Rabbi Akiva

The shepherd who started learning at forty and became the alphabet's greatest reader — deriving mountains of law from the crownlets on letters. Of the four who entered the Orchard, the only one who "entered in peace and left in peace." Declared the Song of Songs the Holy of Holies. Died with the Shema on his lips, stretching the word "One" until his soul left inside it — the tradition's benchmark exit.