Suffering Welcomed Each Night

Rebbi Elazar once worried that he had handed someone over to the government unjustly, and he prayed that suffering should come upon him. Each evening he called to the afflictions, "Come unto me, my brothers and friends," and each morning he sent them away so that he could learn Torah. He became so afflicted that every morning sixty basins of blood were drawn from him. His wife prepared sixty kinds of pap (a soft meal made of figs) each day to heal him.

When she discovered that he was asking for the suffering, she was annoyed that he caused her so much trouble and expense, since all the money she received from her father went on his illness. She left him and went to her father's house.

In the meantime a storm arose at sea, and a boat from Rebbi Elazar's town was in danger of sinking. The sailors prayed, and at last they cried out in desperation, "Save us, O God, for the sake of Rebbi Elazar ben Rebbi Shimon." The storm subsided. When the sailors reached land they visited Rebbi Elazar and presented him with sixty slaves, each carrying sixty purses of money. They also prepared sixty kinds of pap, which he ate, and he was healed.

One day his wife sent their daughter to see how he was. Rebbi Elazar told her, "Go and tell your mother that I am richer than her parents." His wife then returned to him.

When he recovered and went to the beis midrash, sixty samples of blood were brought before him, and he declared every one of them pure. The sages wondered whether there could be no doubt about even a single sample. Rebbi Elazar replied, "If it is not as I said, then let there be at least one female among them." All the children born that way were boys, and they were named Elazar after him.