much about what other people thought of him while being completely indifferent to what his wife thought. She understood that it was very difficult for him to be ridiculed by others at his age, but she did not even think of settling for his decision to give up his studies. She did not sleep all night long, and at the first break of dawn she took all the money they had and went to the city market.

After returning home and making breakfast, Rachel woke up her husband and son. She fed them, sent Yehoshua off to school, and then asked her husband to come with her to the backyard. There, Akiva saw a donkey tied to a tree.

– What is this, Rachel? – Akiva asked in bewilderment.

– It’s a donkey, – Rachel replied nonchalantly.

– Where did you get it? And why is it so old, with a dent in its back like a two-humped camel?

– I bought it at the market today.

– And how much did you pay for it?

– Everything we had, – Rachel replied, looking at Akiva with anticipation.

– Rachel! – Akiva exclaimed loudly, grabbing his head. – You gave away all our savings for this old donkey?! Whatever do you need it for? Do you want to show it off to people at the market for money? But it can’t do anything other than eat and sleep!

– Well, you need something to help you carry brushwood, don’t you? This will be your assistant.

– You call that an assistant? For that kind of money you could have at least bought a good donkey! This one may just barely make it all the way to the forest, but on the way back I’ll surely have to carry the brushwood and the donkey on my own back. Then I’ll have a dent in my back in no time too…

– Akiva, please, do everything I tell you and later we’ll decide what to do next, – Rachel entreated her husband.

– What are you up to this time? – Akiva wondered.

Rachel picked up a handful of soil, filled the dent in the donkey’s back with it, took a flower out of a pot and planted it in the middle of the dent. Then she covered it all up with a small shabby rug and said, “Take this donkey to the market with you for a whole week, okay?” She gave her husband an inquiring, hopeful look.

– Rachel, what has come over you? Are you in your right mind?! People are looking for any excuse to poke fun at me as it is, so why are you helping them?

– Akiva, choose, – said Rachel, looking more stern now. – You can either do as I say or go to school with your son tomorrow.

Akiva had to agree:

– Fine, I will do as you ask if that’s what it takes to end this conversation once and for all.

Akiva did not understand what Rachel was up to, but he took the donkey with him to the forest as his wife had instructed him to. After gathering enough dry twigs and loading them onto the animal’s back, he made his way to the market.

Seeing Akiva with a donkey that had a flower growing out of its back, the merchants and shoppers passing by began jeering loudly.

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