A Literary Journey

This reflection is part of the ongoing Forest Hills Haftorah Series. The rest of the content can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/groups/FHJC-Haftorah-Series .

Over the last many weeks, we have gotten so used to basking in the loftiness and exalted language and poetry of the literary prophets; The way they wield Hebrew to paint such vivid imagery and play with evocative metaphors in order to describe the nature of YHWH and his relationship to Israel has such power to lift you up to the heights, while at the same time being so deeply grounded and focused on the here-and-now of trials and tribulations of every-day life; Reading their works is truly a thrill!

But this week we have a chance to enjoy something very different; Biblical Narrative.

We get to read about Elisha, a northern-Israelite miracle worker during the second half of the 9th century, towards the very end of the Omride dynasty, the first great dynasty of the north. (In fact, Elisha would play a major part in bringing this dynasty crashing down!)

He never saw his ministry coming. For some reason unknown to both him and we the reader, YHWH chose him, informing not Elisha himself but his predecessor, the zealous and fiery Elijah, of Elisha's future role:

At the time, Elisha had been working a field, ploughing with 12 yoke of oxen. (I'm not sure how many oxen that exactly means.) It seemed that prophetic aspirations were the furthest things from his mind.

below: we're a long way from Jerusalem!

Our Haftorah comes an unspecified time after the above moment. Elijah has since passed on and Elisha has come into his own, seemingly enjoying a widespread reputation of being a man-of-Elohim.

While we usually read oracles which are of national significance, with kingdoms and empires on the line, this week that's not the case. We read of but one instance in Elisha's life in which he was moved to utilize the advantage of the intimacy of his personal relationship with YHWH to try to do something nice for a woman who showed him kindness. When he hears that his intended good-deed went sour, he drops anything and everything and hastens to her aid.

And by the way; As brilliant as our Israelite and Judean ancestors were when it came to poetry, they were no less skilled at weaving narrative. Reading their narratives slowly and carefully can be so incredibly rewarding; Imagine stepping through a door into a world filled with hidden treasures, where everything is so much more than it seems on first glance, and spending time to really contemplate anything at all could yield such deep and interesting and profound insights.

So this week, I figured I would invite you to join me for a close reading of this story, and I'll point out a few things that catch my own attention along the way as well as raise some questions throughout (questions, I find, are the most important part of interpreting Biblical Narrative); But don't feel compelled to only look where I'm pointing! Keep your eyes wide open, and I'm sure that you will have your own insights from the story worth sharing as well!

You'll note that I color-coded the translation; It might seem a bit busy, but I think you will quickly get used to it and I'm hoping that it will then start helping to bring some interesting details to life.

Here is the key

Purple Highlight: Beginning a section

Red: Narrator

Green: Someone speaking

Highlighted yellow: A name or an epithet or a title of someone

Orange italics indented: My own running commentary

Also, because of the way this is formatted, the Hebrew will not be available where the commentary is; But if you want to see the Hebrew and English side-by-side, it will be included immediately afterwards. The English is based on the Restored Name King James Version, with a handful of my own changes. You'll also note that all of the non-TaNaKhic material from our story (i.e., my own comments as well as scriptural quotes from elsewhere) will be indented, so that our main text will clearly and easily stand out for you.

And with that, let's jump in!

The Miracle Worker

And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where there was a great woman; and she pressured (wa-tahazek) him to eat bread.

And so it was, that he would pass by, he turned in to eat bread.

And she said to her husband,

"Look now! I perceive that this is a holy man-of-Elohim, which passes by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a chair, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he comes to us, that he shall turn in there."

And it fell on a day, that he came there, and he turned into the chamber, and lay (shakhab) there.

And he said to Gehazi his lad,

"Call this Shunammite!"

And when he had called her, she stood before him.

And he said unto him,

Say now to her,

Behold, you have gone through all this trouble taking care for us; What can be done for you? How about speaking on your behalf to the king, or to the captain of the host?

And she answered,

I dwell among mine own people.

And he said,

What then is to be done for her?

And Gehazi answered,

Verily she has no child, and her husband is old!

And he said,

Call her!

And when he had called her, she stood in the door. And he said,

About this season, according to the time of life, you shall embrace a son!

And she said,

Nay, my master! You man-of-Elohim, do not lie to your handmaid.

And the woman conceived, and bore a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life.

And then the child was grown!

And it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers.

And he said to his father,

My head! My head!

And he said to a lad,

Carry him to his mother!

And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon; and he died.

And she went up, and laid him (shakhab) on the bed of the man-of-Elohim, and shut the door upon him, and went out. And she called to her husband, and said,

Send me, I pray, one of the lads, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man-of-Elohim, and come back.

And he said,

Why would you go to him today??? It is neither new moon, nor a Sabbath!

And she said,

Shalom!

