they entered a city where there was a large and imposing synagogue. Rabbi Joshua again was filled with wonder but said nothing, and they proceeded on their journey.Īs the shades of night were falling. In the morning Elijah saw that a wall of the house had collapsed and he immediately restored it. They were coldly received a piece of bread and a glass of water were placed before them. Toward evening they arrived at a large and imposing mansion, the residence of an arrogant and wealthy man. “Look, listen, and be silent,” Elijah replied “if I answer your questions we must part.” “Why did you kill the cow of this good man?” he asked. Then the travelers continued on their way. In the morning Elijah prayed to God that the cow belonging to the poor people should die, and the animal died.

This they did, received every attention from their host and hostess. As they came near, the man and his wife hastened to meet them, begged them to come into their house, eat and drink of the best they had and to pass the night under their roof. They approached the house of a poor man, whose only treasure and means of support was a cow. So the two journeyed through the world together. With your first question, your first expression of astonishment, we must part company.”

“Come, then,” said Elijah “but let your tongue be mute.

They are beyond your comprehension.”īut still the Rabbi implored: “I will neither trouble nor question you only let me accompany you on your way.” “No,” answered Elijah “you would not understand my actions my doings would trouble you. “Let me journey with you in your travels through the world,” the Rabbi entreated Elijah “let me observe your doings so that I may gain in wisdom and understanding.” God granted his prayer, and Elijah appeared before him. Rabbi Joshua ben Levi fasted and prayed to God that he might be permitted to gaze on the prophet Elijah who had ascended alive into heaven. Perhaps her most interesting suggestion is that some of the stories about Elijah are based upon Greek myths about Hermes, and are intended as a humorous Jewish perspective on the relationship between God and man.Issues in Jewish Ethics: Table of Contents| Law & Morality| Medical Ethics Lindbeck uses tools from oral-formulaic studies and from the study of folklore in order to break the stories into sub-sets and to isolate the themes and messages that can be found within them. The stories are really about Elijah’s encounters with those rabbis - how he helps them, teaches them, reprimands them and saves them from sticky situations. The image of Elijah that emerges from these stories is that of a super-rabbi, a character with some special abilities who lives in the same world as the rabbis who created the Talmud. There are almost 40 such stories, and she divides them into several smaller groups with different characteristics. Kristen Lindbeck considers the sum total of stories involving Elijah in the Babylonian Talmud as a cohesive narrative web. In Jewish folklore, he’s a kind of Father Christmas, sipping cups of wine at every Seder and Bris. In the Bible, he’s a forbidding and wrathful prophet, more serious than God. Elijah the Prophet has several different personalities, depending on where you’re looking.

Elijah and the rabbi bible study