the precepts of the Torah. The Mishnah read the words "and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart" in to teach that one should love God with one's two impulses — the evil impulse and the good — and thus that a person should bless God for the evil in the world as well as the good. The Mishnah read the words "with all your soul" in to mean that one should love God even if it means God takes one's life. And the Mishnah read the words "with all your might" in to mean with all one's wealth. Alternatively, "with all your might (me'odeka)" means that one should love God whatever "measure" (middah, a play on me'odeka) God metes out. The Rabbis taught that once the Roman government forbade Jews to study the Torah. Pappus ben Judah found Rabbi Akiva publicly gathering people to study Torah and asked Akiva whether he did not fear the government. Akiva replied with a parable: A fox was once walking alongside of a river, and he saw fish swimming from one place to another. The fox asked the fish from what they fled. The fish replied that they fled from the nets cast by men. The fox invited the fish to come up onto the dry land, so that they could live together as the fox's ancestors had lived with the fish's ancestors. The fish replied that for an animal described as the cleverest of animals, the fox was rather foolish. For if the fish were afraid in the element in which they live, how much more would they fear in the element in which they would die. Akiva said that it was the same with Jews. If such was the Jews’ condition when they sat and studied Torah, of which says, "that is your life and the length of your days," how much worse off would Jews be if they neglected the Torah! Soon afterwards, the Romans arrested and imprisoned Rabbi Akiva, and the Romans arrested Pappus ben Judah and imprisoned him next to Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva asked Pappus who had brought him there. Pappus replied that Rabbi Akiva was happy that he had been seized for occupying himself with the Torah. Pappus regretted that he had been seized for occupying himself with idle things. When the Romans took Rabbi Akiva out for execution, it was the