'Do not look at his deeds, look at the Torah he learned' - Haaretz

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'Do not look at his deeds, look at the Torah he learned'

By Nissan Rubin

tags: Talmudic period, sages

Yatza letarbut ra'ah
(He Went Forth into Evil Course: Elisha ben Abuya - Aher) by Nurit Be'eri, Yedioth Aharonoth Books (Hebrew), 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-Kochba 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."

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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 figure of reference 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 that one can reconstruct historical or biographical events from of Talmudic texts. To her mind, the historical truth is not the focus of those texts, but rather an image 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.

Be'eri traces the lines of reasoning of the editors of each of the two Talmuds, dissecting and reassembling the stories about Elisha as they appear in them both. She also presents their linguistic differences, by which they reveal different connotations to various Biblical verses.

Transformation

What principle differences did Be'eri find? The Yerushalmi makes a connection between the time and place (Israel in the first half of the 2nd century C.E., during the Bar-Kochba 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 - a majority of the Jews of Palestine were killed, enslaved or exiled by Rome during the revolt - for which he could find no justification.

According to the 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. In Hagiga 77b?, it 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, one of Jerusalem's wealthiest men, sent him to learn Torah - not because he loved learning Torah, but rather because of the future honor that would be paid him as a sage. The Torah will not endure in a such person.

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 he 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 emphasizes 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.

Two divinities

The story of Aher in the Babylonian Talmud, on the other hand, is quite different. It is devoid of historical background, and of specific time or 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.

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." This astounds Elisha, 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.

No mutual affection

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 was he 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 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: Rights of Betrothal and Marriage in Talmud and Midrash," published by Hakibbutz Hameuchad (Hebrew).

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