Elisha HaNavi
The devoted talmid of Eliyahu HaNavi who received a double portion of his spirit and brought healing, life and rescue to Israel.
Biography
The Plowman of Avel Mecholah
Elisha HaNavi zy"a, the faithful talmid of Eliyahu HaNavi and his successor as the prophet of Israel, was the son of Shafat, of the town of Avel Mecholah. He grew up in the kingdom of Israel in the days of Achav, when much of the nation had been drawn after the Baal.
When Hashem sent Eliyahu back on his way from the wilderness, He gave him three tasks: to anoint Chazael as king of Aram, to anoint Yehu as king of Israel, and to anoint Elisha son of Shafat as prophet in his place. Eliyahu set out and found Elisha plowing in the field. Twelve pairs of oxen were working before him, and he himself drove the twelfth. Eliyahu passed by and cast his mantle over him.
Elisha understood. He left the oxen, ran after Eliyahu and asked only to kiss his father and mother goodbye, and then he would follow. Go back, Eliyahu answered; what have I done to you? Elisha turned back, slaughtered his pair of oxen, cooked the meat over a fire made from the wooden yoke and plow, and fed the people. Then he rose, went after Eliyahu, and became his attendant.
A Double Portion of His Spirit
For years Elisha served his master. Long afterward, when kings asked whether a prophet of Hashem could be found, the answer was given in a single description: Elisha son of Shafat, who poured water on the hands of Eliyahu. Chazal draw from that description one of the great lessons of Torah life, that serving a talmid chacham is greater than learning from him.
On the day Hashem was to take Eliyahu up in a whirlwind, the two walked from Gilgal to Beis El, to Yericho and to the Yarden. Three times Eliyahu told him to stay behind, and three times Elisha answered: as Hashem lives and as you live, I will not leave you. The disciples of the prophets came out to him in Beis El and again in Yericho to ask whether he knew that his master would be taken that day. I know, he said; be silent.
At the Yarden, Eliyahu rolled up his mantle and struck the water, and it parted for them. Ask what I can do for you, Eliyahu said, before I am taken from you. Elisha asked for a double portion of his spirit. You have asked a hard thing, Eliyahu replied; if you see me as I am taken from you, it will be yours. As they walked and spoke, a chariot of fire and horses of fire came between them, and Eliyahu went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha cried out, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen, and he tore his garments in two.
He picked up Eliyahu's fallen mantle, struck the water and called out: where is Hashem, the God of Eliyahu? The Yarden parted, and he crossed alone. The disciples of the prophets in Yericho saw him and declared that the spirit of Eliyahu rested on Elisha, and they bowed to the ground before him. His first act was to heal the bitter water of Yericho, throwing salt from a new dish into the spring in Hashem's name.
The Man of Hashem in Israel
Elisha became the prophet of kings and of the poor alike. When the kings of Israel, Yehudah and Edom were trapped without water in the desert, he promised that the dry valley would fill with water without wind or rain, and it did. When famine struck the disciples of the prophets in Gilgal and wild gourds poisoned their stew, he threw in flour and the pot was healed. Twenty barley loaves fed a hundred men with food left over. When a borrowed axe head sank in the Yarden, he made the iron float.
Naaman, the commander of Aram's army, came to him stricken with tzaraas, sent by a captive Jewish girl who served his wife. Elisha did not even come out, but told him to immerse seven times in the Yarden. Naaman was healed and declared that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. He pressed rich gifts on the prophet, but Elisha swore that he would accept nothing. Chazal relate that Elisha was in the middle of teaching the laws of the eight sheratzim at the time. His attendant Gechazi ran after Naaman, took silver and garments in his master's name, and denied it. Elisha told him that his heart had gone with him, and Naaman's tzaraas clung to Gechazi.
Chazal teach that Elisha later traveled to Damascus to bring Gechazi back to teshuvah, but Gechazi would not return. From this they learned a lasting rule: the left hand should push away while the right hand draws near, never pushing away with both hands. They teach as well that a tzaddik of his stature was held to account even for the young men of Beis El who mocked him, and who were attacked by bears after he cursed them; Chazal add that had the people of Yericho escorted him on his way, it would never have happened.
