Vayera (Haftara) 5764 - Rabbi Menashe Bleiweiss

Elisha ben Shaphat, the navi known in Sefer Melachim as "Ish E-lokim," worked wonders. The Midrash (Dvarim Raba 10:3) does not compare his abilities with people, not even with Moshe Rabbeinu, but rather with Hashem. "HaKaddosh Baruch Hu enables barren women to give birth, and so did Elisha," the Midrash teaches, "the Holy One revives the dead, and so did Elisha, the Holy One parts seas, and so did Elisha, the Holy One cures with bandages, and so did Elisha."

We first encounter Elisha in this week's Haftara (Melachim 2:4:1-37) imitating a miracle his rebbe, Eliyahu Hanavi, once performed (Melachim 1:17:8-16): he helps a poor widow turn a meager pot of oil into a veritable fill-up station. He then allows the barren Shunamis woman to conceive a son and later, in a particularly deft move, revives the boy from the dead, all in the space of 37 psukim. Elisha could disinfect contaminated water (Melachim 2:2:22), neutralize poisonous stew (2:4:41), make a sumptuous feast for one hundred ravenous men out of a little barley and corn (2:4:42-4), and transform a metzora's flinty skin to that of a small child (2:5:14). A woman who gazed at him would die (Pirke deRabi Eliezer 13), there were never flies at his dining room table, and a pleasant fragrance always surrounded him (Berachos 10b). After the navi's death, another dead man was touched by his bier, and came back to life (Sanhedrin 47a). And, in a display that should give bullies pause before lobbing their respective spit-wads, he summoned two bears from their forest commitments to teach forty-two smart-mouthed lads a grueling lesson (2:2:23-4). It's not a good idea to call Ish E-lokim, "baldy."

Radak (2:2:14) argues that Eliyahu's promise to give his disciple a double portion is fulfilled when the latter manages an unprecedented total of sixteen miracles - exactly double the record of his master, and more than any other figure in Tanach. What was Elisha's secret and, more perplexingly, what are we supposed to make of all the pyrotechnics? What business does any human being - prophet or otherwise - have dabbling in the supernatural?

The simple pshat of the Gemara (Taanis 2a-b) only compounds our kashia (question). Hashem, Rabbi Yochanan teaches, holds three keys in the world - the keys to rain, birth, and the revival of the dead. Hashem never entrusts them to another being, even to one of His completely reliable servants. The baalei Tosafos are immediately bothered by our contradiction. They question Eliyahu Hanavi's apparent ability to make it rain and to revive the dead at will, in addition to Elisha's even more flashy powers. To answer their conundrum, they are forced to revise the Gemara's simple meaning: Hashem, it seems, does lend out His core keys at times, but nobody is allowed to make copies or hold on to the originals.

To some degree, the question Tosafos ask resonates more than their answer, mainly because the verses cited by the Gemara as proof-texts imply that Hashem in fact never imparts these keys to anyone, not even to prominent nevi'im. Even if He would, how philosophically are we supposed to approach the phenomenon of human-generated miracles?

In Lev Eliyahu, Rav Eliyahu Lopian explains that Hashem sets up a natural system in the universe that runs so smoothly, it appears, deceptively, to be self-sufficient. Like clockwork, the earth makes its daily way around the sun, the constellations move in their own shimmering precision, the tides flow inexorably, the earth percolates, vegetation sprouts, each with its own magnificent predictability.

This very predictability leads some to the misperception that Hashem has established an independent force - folklorists call it "Mother Nature," news-saturated rationalists refer to it strangely as "The Weather" - that possesses its own omniscient powers. This view is pure, albeit often unintended, idolatry. Hashem alone runs the world in each of its dimensions, "ein od milvado- there is no one like Him" (Dvarim 4:35).

All of which makes the Gemara later in Taanis (25a) the more astounding. Here we find the great Rabi Chanina ben Dosa asking his daughter why she appears so agitated. When she explains that she accidentally prepared the Shabbos candles with vinegar instead of oil, he calms her (thankfully, she seems to have placed the Thousand Island in a different pantry). "What difference does it make to you?" he asks her, "The One who makes oil flammable can just as well make vinegar flammable." In other words, there's nothing intrinsic in oil that combusts, except that Hashem has made oil combustible and vinegar non-combustible as elements in the natural order. Let it be His will, Rabi Chanina davens, that this time vinegar should light instead. At which point, Rabi Chanina's vinegar candles suddenly kindle, burning straight from Lichtbenschen (candle lighting) through Motzei Shabbos, and eventually providing light for the Havdala flame.

The same Gemara recounts several other supernatural stories about Rabi Chanina ben Dosa, each increasingly stunning. In the analysis of the Lev Eliyahu, Rabi Chanina had achieved such an exalted status in his righteousness and closeness to Hashem that, for him, the natural and supernatural had essentially merged. His recognition of the spiritual within the physical world was so manifest and complete, the two worlds themselves had become indistinguishable. All he genuinely cared about was kavod Shamayim - so the Heavens, in turn, facilitated what to others would appear as "supernatural." To Rabi Chanina, these miracles were no more riveting than waking each morning, blinking, and blowing his nose. According to Chazal, once an individual fully acknowledges the natural wonders in ordinary life, supe atural wonders become par for the course - and not necessarily more impressive than any other aspect of Maaseh Breishis.

Countless stories of other Talmudic sages transcending this world reflect the same phenomenon. Ki bemida she'adam moded, modedim lo. Once an individual internalizes how thoroughly HaKaddosh Baruch Hu manages each infinitesimal speck in His universe, then finite categories such as "nature" and "science" cease to have meaning in and of themselves. From this perspective, it's not that Hashem shares His miracle keys with any other being. All human wonders ultimately come from the Heavens anyway. Hashem presents us with these "supermen" only to give the rest of us mussar and remind us that there are no detached pieces in His world, only distinct elements in a united, splendorous whole.

It's no coincidence, then, that two of the greatest of miracle men in history were the navi Eliyahu and his faithful student Elisha. Besides Moshe and Yehoshua, there is probably no better paradigm of a Rebbe-Talmid relationship than Eliyahu and Elisha in all of Tanach. They were constantly engaged in Torah study, and the Gemara (Taanis 10b) recounts how the intensity and quality of their limud literally saved their lives, at least temporarily. The angel sent by Hashem to escort Eliyahu to heaven, and perhaps even to take Elisha as well, is thwarted because the two men would not let up for a second, not even to determine what was for dinner. In the end, Eliyahu did ascend to the heavens, still in the midst of his discourse with Elisha, while his student survived to ascend to ever-higher levels in this world.

The Gemara in Berachot 7a derives from Elisha's model that shimush chachamim in all daily matters is more significant than actual study itself. With the perspective provided by the Lev Eliyahu, one can postulate why. Shimush chachamim involves following the rebbe's every move in this world, from eating to bathing to going to market, observing the most mundane of his behaviors in order to understand how every physical detail can potentially be infused with spirituality. Elisha emerges as the model for shimush, and his accomplishments result in an unrivaled record of supe atural feats. Radak suggests that Elisha eventually surpassed his rebbe as a prophet. That's understandable. One who masters the art of transcendence in a world of consuming decadence - all through the slow and arduous work of shimush - earns his position among the greatest of Klal Yisrael's miracle workers.