in thick, black cloud. It poured with heavy rain all day. Despite the weather, Akiva drove the herd to the river again impatient to see Rachel appear. He waited for several hours but the rain was only getting heavier and the herd threatened to scatter in all directions with every new clap of thunder. Akiva was forced to drive them back to the fold and return to his lodgings earlier than usual. He couldn’t be tempted by supper on this occasion either. One thought replaced another, making him ever gloomier. «Have I really lost her? Will she really belong to someone else?» Avaricious tears built up like shining dew on Akiva’s lashes. «If I don’t see her again I’ll die.»
Akiva tried to eradicate persistent thoughts of his separation with Rachel from his mind. «Perhaps the reason she didn’t come to the pasture like she used to, is because of the unrelenting rain.» Akiva comforted himself.
«Yes, that’s it!» Akiva felt calmer when he realised that it must have been due to the rain that he hadn’t seen Rachel, in addition to which, he had been forced to drive the sheep into the fold much earlier than he usually did. That would explain it.
Then a thought suddenly occurred to him. «What if Rachel decided to come out anyway, despite the terrible weather, and is waiting for me there, whilst I, fool, sit here in the warm. I’ll go now to the river. If Rachel is by the river, she will be cold and soaked to the skin by now.»
Without even stopping to put on his coat, Akiva hurriedly left his room dressed just in a thin shirt and linen trousers, and ran towards the river. It was dark outside and the heavy rain lashed across Akiva’s face. He ran along the wet, slippery road, fell and picked himself up again continuing towards the river. His clothes were soaked in mud but he didn’t mind and hurried onwards. He made for the summerhouse found it empty. The realisation that Rachel had not been there that day at all cut with bitter disappointment.
Akiva imagined the worst. Rachel had accepted the proposal of one of the yeshiva students and they were already celebrating the happy event. Morose thoughts took even greater hold on him driving him to the edge of despair. The thought that Rachel already belonged to another, that he would never see her again broke his heart.
He stood there getting drenched in the pouring rain and it was a long time before he could take his eyes off the empty summerhouse in the hope that Rachel would finally make a sudden appearance. He waited but eventually had to admit that Rachel wasn’t coming and he sank into the madness of despair. Salty tears streamed down his cheeks. The incessant rain washed away the tears from the face of the grown man but his tears came back with ever more force. Akiva hadn’t cried since childhood but now, he just could not help himself. The tears came stronger and stronger.
«What are you crying for?» said Akiva to the rain as he fell to his knees in the mud. He raised his hands to the sky, and said, «You’re not in love like I am. You can’t imagine how wonderful she is or what it is like to have to live another day without seeing her. My head is filled with stupid thoughts but there’s nothing I can do about it. Why, oh why couldn’t we see each other today? Is it because of you that she didn’t come today? Is it all your fault? Why do you pour and pour? Why do you want to separate us? Can’t you see I’m suffering? Can’t you understand that I’ll die without her? She is all that I have in life. She is my last hope of happiness.» Akiva took a few deep breaths before his words came spilling out again, «Rain, once you gave me the greatest gift of my life, you gave me the chance to see Rachel. On that unforgettable day, you rained incessantly, and Rachel and I met in the summerhouse that I’m looking at now. That was the happiest day of my life, and now you have torn us apart. Before I met Rachel, I was blind. I didn’t see anything, didn’t know the joys of this world. After meeting Rachel I grew up. I understood at last that life can be wonderful, that there is a person in this world for whom I would willingly give my life. And now you want to take from me my sight? Why did you show me the light only to blind me again? It would have been better if I had stayed blind and never met her at all. It is easier for a person who is blind from birth and has no idea of what the visual world is like, than for someone who has been able to see, has admired all the colours of the world and then lost their sight. The pain is unbearable.»
Akiva quietened down for a moment and remembering Rachel’s voice, he muttered, «She called my name and from her lips it was the sound of sweet music and now, because of you, I can’t hear or even see her.»
Drawing as much air as possible into his lungs, Akiva gazed up at the sky and ignoring the rain, he shouted with all his might «Rain! I hate you! I hate the whole world!» Akiva tore at his chest with a cry but the rain drowned out the sound of his words.
«Why should I be denied the right to be happy? Surely it’s not my fault that I am poor and have to earn my living doing physical work? I know you’re crying because we both used to be lonely and unhappy but now I have Rachel, my Rachel, and I am the happiest man in the world. You’re just jealous. No-one loves you. As soon as you show your face, people hide from you and return to their homes but I have finally fallen in love and you won’t spoil it! You think I’m just a simple shepherd who mistook her polite conversation for affection, who mistook compassion for love. Maybe that’s how it is. Maybe I did just make it all up.»
Akiva paused and the rain hammered down even harder. He was soaked to the skin but barely noticed it and had already decided on his next desperate step for the sake of his true love.
«I can’t endure this uncertainty any longer. I’ll go right now to Kalba Savua and talk to him. What will be will be. Maybe he’ll understand after all and agree to give me Rachel’s hand in marriage and if he doesn’t, I’ll give up my life. I don’t need this world without her.»
Akiva got up and in his muddy clothes, set off decisively in the direction of Kalba Savua’s house. He wiped his tears away with his hand and went over in his mind the words he would say to Rachel’s father. The tears carried on streaming down his cheeks and he brushed them away with his palm which was plastered in clay. «Where are all these tears coming from? I haven’t cried since I was a child,» thought Akiva. «My soul must have warmed and softened since I met Rachel and everything in me that was sleeping all these years has now been awakened.»
As he approached the house, the shepherd saw the old servant locking the front door for the night. Akiva spoke to him and asked him to let him in so he could meet with Kalba Savua. Seeing the shepherd’s tatty appearance, the servant tried to find out what was going on but Akiva insisted that the servant let him into the house. Rachel, whose windows looked out onto the yard heard the two men arguing and looked out of the window to see what was happening. Rachel recognised Akiva and seeing that the elderly servant was refusing to let Akiva into the house, she dressed swiftly and went downstairs.
«What’s going on?» Rachel asked the servant.
«The shepherd, Akiva, wants to talk to your father, lady. I’ve told him that it isn’t an appropriate time and that Kalba Savua has already retired for the evening,» the servant explained anxiously.
«Go inside. I shall talk to him myself,» Rachel instructed.
Rachel walked towards Akiva who was covered in mud and trembling with cold. Water was dripping from his clothing and his eyes still ran with tears, except that now they were tears of happiness.
«Akiva,» Rachel asked anxiously, looking at his face, «What’s happened? Why do you want to see my father? Has someone insulted you?»
«No,» said Akiva humbly, dropping his head fall so that Rachel would not see that he was weeping.
«You are soaked. You’ll catch your death of cold. Wait here and I’ll bring you some warm clothes,» said Rachel.
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