Answer Me, Answer Me

All Israel stood on Har HaCarmel, the prophets of the Baal on one side and Eliyahu alone on the other. How long will you hop between two opinions? he asked the people. If Hashem is God, follow Him; if the Baal, follow it. No one answered a word. So he proposed a test: each side would lay a bull on wood without fire, and the God who answered with fire would be God.

The Midrash relates that two bulls born of one mother were brought, and lots were cast. The bull that fell to the Baal would not move. When Eliyahu urged it on, it answered before all the people: my brother was chosen to sanctify Hashem's name, and I to anger my Creator. Eliyahu told it that Hashem's name would be sanctified through it too, and still it would not go until he himself handed it over.

From morning until past noon the prophets of the Baal shouted and danced around their altar, and nothing answered. At the time of the afternoon offering Eliyahu repaired the altar of Hashem with twelve stones for the tribes of Yaakov and had the offering drenched with water three times. Then he davened: let it be known today that You are God in Israel. Answer me, Hashem, answer me. The Gemara explains the double plea: once that fire should fall, and once that the people should not dismiss the fire as sorcery. The fire fell and consumed the offering, the wood, the stones and the water, and the whole nation fell on its face: Hashem is God, Hashem is God.