Haftorah Pinchas

Today’s reading, the haftorah for Pinchas, is I Kings 18:46−19:21, Elijah’s crisis of faith.

And the hand of the LORD was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do [to me], and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. And when he saw [that], he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which [belongeth] to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I [am] not better than my fathers.

And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise [and] eat. And he looked, and, behold, [there was] a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise [and] eat; because the journey [is] too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.

And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD [came] to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?

And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, [even] I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; [but] the LORD [was] not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; [but] the LORD [was] not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; [but] the LORD [was] not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was [so], when Elijah heard [it], that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave.

And, behold, [there came] a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, [even] I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

And the LORD said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael [to be] king over Syria: And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint [to be] king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint [to be] prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass, [that] him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet I have left [me] seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who [was] plowing [with] twelve yoke [of oxen] before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him.

And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and [then] I will follow thee.

And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.

The marvelous bit here, of course, is 19:11-12, which I will attempt, lamely, to transliterate:

v’henay adonai oveyr v’ruach g’dolah v’hazeyk…, lo varuach adonai. v’achar ha-ruach ra’ash, lo vara’ash adonai. v’achar hara’ash aysh, lo va-aysh adonai. v’achar ha-aysh, col d’mamah kadah.

It’s a lovely bit, the shift from ruach to ra’ash to aysh; the sounds from wind to earthquake to fire don’t cut it (although, of course, the sound of Earth, Wind and Fire is pretty good, particularly that late 70s stuff). And the pun of col which sounds just like the word for everything—a silent, starving everything. But aside from the poetry, what is going on? Why did the Divine send the tornado, if it was not to indicate the Presence? And what does it mean that the Divine is not in the wind, or in the earthquake, or in the fire? How could the Divine not be in it?

But really, I wanted to say something else about Elijah the prophet. Elijah, rather famously, or I assume famously, does not die but is assumed bodily into Heaven in a chariot of fire. Not having died, he is considered to be still around, and is by tradition going to reappear to warn us of the Messiah’s time. In the meantime, he is considered to be present at every Passover Seder and at every bris.

So. Rabbi Eliezer talks about Elijah, very much a minority view, but one that I just came across today and I think is fascinating. Rabbi Eliezer starts from the question of just what Elijah is on about, when he whines to the Divine that the children of Israel have forsaken their covenant, and just kill me now, Lord, kill me now. What covenant have the children of Israel forsaken? Follow this: the word for covenant is bris (or brit, for the Sephardim out there). The reason the circumcision is called a bris is because it is the physical mark of the covenant; the ceremony is more correctly or formally called bris milah, the covenant of circumcision (or of cutting, if you prefer). For shorthand, rather than choosing the second word, which has the specific action, we chose the first one, which has the important part. Covenant. This, then, is what Rabbi Eliezer says Elijah is on about: the children of Israel have forsaken the covenant of circumcision.

I have been very jealous on Your behalf, says Elijah, kanah kanah, my face has turned red on Your behalf. Fine, sayeth the Divine. From now on, you are in charge of the bris. Every bris. Forever.

When the Youngest Member joined the covenant of cutting, there was (as is traditional) a place set aside for the Prophet Elijah. This was explained to me as a precaution just in case this one, this eight-day-old baby, was the Messiah. I didn’t want my little one to be the Messiah, I said. Tough shit, said my Rabbi (more or less). My Rabbi didn’t mention this other reason for the presence of Elijah: it’s his punishment for being a pain in the ass of the Divine. Or his reward. Both, really, the ways these things are.

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.