What I meant to ask is why “righteousness,” seemingly, serves as a cover for physical and/or psychological problems. After all, the story of Rabbi Akiva and his wife was not brought as one of Rabbah bar bar Hannah’s aggadic tales, but rather to describe (and praise) reality as it was. It is strange in every possible way that a husband and wife would live separately for such a long period without realizing their marital relationship at all (to say the least…). Even if we agree that they really were very great righteous people, perhaps it would have been better to keep quiet and not tell stories that arouse suspicion of problems?

In this case, the suspicion lies in the “criminal mind” of the one doing the suspecting. This is self-sacrifice for Torah that is worthy of great appreciation.

The “criminal mind” cannot figure out where the line runs between normal and abnormal in “self-sacrifice for Torah.” If Rabbi Akiva had been described as “not knowing who the prime minister is, not recognizing his wife and daughters, not knowing what a coin looks like—and being sure that Beit Shemesh is in America,” would that be worthy of great appreciation, or rather of sharing in his pain and feeling great compassion for him, as is fitting for a person on the autism spectrum?

You could also accuse Socrates of mental disorders because he was not shaken by death, because he spoke with a sense of humor before his death. You could accuse Kant because he never left Königsberg all his life, or because he had no desire for a woman. But it is also possible to interpret all these as great people who rose above ordinary needs and clung to reason with all their might.

Indeed, a normal mind understands all this. By the way, all of these are worthy of appreciation for their devotion to Torah, together with criticism for the drawbacks involved.

Hello Shai,
The proofs you brought from the “great ones” are not similar to the case at hand. I asked, both implicitly and explicitly, about types who are not aware of their surroundings; Socrates and Kant were definitely aware of their surroundings…