Yatza letarbut ra'ah (He Went off to an Evil Culture: Elisha ben Abuya - "Aher") by Nurit Be'eri, Yedioth Aharonoth Books ("Judaism Here and Now" series ?) 212 pages, NIS 88
Elisha ben Abuya, a member of the third generation of the Tanna'im (the rabbinic sages who wrote the Mishnah), was a contemporary of Rabbi Akiva and Simon Bar Kokhba and the teacher of Rabbi Meir. In the stories of the Talmudic sages he is referred to as "Aher" ("Other," in Hebrew), because he "mutilated the shoots" (became an apostate) after delving into mysticism with Akiva, Ben Zoma and Ben Azai. Aher is a figure who was ultimately not completely expelled from the Jewish people, but rather managed to hover: He is considered someone who was neither completely "in" nor "out," while at the same time being both partly "in" and "out."
In the centuries following the Talmudic period, from the Middle Ages to the modern era, Aher's name practically disappears from the collective memory, and we are left with the sense of excommunication. In modern times, however, Elisha ben Abuya rebounded to the public memory, in both Hebrew literature and ideology, becoming a reference [character] for authors and ideologues who found themselves on the border between the traditional Jewish world and the world of Western culture -- as one who had "hovered" himself between two cultures, he symbolized their situation.
Thus, for example, the writer and early Zionist Moshe Leib Lilienblum published the satire "Mishnat Elisha ben Abuya" (1878), to which he added a commentary in which he preached a working lifestyle. This he based on the story in the Jerusalem Talmud (the Yerushalmi) that suggested Aher had done the same: "When he entered the synagogue and saw children studying Torah, he would say, 'What are they doing sitting here? That one should be a builder that one a carpenter' and since they heard him, they would leave and go to those [professions]."
Yiddish playwright Yaakov Gordin, in his "Elisha Ben Abuya" (1906), presents the character as a modern scholar of secular literature who works to improve relations between Jews and gentiles. It's a narrative that's based on a story in the Babylonian Talmud (the Bavli), which reported that "when he stood in the study hall, many secular books would fall from his robes," in the same way that many yeshiva students of Gordin's day were believed to have peeked at secular culture - and been harmed by it. Nurit Be'eri mentions these and other writers, as well as historians and scholars of Judaism who were curious about Elisha's character, at the beginning of her fascinating and impressive book. After reviewing the findings of positive historical research, she proffers an interpretive-literary path in the footsteps of researchers whose starting point was literary and non-historical.
Be'eri is dubious of the possibility that one can reconstruct historical or biographical events on the basis of Talmudic texts. To her mind, the historical truth is not the focus of those texts, but rather a picture of reality as perceived by the sages. She seeks to expose the significance of the various traditions of the stories about Elisha as they appear in both the Yerushalmi and the Bavli. In both editions, it is the second chapter of Tractate Hagiga that devotes a large section to the passage, "Four entered the orchard," a reference to the dangerous entry of Elisha, Akiva, Ben Zoma and Ben Azai into the world of mysticism. Following in the footsteps of Micha Yosef Berdyczewski, who distinguished between the Israeli and Babylonian sources, Be'eri embarks on a renewed and critical journey into the texts, in an attempt to show that their respective editors had different agendas and messages to convey.
In the first part of her book, Be'eri deals with the stories about Elisha to be found in the Yerushalmi, and moves on in the second part to the Bavli. She traces the lines of reasoning of the editors of each of the Talmuds, dissects the stories, reassembles them and presents their linguistic differences, by which they reveal different connotations to various Biblical verses.
What principle differences did Be'eri find? The Jerusalem Talmud makes a connection between the time and place (Israel in the first half of the 2nd century C.E., during the Bar Kokhba Revolt), on the one hand, and the process of Elisha Ben Abuya's transformation into Aher ("a tragic personal story that is a side effect of the greater national tragedy," is the way she puts it), on the other. Aher was unable to maintain his faith after a terrible event - the revolt had devastating consequences for the Jews of Palestine, a majority of whom were killed, enslaved or exiled by Rome - for which he could find no justification.
According to Yerushalmi, he saw value neither in righteous deeds nor in possessing Torah knowledge, and he was unwilling to accept R. Akiva's view that "suffering is to be cherished" in this world, because the reward will be given in the next world. The Jerusalem Talmud (Hagiga 77b) finds an additional explanation for Aher's straying, connected to a fate determined long before the event: "His mother, when she was pregnant with him, would pass by houses of idol worship and smell [their offerings]. The aroma seeped into his body like the venom of a snake." Furthermore, his father, who was among the wealthiest men in Jerusalem, sent him to learn Torah - not because he loved learning Torah, but rather due to the future honor that would be paid him as a sage. Such Torah will not endure in a person whose fate leads him down such a path.