Elisha revealed the plans of Aram's king to the king of Israel, again and again. During the siege of Shomron, when the starving city turned on him, he foretold that by the next day flour would sell for a shekel, and so it was. He warned the woman of Shunem of a seven-year famine. In Damascus he wept before Chazael, seeing the suffering he would one day bring upon Israel. And he sent one of the disciples of the prophets to anoint Yehu, completing the task Hashem had first given to Eliyahu.
His Enduring Legacy
Chazal teach that until Elisha, no one who fell ill ever recovered; Elisha davened and was healed, and only his third illness was the one from which he passed away. As he lay dying, Yoash king of Israel came and wept over him with the very words Elisha had cried at Eliyahu's ascent: my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen. Elisha placed his hands on the king's hands on the bow and told him to shoot an arrow of salvation through the eastern window. Then he told him to strike the ground with the arrows. The king struck three times and stopped, and the prophet was distressed: had he struck five or six times, Aram would have been finished.
Elisha passed away and was buried. By the traditional count it was the year 3098, in the thirty-seventh year of Yehoash king of Yehudah, about fifty years after Eliyahu was taken, and in that same year Yehoyada the Kohen Gadol passed away at the age of one hundred and thirty. No day of his passing is recorded, and the place of his kever is not known with certainty.
Even in death his holiness gave life. Some time later a funeral party, seeing Moavite raiders approach, threw a body into Elisha's kever and fled. When the man touched Elisha's bones, he came to life and stood on his feet. Chazal learn from this that tzaddikim are greater after their passing than in their lifetime, and that a wicked man is not buried beside a tzaddik. Chazal also count how the double portion was fulfilled: Eliyahu revived one child, while Elisha revived the son of the woman of Shunem and also healed Naaman of tzaraas, which is likened to death.
Elisha is counted among the forty-eight prophets whose words were written for all generations. Many generations later, when Chizkiyahu HaMelech lay ill and davened for his life, he recalled the woman of Shunem, who built only one small room for Elisha and merited to have her son brought back to life. The plowman who left his oxen to pour water for his teacher remains the model of a devoted talmid.
Stories
The Little Room on the Roof
A woman of Shunem made a small room for Elisha, and when her only son died, the prophet she had honored brought him back to life.
Whenever Elisha passed through Shunem, a prominent woman there would invite him in for a meal. The Midrash says she was the sister of Avishag the Shunamis. One day she said to her husband: I can tell that he is a holy man of Hashem. Chazal ask how she knew, and answer that she never saw even a fly pass over his table. Let us build him a small room on the roof, she said, with a bed, a table, a chair and a lamp.
Elisha wished to repay her and offered to speak for her to the king. I dwell among my own people, she answered. Gechazi noted that she had no son and her husband was old, and Elisha promised that at this time next year she would hold a son. A year later the child was born.
Years passed. One day the boy went out to his father among the reapers and cried, my head, my head. He was carried to his mother, sat on her lap until noon, and died. She laid him on the prophet's bed, closed the door, and rode to Mount Carmel without telling her husband what had happened. There she grasped Elisha's feet. Hashem has hidden this from me, Elisha said. He sent Gechazi ahead with his staff, but the child did not stir. Then Elisha came himself, shut the door, and davened. The Midrash records his prayer: just as You worked wonders through Eliyahu my master and revived the dead, let this child live. He stretched himself over the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands, until the body grew warm. The child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. Take your son, Elisha told his mother.
Source: Melachim II 4:8–37; Gemara, Berachos 10b (Talmud Bavli); Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer 33; Rashi on Melachim II 4:8–9. English: The William Davidson Talmud (Koren–Steinsaltz); Pirke de Rebbi Eliezer, trans. Gerald Friedlander (London, 1916); The Metsudah Tanach.
