Helpfulness and compassion do not paint the whole of the character of
Elijah. He remained the stern and inexorable censor whom Ahab feared.
The old zeal for the true and the good he never lost, as witness, he
once struck a man dead because he failed to perform his devotions with
due reverence. (63)
There were two brothers, one of them rich and miserly, the other poor
and kind-hearted. Elijah, in the garb of an old beggar, approached the
rich man, and asked him for alms. Repulsed by him, he turned to the
poor brother, who received him kindly, and shared his meagre supper
with him. On bidding farewell to him and his equally hospitable wife,
Elijah said: "May God reward you! The first thing you undertake shall
be blessed, and shall take no end until you yourselves cry out Enough!"
Presently the poor man began to count the few pennies he had, to
convince himself that they sufficed to purchase bread for his next
meal. But the few became many, and he counted and counted, and still
their number increased. He counted a whole day, and the following
night, until he was exhausted, and had to cry out Enough! And, indeed,
it was enough, for he had become a very wealthy man. His brother was
not a little astonished to see the fortunate change in his kinsman's
circumstances, and when he heard how it had come about, he determined,
if the opportunity should present itself again, to show his most
amiable side to the old beggar with the miraculous power of blessing.
He had not long to wait. A few days later he saw the old man pass by.
He hastened to accost him, and, excusing himself for his unfriendliness
at their former meeting, begged him to come into his house. All that
the larder afforded was put before Elijah, who pretended to eat of the
dainties. At his departure, he pronounced a blessing upon his hosts:
"May the first thing you do have no end, until it is enough." The
mistress of the house thereupon said to her husband: "That we may count
gold upon gold undisturbed, let us first attend to our most urgent
physical needs." So they did and they had to continue to do it until
life was extinct. (64)
The extreme of his rigor Elijah displayed toward teachers of the law.
From them he demanded more than obedience to the mere letter of a
commandment. For instance, he pronounced severe censure upon Rabbi
Ishmael ben Jose because he was willing to act as bailiff in
prosecuting Jewish thieves and criminals. He advised Rabbi Ishmael to
follow the example of his father and leave the country. (65)
His estrangement from his friend Rabbi Joshua ben Levi is
characteristic. One who was sought by the officers of the law took
refuge with Rabbi Joshua. His pursuers were informed of his place of
concealment. Threatening to put all the inhabitants of the city to the
sword if he was not delivered up, they demanded his surrender. The
Rabbi urged the fugitive from justice to resign himself to his fate.
Better for one individual to die, he said, than for a whole community
to be exposed to peril. The fugitive yielded to the Rabbi's argument,
and gave himself up to the bailiffs. Thereafter Elijah, who had been in
the habit of visiting Rabbi Joshua frequently, stayed away from his
house, and he was induced to come back only by the Rabbi's long fasts
and earnest prayers. In reply to the Rabbi's question, why he had
shunned him, he said: "Dost thou suppose I care to have intercourse
with informers?" The Rabbi quoted a passage from the Mishnah to justify
his conduct, but Elijah remained unconvinced. "Dost thou consider this
a law for a pious man?" he said. "Other people might have been right in
doing as thou didst; thou shouldst have done otherwise." (66)
A number of instances are known which show how exalted a standard
Elijah set up for those who would be considered worthy of intercourse
with him. Of two pious brothers, one provided for his servants as for
his own table, while the other permitted his servants to eat abundantly
only of the first course; of the other courses they could have nothing
but the remnants. Accordingly, with the second brother Elijah would
have nothing to do, while he often honored the former with his visits.
