Elisha ben Abuyah

The nickname, a derogatory one, stuck.

But in this story, what Elisha ben Abuyah is doing is cutting down the shoots.

It is said that he would see young students of Torah and ask them verses and test their knowledge and then tell them that they're doing the wrong thing.

Seduce them to leave the fold.

You can't read it.

It says in Pirkei Avos, Elisha ben Abuyah says, "Write on a clean slate fresh." Better because it, it imprints better than writing on a slate that you have to erase.

But he says, "What happens if you're writing on a slate that was never even erased?" The writing was still there, but you're gonna write new stuff on it.

It's not gonna go.

It appears from the context of the Mishnah here that it's more like a trade, um, supervisor who was literally walking through the stalls of the market.

We have a similar reference to a quaestor in Gemara Shabbos, uh, Daf Mem Tes, in which a quaestor comes opos- across Elisha ben Abuyah, who is illegally wearing tefillin in public, something which was banned in the second century, probably as part of the Hadrianic persecutions.

And it's quite possible that the passage in today's G- Daf is also from the second, uh, same period of time, probably late second century in the context of the Hadrianic persecutions, where the Roman government was getting really much more involved in the day-to-day affairs of Jews living in post-Bar Kokhba rebellion Judea.

So this, uh, inspector, as we see it, for example, in the Gemara with Elisha ben Abuyah, uh, actually chased down, uh, the, uh, Tana in question, who, uh, was able to successfully, miraculously avoid persecution, and, uh, that's the reason why he got that name.

But God willing, we'll get to that when we look at Masechet Shabbos.

At any rate, it's hard to imagine that the quaestor in both of these passages is referring to a high-level ranking, uh, Roman official, but rather probably someone more like a market supervisor, maybe what we would call a beat cop, uh, walking the streets and, uh, making on-the-spot judgments, which was in fact part of their powers at the time, okay? That's a quick insight into what a quaestor was.

A lot of stories over there.

Among one of Reb Meir's teachers was a colleague of Rabbi Akiva.

His name was Elisha Ben Avuyah.

Now, what happened to Elisha ben Avuyah was somewhat unique in the annals of the sages.

He went off.

He became a heretic.

Now, we'll just go through some of the incidents of...

Well, before we get to it by you, as to what happened to Elisha ben Avuyah.

Do you have a favorite personality in the Talmud?

I don't want to say the glib ones like Rabbi Meir or Elisha ben Abuyah or Akiva or Hillel.

On the other hand, there are such incredible stories.

Rabbi Eliezer ben Herkenes is a favorite of mine.

In fact, in Hala-- in Perek Dalet, Halacha Vav, the Rambam points out that, um, even if these things stand in the way of Tshuva, the-- i-if a person could overcome the challenge and do Tshuva, that person's a ba'al Tshuva and gets a chelek in the shi-- in the world to come.

I-in fact, and not forget about Gechazi for a moment, Elisha Ben Abuyah, who is known as Acher, who is, uh, the Rebbe of Ramair, as an individual where t-- he, he heard, uh, says the Gemara in Chagigah, "Shuvu banim shovavim chutz me'Acher," that he should return.

Everyone can do Tshuva except for Acher.

He still could have done Tshuva, and he should have done Tshuva, and Tshuva would have helped him.

The tradition is that David said, Mizmorim of Tehillim, that created, uh, chapters of Tehillim, of Psalms, to try to help Avshalom be brought up from the depths of wherever he was being sent.

And the tradition is that Rebbe Meir, who was an important, important rabbi at the time of the Mishnah, he had a very close relationship, a Talmud Rebbe relationship, a student-teacher relationship with Elisha, Elisha Ha-- Elisha ben Abuyah, who had abandoned the religion.

So, and, and that Rebbe-- and that, uh, Rebbe Meir did his-- worked with him and, and cared about him.

And after he died, Rebbe Meir said, "Let smoke rise from his grave to help him get a kapara." So the idea that we try to help people even after they've passed away, get some kind of atonement for what they've done wrong, that seems clear to the Chasam Sofer.

But in any case, that's the way the world was made, zeh lu mazeh.

If you recall, I once told you the story of Elisha ben Abuyah and Rav Meir, where Elisha ben Abuyah was quizzing his disciple Rav Meir with a number of questions.

How do you interpret this pasuk? How do you interpret that pasuk? So he asked him the same question.

He asked him, "Nu, Meir, how do you interpret this pasuk?" Zeh lu umezeh asah Elohim.

But he rebels against God, as the Gemara in Chagigah tells us, and he distanced himself and he feels Tshuva can't come to him and he's gone.

That's Elisha Ben Abuyah.

But then his other rabbi was Rabbi Akiva.

Rabbi Akiva created so much ore, so much light, so much Torah, but he ends up dying, being killed by the Romans, incarcerated in jail.

As quoted by Rabbi Brander, it says that Elisha Ben Abuyah died in the comfort of his own bed.

He had cut no ore.

He had the skins to keep him warm.

So the dangers of studying science are the mistakes that are made when you see something so powerful and you can't, in your silly putty brain, figure out how in the world there could be something greater than this.

This happens even to the great Tana, Elisha ben Abuyah, when he was zocheh to be matayel in Pardes on his level.

This pashtus is the sugiah of Maaseh Merkavah.

It's not Maaseh Breishes, but Maaseh Merkavah, he saw the ministering angel Matat, who is the biggest angel possible, and he could not fathom how that could be a, a, a, a created being.