When Kalba Sabbu'a heard that R. Akiba had married his daughter, he took an oath that she should not benefit from his wealth. So they suffered great poverty and were obliged to sleep on straw all winter, for they had neither pillow nor mattresses. Every morning she combed the straw out of her husband's hair. So he said to her: "When I become rich I will give you a golden bodice embroidered with pearls," like the fine garments they used to wear at that time in Jerusalem.

One day the prophet Elijah came to their door in the guise of an ordinary person and cried: "Dear friends, give me a little straw, for my wife has been confined with a child and I am so poor that I have not even enough straw for her to lie upon. I need not say that I have neither pillows nor covers."

The prophet Elijah said this in order to encourage them by making them believe that there were people in the world much poorer than they. It was then that she told R. Akiba to go out again and study for another twelve years, as you have been told in the previous story.

When he came back he brought twelve thousand more pupils with him. Then she heard a wicked woman behind her house say: "Her father did right in denying her any benefit of his wealth, for this man is not of as good a family as Kalba Sabbu'a, and besides he allows her to lead the life of a widow whilst he is alive."

When she heard this, she said: "If he would listen to me he would go away for twelve years more to study," which he did as you have been told in the previous story.