A similar attitude Elijah maintained toward another pair of pious
brothers. One of them was in the habit of providing for his servants
after his own needs were satisfied, while the other of them attended to
the needs of his servants first. To the latter it was that Elijah gave
the preference. (67)
He dissolved an intimacy of many years' standing, because his friend
built a vestibule which was so constructed that the supplications of
the poor could be heard but faintly by those within the house. (68)
Rabbi Joshua ben Levi incurred the displeasure of Elijah a second time,
because a man was torn in pieces by a lion in the vicinity of his
house. In a measure Elijah held Rabbi responsible, because he did not
pray for the prevention of such misfortunes. (69)
The story told of Elijah and Rabbi Anan forms the most striking
illustration of the severity of the prophet. Someone brought Rabbi Anan
a mess of little fish as a present, and at the same time asked the
Rabbi to act as judge in a lawsuit he was interested in. Anan refused
in these circumstances to accept a gift from the litigant. To
demonstrate his single-mindedness, the applicant urged the Rabbit to
take the fish and assign the case to another judge. Anan acquiesced,
and he requested one of his colleagues to act for him, because he was
incapacitated from serving as a judge. His legal friend drew the
inference, that the litigant introduced to him was a kinsman of Rabbi
Anan's, and accordingly he showed himself particularly complaisant
toward him. As a result, the other party to the suit was intimidated.
He failed to present his side as convincingly as he might otherwise
have done, and so lost the case. Elijah, who had been the friend of
Anan and his teacher as well, thenceforth shunned his presence, because
he considered that the injury done the second party to the suit was due
to Anan's carelessness. Anan in his distress kept many fasts, and
offered up many prayers, before Elijah would return to him. Even then
the Rabbi could not endure the sight of him; he had to content himself
with listening to Elijah's words without looking upon his face. (70)
Sometimes Elijah considered it his duty to force people into abandoning
a bad habit. A rich man was once going to a cattle sale, and he carried
a snug sum of money to buy oxen. He was accosted by a stranger none
other than Elijah who inquired the purpose of his journey. "I go to
buy cattle," replied the would-be purchaser. "Say, it if please God,"
urged Elijah. "Fiddlesticks! I shall buy cattle whether it please God
or not! I carry the money with me, and the business will be
dispatched." "But not with good fortune," said the stranger, and went
off. Arrived at the market, the cattle-buyer discovered the loss of his
purse, and he had to return home to provide himself with other money.
He again set forth on his journey, but this time he took another road
to avoid the stranger of ill omen. To his amazement he met an old man
with whom he had precisely the same adventure as with the first
stranger. Again he had to return home to fetch money. By this time had
learned his lesson. When a third stranger questioned him about the
object of his journey, he answered: "If it please God, I intend to buy
oxen." The stranger wished him success, and the wish was fulfilled. To
the merchant's surprise, when a pair of fine cattle were offered him,
and their price exceeded the sum of money he had about his person, he
found the two purses he had lost on his first and second trips. Later
he sold the same pair of oxen to the king for a considerable price, and
he became very wealthy. (71)
As Elijah coerced this merchant into humility toward God, so he carried
home a lesson to the great Tanna Eliezer, the son of Rabbi Simon ben
Yohai. This Rabbi stood in need of correction on account of his
overweening conceit. Once, on returning from the academy, he took a
walk on the sea-beach, his bosom swelling with pride at the thought of
his attainments in the Torah. He met a hideously ugly man, who greeted
him with the words: "Peace be with thee, Rabbi." Eliezer, instead of
courteously acknowledging the greeting, said: "O thou wight, (72) how
ugly thou art! Is it possible that all the residents of thy town are as
ugly as thou?" "I know not," was the reply, "but it is the Master
Artificer who created me that thou shouldst have said: 'How ugly is
this vessel which Thou hast fashioned.'" The Rabbi realized the wrong
he had committed, and humbly begged pardon of the ugly man another of
the protean forms adopted by Elijah. The latter continued to refer him
to the Master Artificer of the ugly vessel. The inhabitants of the
city, who had hastened to do honor to the great Rabbi, earnestly urged
the offended man to grant pardon, and finally he declared himself
appeased, provided the Rabbi promised never again to commit the same
wrong. (73)
The rigor practiced by Elijah toward his friends caused one of them,
the Tanna Rabbi Jose, to accuse him of being passionate and irascible.
As a consequence, Elijah would have nothing to do with him for a long
time. When he reappeared, and confessed the cause of his withdrawal,
Rabbi Jose said he felt justified, for his charge could not have
received a more striking verification. (74)