The woman of Shunem did not wait to be asked. She noticed who was passing through and made a place for him. This week, think of a guest you could host: a rebbi, a meshulach collecting tzedakah, a student far from home, a lonely neighbor. Set a place at your Shabbos table or offer a bed for a night. If your home is small, make the room in your schedule instead: an hour to drive someone, a call to check in. Small rooms, built with love, hold great blessings.
The Oil That Did Not Stop
A widow facing the loss of her sons came to Elisha, and her single jug of oil kept pouring as long as she had vessels to fill.
A woman came to Elisha crying. Rashi says she was the widow of Ovadyah. Your servant, my husband, is dead, she said, and you know that he feared Hashem. Now his creditor is coming to take my two sons as slaves.
Elisha answered with a question. What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house? Your maidservant has nothing in the house, she said, except a jug of oil.
Go, Elisha told her. Borrow empty vessels from all your neighbors, and do not borrow too few. Then go inside, shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour the oil into all those vessels, setting each one aside when it is full.
She did exactly as he said. Behind the closed door her sons kept bringing vessels, and she kept pouring. Jug after jug filled from the one small jar. At last she said to her son, bring me another vessel. There are no more vessels, he answered, and at that moment the oil stopped.
She came back and told the man of Hashem what had happened. Go, he said, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on what is left.
Source: Melachim II 4:1–7; Rashi on Melachim II 4:1. English: The JPS Tanakh (Gender-Sensitive Edition) and The Metsudah Tanach.
The oil flowed as long as the widow had vessels, and stopped only when she ran out of them. Hashem's help often matches the room we make for it. This week, pick one area where you have been asking for blessing, such as parnassah, a shidduch, or health, and add one vessel to receive it: a few extra minutes of tefillah, a coin of tzedakah each morning, or one concrete step you have been putting off. Then, like the widow, shut the door and keep pouring.
More Are With Us
Surrounded by an army at Dosan, Elisha opened his servant's eyes to the fiery chariots of Hashem, then fed the enemy and sent them home.
The king of Aram was at war with Israel, yet every ambush he planned failed. Each time, Elisha sent word to the king of Israel to avoid that place. Aram's king was sure there was a traitor among his officers. None of us, they told him; it is Elisha, the prophet in Israel, who tells his king the words you speak in your bedroom. Find out where he is, the king ordered, so that I can seize him.
Elisha was in Dosan. During the night horses, chariots and a large force surrounded the town. In the morning Elisha's attendant went outside, saw the army, and cried out: alas, my master, what shall we do? Do not be afraid, Elisha answered; those with us are more than those with them. Then he davened: Hashem, please open his eyes so that he may see. Hashem opened the young man's eyes, and he saw the mountain all around Elisha full of horses and chariots of fire.
As the soldiers came down, Elisha davened again, and they were struck with blindness. This is not the road and this is not the town, he told them; follow me, and I will bring you to the man you seek. He led them straight into Shomron, the capital of Israel, and only there were their eyes opened. My father, the king of Israel asked, shall I strike them down? No, Elisha answered. Set bread and water before them, let them eat and drink, and send them back to their master. The king made them a great feast and let them go, and the raiding bands of Aram stopped coming into the land of Israel.
Source: Melachim II 6:8–23; Rashi on Melachim II 6:16. English: The JPS Tanakh (Gender-Sensitive Edition) and The Metsudah Tanach.
Elisha's attendant saw only the army; Elisha saw the chariots of fire. When you feel surrounded this week, by bills, deadlines or an illness in the family, stop and say quietly: Hashem, open my eyes so that I may see. Then write down three ways He has already stood by you. And if someone has wronged you, consider Elisha's answer to his enemies: a meal and a kind word ended the raids. One gesture of generosity may end a long quarrel.
