A word of Torah:
This week we read stories of zealotry. Pinhas (one of Aaron’s sons), takes a spear and thrusts it through an Israelite man and a Moabite woman who had publicly engaged in sex (Numbers, 25). The rabbis are troubled by this act, despite God’s apparent approval. They imagine Moses and other leaders trying to decide how to handle the crisis when Pinhas takes matters into his own hands and acts. The rabbis worry that this is a bad precedent of acting without authority.
This week’s haftarah (prophetic reading), tells the story of the contest between Elijah and the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel (1Kings 18:16-40). Elijah challenges the priests of Baal to prove whose god is the real god. Both the priests and Elijah will place an animal sacrifice on an altar and then call their god to rain down fire on their altar. The priests of Baal spend a whole morning unsuccessfully calling on their god to rain down fire. In the funniest line in the Bible, Elijah suggests that they pray louder in case Baal is sleeping. When Elijah calls upon God, fire comes down and burns the sacrifice. At Elijah’s urging, the priests of Baal are massacred.
Infuriated, Queen Jezebel threatens Elijah with death. He flees to Mount Sinai where he has a vision of a mighty wind and an earthquake, but God is not found in the violent weather. God is heard in a still small voice. (1Kings 19:12). God is rejecting these acts of violence committed in God’s name by Elijah and Pinhas. God wants to show Elijah a different path and causes Elijah to ascend alive to heaven in a fiery chariot.
In the tradition, Elijah never dies but becomes the one who resolves differences. Open disputes in the Talmud frequently end with the word “teiku.” This mysterious word is understood to be an acrostic for tishbi yitaretz kushiyot u’vayot, meaning that Elijah (the Tishbi) will resolves all undecided matters. The Hasidic master, Levi Isaac of Berditchev wonders why is it Elijah rather than Moses who in the end of days will clarify all the unanswered questions. After all, Moses heard all of the Torah directly from God. Levi Isaac suggests that Elijah is uniquely positioned to understand the current context of the question because only he has been granted eternal life.
Perhaps there is an additional reason. What has Elijah been doing during all these centuries? Well, we know he attends every baby’s bris and every Passover Seder. The bris reminds him that every adult was once an innocent baby. At every Seder, he drinks a cup of wine in celebration of freedom. He learns about innocence and patience rather than zealous anger and judgment.
When he learns to turn the hearts of children to their parents and parents to their children, Elijah will then be ready to announce the coming of the messiah and a covenant of peace.
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