Then she saddled an ass, and said to her lad,

Drive! And go forward; Don't stop riding for me, unless I say so!

So she went and came unto the man-of-Elohim to mount Carmel.

And it came to pass, when the man-of-Elohim saw her far off, that he said to Gehazi his servant,

Look! Yonder is that Shunammite! Run now, I pray, to meet her, and say to her:

Is there shalom with you? Is there shalom with your husband? Is there shalom with the child?

And she answered,

Shalom!

And when she came to the man-of-Elohim to the hill, she caught him (watahazek) by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man-of-Elohim said,

Let her alone; for her spirits are vexed within her: and YHWH has hid it from me, and has not told me!

Then she said,

Did I desire a son of my master? Did I not say, Do not deceive me?

Then he said to Gehazi,

Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child.

And the mother of the child said,

As YHWH lives, and as you still breathe, I will not leave you!

And he arose, and followed her. And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing, and he went back to meet him and told him, saying,

The lad is not awake!

And when Elisha came into the house, look! The lad was dead, and laid upon his bed.

He went in therefore, and shut the door upon the two of them and prayed unto YHWH.

And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him:

And the lad sneezed seven times, and the lad opened his eyes!

And he called Gehazi, and said,

Call this Shunammite.

So he called her. And when she came in to him, he said,

Take up your son.

Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out.

Some Final Thoughts

Numbers

Now that we have reached the end, I'll share another few interesting things I think are worth pointing out.

The Israelites and Judeans always had such profound intention behind how they would tell stories just as much as the content those stories would contain. On that note, they loved numbers and symmetry and patterns. So whenever there are recurring theme-words or theme-roots, it always pays to count them! Some of their favorite numbers included 3, 7, any multiple of 7, and 12. (Can you think of anything significant which is attached to any of these numbers?)

In this case, let's count some of our theme-words. The most repeated one is "lad", or נער. In my own count, I got to a clean 12! It's also interesting thinking about who is designated as a lad, who calls them a lad, and what the person is doing at the time. In this case, the deceased son, the woman's servants, and Gehazi (the man-of-Elohim's servant) are all called "lads". My thought is that the main function of this is to just have a familiar thread which weaves its way all around the story, helping to reground us, in a way, whenever we encounter this term yet again.

Also on the same theme of numbers, the term for lying (as in lying down) occurs three times. I'll leave this one for you to look into: How many different people spend time lying somewhere, where do they do it, and what might be the significance?

below: I spy a bed, a table, a chair... but no lamp! For a second I wondered if Van Gogh was painting Elisha's room.

A Strange Theory

As I've sat with this story throughout the week, I couldn't help but think of something:

It seems that all of the major players have a counterpart in the story; The man-of-Elohim and the woman are very much alike. They are both doers, they are the active ones in their respective relationships who seem to call the shots, and they both express a desire to perform an act of kindness for another. And at the same time, Gehazi and the husband are counterparts! Not only does each of them seem to play the "supporting role," but they both had a moment of major misunderstanding in this story, and both were dismissed by an urgent and determined woman with "Shalom!" (Can you identify these moments for each?)

Now let's consider the other characters for a second. Who does this description seem to fit? A character who was nowhere in sight at the beginning, but then makes a temporary appearance; Then after leaving, comes back at the very end. Who do you think this might be?

This is going to sound a little "out there," but doesn't this describe both the deceased and then revived young boy, as well as YHWH? When the boy is born, it is clearly a miracle. But then after his death, Elisha tells Gehazi that YHWH had hidden something from him (hidden Himself?). And if Elisha and the woman are pairs, and Gehazi and the husband are pairs, and let's also say that the lad who carries the sick boy to the mother before he dies is paired up with the lad who rides with the mother to Mount Carmel after he dies... Can the boy and YHWH somehow be a pair?

Let's explore this for a moment; Remember the boy is a miracle child, right? He came from a barren woman whose husband is old. There was no way she can bring a child into the world!

And yet, what did one of the poets of our prayer-poems confidently declare?

Perhaps in this one small part in the world, this child's existence symbolized, or made manifest in a very real sense, that YHWH indeed cares and shows compassion for the barren. So while YHWH had not yet been named explicitly in the story, in truth he entered into it as soon as the son did, and YHWH's "homeness" amongst the people of Shunem was contingent on the well-being of the boy, because the people's recognition of YHWH's hand in their lives was sky-high as long as the child was happy and healthy.

When the child suddenly died, their whole faith-world was thrown into disarray. The man-of-Elohim, upon his second miracle, demonstrated YHWH is indeed present after all; And so in a way, both YHWH's fate and the boy's had become intertwined from the moment the man-of-Elohim pronounced his first blessing.

With that, thanks for accompanying me on this literary journey this week, something quite different than what we are used to!

If you want to see the whole thing uninterrupted, it is just below this, along with the original Hebrew.