|
RABBINIC JUDAISM |
 |
Reading assignment #9: the stories of Elisha ben Abuyah.
Click here to begin
reading the stories.
Click here for
the study guide to this assignment.
(I suggest you read the stories first, and form your own impressions, and only afterward come back here and read my thoughts about them.)
The stories are extraordinary, and it is anybody's guess if they are rooted in some equally extraordinary historical personality. It is quite certain that Elisha ben Abuyah existed; and, if there is any basis at all to the traditions that link him with Rabbi Meir, he will have lived some time around the middle of the second century CE. But was he anything like the Faustian rebel the stories describe?[1] We don't know. Early references to Elisha--including one in Pirke Aboth 4:25--seem to treat him as a rabbi in good standing, and don't even hint there was anything exceptional about him. Yet it is hard for me to imagine these stories coming into existence without some nucleus of historical truth.
The question of the historical Elisha is unanswerable. We have no choice but to leave it aside, and treat the stories as fiction--that is, stop worrying about what grounding in reality they may have, and ask only what the anonymous authors of the stories are trying to tell us.
You will notice, as you read the stories, that most of them are not about Elisha alone. Almost invariably, the pious Rabbi Meir shares the stage with the heretic Elisha, and Meir is often the more active of the two. Many people speak of Meir as Elisha's "student" in these stories, which is technically correct: Meir calls Elisha "my teacher" (section 7), and Elisha quizzes Meir on his interpretations of the Bible (section 2). But the relationship between the two men goes far beyond teacher and pupil, and I think the key to the Elisha stories lies in understanding it.
Often I have asked my students to debate who is the hero of the stories, Elisha or Meir. Some take the one side, some the other. In my own view, the real hero is neither of the two men, but the pair Elisha+Meir. The two are bonded inseparably. Meir disapproves of Elisha's godless behavior, but he can't let go of him. Neither can Elisha let go of Meir. The wonderful image in section 2c, of the godless Elisha riding his horse on the Sabbath and the godly Meir walking after him to learn Torah from him, brilliant depicts the bond between the two men.
The two cannot let go of each other, because they are two sides of one personality. It is impossible to convey my thoughts on this subject without sounding Jungian, so I will do it openly: Elisha is the shadow-side of Rabbi Meir.
I am not, of course speaking of these two men as individuals. Rather, Rabbi Meir is the typical rabbi. Or, to use the terminology I proposed near the beginning of this course, he is the typical "godly Jew."
Through most of Jewish history, down to the twentieth or perhaps the nineteenth century, the "godly Jew" has dominated Jewish self-perception and self-expression. The "godless Jew," typified in modern times by Sigmund Freud, has normally remained hidden and silent. (Spinoza is perhaps an early example of the type, although, unlike Freud, he would never have called himself "godless.") Yet, I contend, throughout the centuries the "godly Jew" has been inseparably accompanied by his or her hidden, unacknowledged shadow-side. Jewish "godlessness" is as real, as deeply rooted, as important as the shining faith of which it is the shadow.
This, I believe, is the secret at the heart of Jewish religiosity. The secret is conveyed in the Talmudic stories of Elisha ben Abuyah. Do you wonder, then, that I regard these stories as among the most profound and important in all Jewish literature?
My theory--that Elisha and Meir are opposing aspects of the same personality--will explain why their dialogues interpreting the Bible are inconclusive tugs-of-war that cannot be resolved. It will also explain why either of them can be represented as taking opposite sides of the same question.
Click here to read their discussion of Job 28:17--which is not really about the Book of Job, but about whether a scholar who has gone bad (as Elisha has) can be mended. In the Palestinian version, Meir says, in effect, You can repent, and Elisha says, No I can't. In the Babylonian version, the two men start out taking exactly the reverse positions. The resulting back-and-forth is, as a result, more complicated. Meir says, You can't repent, and Elisha says, Oh yes I can. Whereupon Meir, taking the bait, says: OK, then repent! And Elisha says, No I can't, and we are back to where we were at the beginning.
("Back at the beginning" is where we are always going to wind up. The kind of intrapersonal tension depicted here cannot be resolved. The best we can do is acknowledge the opposite ends of the polarity--and that is what the Talmudic authors are trying to teach us to do.)
My theory has another advantage. It will explain the extraordinary, indeed Promethean powers the stories attribute to rabbis like Meir and Yochanan.[2] How is it that Meir can defy God, and redeem Elisha in spite of God's wishes?