The Yerushalmi also presents Elisha's intellectual powers as being greater than the Talmudic knowledge of his student R. Meir. Elisha is presented as an ethical person who does not want his student to transgress by desecrating Shabbat. When the two are walking together on the day of rest, and they reach the city limits, he says, "Only until here." Elisha continues beyond that point, whereas R. Meir remains within the permitted area. R. Meir, who tried with all his might to convince Elisha to repent during his lifetime, but was unsuccessful, kept up the effort even as Elisha was dying and after his death.
At the moment of Elisha's death, it seemed to R. Meir that Elisha "departed in a state of repentance," and after his death, extinguished the fire that erupted over his grave because "A Torah case is to be rescued [out of a fire on Shabbat] along with the scroll." The Yerushalmi also emphasized the greatness of Elisha's redemption in the story about his daughters, who many years later went to Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi for financial support. He agreed only after they said to him, "Do not look at his [our father's] deeds. Look at all the Torah he learned." This, ostensibly, marked his redemption from excommunication.
The story of Aher in the Babylonian Talmud, on the other hand, is quite different. It is devoid of historical background, with no indications of time and specific place. The story takes place in heaven, on earth and in hell, and lacks the biographical details of his birth, although it does end in the generation of Rabbi Yohanan, four generations later. Whereas the Yerushalmi seldom uses the name "Aher," this is not the case with the Bavli, which presents Elisha's character as more radical.
After the tale of the orchard, the Bavli relates a story of Elisha in heaven, in the heavenly orchard, where he sees the archangel Metatron sitting and recording "the merits of Israel." Elisha is astounded by this, because the old tradition says that angels do not sit, and if Metatron is sitting, it must mean that he is not an angel and, "perish the thought, there are two divinities." In response to this doubt, which made him suspect of heresy and Gnosticism, a heavenly voice boomed, "Return, O backsliding children - except Aher." That was Elisha's "mutilation of the shoots." Unlike in the Yerushalmi, in the Bavli he is punished for his actions: for riding his horse on Yom Kippur that was all the more holy for having fallen on Shabbat.
Why was he punished so severely for having doubts? Be'eri believes it is because Elisha chose the simplistic answer and not the solution that "permission was granted," as suggested by R. Akiva. God granted "permission" to Metatron and he grants permission for individual repentance. Elisha did not accept the possibility of such a provisional solution, as is required in a complex reality. He sees only a dualistic possibility. Once he heard the divine voice say "except Aher," he left the path of Torah and his first stop was a visit to a harlot, and with this blatant action, he left Jewish observance.
The Bavli also differs from the Yerushalmi in that it shows no mutual affection between R. Meir and Elisha, who are presented as debating and trying to outsmart one another. The Bavli rescinds the merit of Elisha's Torah knowledge after a child quotes a verse from Psalms, "But to the wicked God says, 'What hast thou to do to declare my statutes.'" Elisha kills the child, or according to some opinions, wanted to kill him, and this puts him outside society.
After his death, the story moves to heaven. He is found to merit not being sent to hell "because he engaged in the study of Torah," but he also could not gain entry to paradise. Just as he hovered between the different social groups in this world, so too he was doomed to hover between the upper and lower worlds after his death. R. Meir was unable to extinguish the fire over Elisha's grave after his death, and only R. Yohanan succeeded in doing so after his own death many years later.
The Bavli also includes a story about Elisha's daughter coming to ask R. Yehuda Hanasi for financial support. After he refused her entreaty, "a fire came down from heaven and enveloped his bench," forcing him to give her a positive response. This means that a sign was sent from heaven that Aher had been forgiven, in the merit of his Torah learning. Thus the reader understands that even a sinner like Elisha had a place among them.
An important part of the book is devoted to a methodical discussion of the editing undertaken by the editors of the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds. From an academic perspective, this is perhaps the main significance of the work, but readers who are interested in the glimpse Be'eri offers of the spiritual world of the sages may find it of less interest. It is only a shame that the book was published in an academic format, with no indexes at the end.
Nissan Rubin's most recent book is "Simhat Hahaim: Right of Betrothal and Marriage in Talmud and Midrash" (Hebrew), published by Kibbutz Hame'uhad.
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