Teachings
He Poured Water on Eliyahu's Hands
When the three kings searched for a prophet in the desert, one of the courtiers described Elisha in a single phrase: Elisha son of Shafat, who poured water on the hands of Eliyahu. Rebbi Yochanan taught in the name of Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai that this phrase holds a great lesson. The verse does not say that Elisha learned from Eliyahu; it says that he poured water for him. From here Chazal learn that serving Torah is greater than studying it. One who attends a talmid chacham, staying close to him in the small details of daily life, learns how Torah is lived in every moment, not only what it says.
Gemara, Berachos 7b (on Melachim II 3:11)
Learning from a rav or teacher is precious; being near him in daily life teaches what no shiur can. This week, find one way to serve someone whose Torah you admire. Offer to drive your rav, set up the chairs before the shiur, help an elderly talmid chacham with his groceries, or simply bring him a cup of tea. Keep your eyes open while you help: how he speaks, how he waits, how he treats people. That is the learning that comes only from pouring the water.
If You See Me Taken From You
Elisha asked for a double portion of Eliyahu's spirit, and Eliyahu answered: if you see me as I am taken from you, it will be so. The Yismach Yisroel brings the explanation of the Tzror HaMor. If you regard me as already taken from you, so that when a doubt arises you do not say, I will go to Eliyahu and he will explain it, then the double portion will be yours. When a student knows that his teacher is not standing beside him and that he must toil day and night with all his strength, he comes to grasp everything. The Tzror HaMor reads the same lesson in the Midrash on Koheles: words of Torah endure in a person when their masters are gathered away from him. The Rebbe uses this to explain why the students of Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai spoke of his passing: they were training themselves to toil alone.
Yismach Yisroel, Bereishis, Lech Lecha (on Melachim II 2:9–10, quoting the Tzror HaMor)
It is easy to ask the answer the moment a question arises, from a chavrusa, a rav, or a search box. This week, when you hit a hard line in your learning, give it ten honest minutes on your own first. Read it again slowly, look at the commentary, write down what you think it means. Only then ask. You will often find the answer yourself, and when you do ask, you will understand the reply far more deeply.
Bring Me a Musician
When the king of Israel came to Elisha in the desert, the prophet was angry at him and said he would not even look at him, were it not for the honor of Yehoshafat king of Yehudah. Then he asked: now bring me a musician. As the musician played, the hand of Hashem came upon him. Chazal explain that because Elisha became angry, his prophecy departed from him, and he needed the music to restore it. From here they teach a principle for every Jew: the Shechinah does not rest on a person amid laziness, sadness, laughter, light-headedness or idle talk, but only amid the joy of a mitzvah. Even a navi of Elisha's stature had to restore his joy before he could hear Hashem's word.
Gemara, Pesachim 117a and 66b (on Melachim II 3:14–15)
Anger and gloom close the heart to holiness, even for a navi. Notice this week what restores your joy when you are upset: a niggun, a walk, a few lines of Tehillim, a call to a cheerful friend. Before you daven or sit down to learn after a frustrating moment, take two minutes for your musician. Hum a niggun quietly, or sing the first line of Lecha Dodi. Let your heart settle, and then begin.
Family & talmidim
Teachers: Eliyahu HaNavi
Talmidim: Gechazi (his attendant), The bnei haneviim, the disciples of the prophets
Historical sources
- Melachim I 19:15–21 (Sefaria)
- Melachim II 2–8, 9:1–3, 13 (Sefaria)
- Rashi on Melachim I 19 and Melachim II 2, 4, 6 (Sefaria, The Metsudah Tanach)
- Berachos 7b and 10b (Sefaria)
- Sanhedrin 47a and 107b; Sotah 46b–47a (Sefaria)
- Bava Metzia 87a (Sefaria)
- Chullin 7b (Sefaria)
- Pesachim 66b and 117a (Sefaria)
- Megillah 14a with Rashi (Sefaria)
- Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer 33 (Sefaria, trans. Gerald Friedlander 1916)
- Seder HaDoros, Almanac 3098 (Sefaria, Warsaw 1878–1882 Hebrew)
- Yismach Yisroel, Bereishis, Lech Lecha, maamar 4 (our edition, data/learn/yismach-yisroel.json, block 12)