Heresy or Not to Be: Elisha ben Avuyah, Eating the Fruit and Tossing the Peel

Rabbi Meir was sitting and teaching

in the house of study in Tiberias

His teacher Elisha rode past

astride his horse on Shabbat day. They came by and told Rabbi Meir: Your Rabbi is outside.

He stopped and went out to him.

Elisha asked: What were you teaching today?

Rabbi Meir: “And the Lord blessed the latter years of Job more than the beginning” (Job 42:12).

Elisha: What did you say about it?

Rabbi Meir: “The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10) – God doubled his wealth.

Elisha: Alas for those who are gone and are no more –

your teacher Akiva would not have spoken thus.

He would have construed these words: “The Lord blessed the

latter years of Job because of the beginning” -- because of

the observance of precepts and good deeds that had been

Job's at the beginning.

Elisha: What other verse did you expound?

Rabbi Meir: “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof” (Kohellet 7:8).

Elisha: What did you say about it?

Rabbi Meir: I compared it to someone who had children in his youth – but they died, and again had children in his old age and they lived – thus “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof”. Or to a man who acquired merchandise in his youth and sustained a loss, but in his old age makes a

profit from it. Or, to a man who learned Torah in

his youth and forgot it, but it comes back to him in his old

age.

Elisha: Alas for those who are gone and are no more --

your teacher Akiva would not have spoken thus.

He would have construed it “Good is the end of a thing from

the beginning” -- when it is good from its beginning.

So it happened with me:

Abuyah, my father, was one of the notables of Jerusalem. When he was arranging for my circumcision, he invited all the notables of Jerusalem, among them Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua.

After they had eaten and drunk, they began to clap their

hands and dance. Some of the notables sang songs, and

others composed alphabetical acrostics.

Rabbi Eliezer said to Rabbi Yehoshua: These are occupied with what interests them: shall we not occupy ourselves with what interests us?

They began to speak words of Torah, and from the Torah

to the Prophets, and from the Prophets to the Writings.

And fire came down from heaven and surrounded them.

At that point Abuyah said to them: My masters, have you

come to set my house afire over me?

They replied: God forbid! We were merely sitting and

stringing words of Torah, then from the Torah we went on

to the Prophets, and from the Prophets to the Writings.

The words were as joyful as when they were given at

Sinai. For when originally given at Sinai, they were given

in the midst of fire, as is said: “The mountain burned with

fire unto the heart of heaven'” (Devarim 4:11).

Elated, my father Abuyah remarked, “My masters, since

the power of Torah is so great, if this child stays alive for

me, I will dedicate him to the Torah.”

But because the intent of my father's resolve was not for the sake of heaven, my study of Torah did not endure with me.

Elisha: What other verse did you expound?

Rabbi Meir: “Gold and glass cannot equal it; neither shall the

exchange thereof be vessels of fine gold” (Job 28:17).

Elisha: What did you say about it?

Rabbi Meir: These are the words of Torah – they are as difficult to acquire as vessels of gold and are as readily destroyed as vessels of glass. As vessels of gold and even vessels of glass can be repaired if broken, so can a disciple of the wise recover his learning if it has disintegrated.

Aher said to him: Meir, turn back - the Shabbat limit extends only thus far.

Rabbi Meir said: How do you know?

Elisha responded: For I have been measuring by the paces of

my horse 2000 cubits which are the Shabbat limit.

Rabbi Meir: And all this wisdom is within you, and you do not return?

Elisha: I cannot.

Rabbi Meir asked: Why?

Elisha: Because once I was riding in front of the [remains of] the Holy of Holies, riding my horse on Yom Kippur which fell on the Shabbat, and I heard the divine voice reverberating from the Holy of Holies and saying: “Return children” (Jeremiah3:14), except for Elisha ben Abyuah –

who knew my strength and rebelled against Me.