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Aher (Elisha ben Abuyah) and Jesus

Teaching from Zion Magazine

Who is a "hero"-a "hero in one culture can be a terrorist in another culture? This is the case where the "hero" of one culture is the failure of another. An individual is heroic when his action is complimentary to his culture or political agenda. For the other side the same individual is not a "hero" at all, on the contrary the same person for the enemy would be hated and rejected and despised. May be Yeshua (Jesus) is the best example of this paradigm. For the Christians in later generations think of Jesus they see Him as a hero. When an orthodox Jew thinks about Jesus he sees Jesus as an imposter and a false messiah and inticer who used witchcraft. If a hero is someone against whom we measure truth, contradictions and inconsistencies occur because we cannot agree about what is true.

Aher (Elisha ben Abuyah) and Jesus Who is a “hero” – a “hero in one culture can be a terrorist in another culture? This is the case where the "hero" of one culture is the failure of another. An individual is heroic when his action is complimentary to his culture or political agenda. For the other side the same individual is not a “hero” at all, on the contrary the same person for the enemy would be hated and rejected and despised. May be Yeshua (Jesus) is the best example of this paradigm. For the Christians in later generations think of Jesus they see Him as a hero. When an orthodox Jew thinks about Jesus he sees Jesus as an imposter and a false messiah and inticer who used witchcraft. If a hero is someone against whom we measure truth, contradictions and inconsistencies occur because we cannot agree about what is true. In our times, we Jews call a "mensch" a person who is caring and capable and effective, and honest yet friendly. If or when a person whom we call “a mench” fails and leaves our social and cultural consensus suddenly he is no longer “a menech.” Now the same person is a failure and an object of rejection and truth or reality are no longer considered, his life history is no longer a factor and a license to hate him is an un spoken permission. This has happened to many of the most brilliant and greatest Jews who have contributed to humanity some of the greatest contributions, Baruch Spinoza, and Menachem who was a friend of Herod the great during childhood and the president of the Sanhedrin in the early part of the 1st Century of the Christian Era, and of course to Yeshua (Jesus) Himself. The opposite is also true. The society forgives people who have already established a reputation of Heroes even when they are not up to standards of honesty and integrity and truth. Aaron, the brother of Moses, is not known as a liar but as a priest and a prophet. Aaron lied about the making of the golden calf and blamed it on the people. There are other rabbinical stories in the Fathers according to Rabbi Nathan, where Aaron did not tell the truth. The Jewish Rabbis found good reasons to justify Aaron in his lies because he was already an established “hero” in the pantheon of Hebrew heroes. Rabbi Akiva crowned Bar Koziba as the Messiah and King of Israel, although Bar Koziba (called Bar-Chochba) by Rabbi Akiva was a false messiah who caused hundreds of Jewish men to be killed and thousands of Jewish women to be raped by the hordes of Roman legionaries. Many people around the world have the impression that as Jews we don’t deal or have interest in Jesus. The common attitude of Jews toward Jesus is that He was one gigantic failure, who has done nothing good for the Jews, and historically (although not He himself, but His Christian followers) have persecuted and done terrible things supposedly in His name. So, here you are, Jesus who is a hero and the Messiah and savior and even God for the Christians is at least a failure for most of the Jews. The reason that I have this introduction to this teaching is that I would like to teach about a person who was considered a hero and was in fact a hero, but who in his life had a major change, if you wish a conversion experience. The name of the person that I would like to bring up in this teaching about the Messiah in the Talmud is Elisha Ben Abuyah. Elisha Ben Abuyah was a Hero in Israel. He was an important and an influential Rabbi in the late first century C.E. and early second century C.E. There is little information about Elisha Ben Abuyah by his name. Much more information about him by the name Aher, the other one, or the different one. The Rabbinical literature deals with people that are not liked or considered heretics by deleting them from history as much as possible. So, Elisha Ben Abuyah who at one time was a great and honored teacher of the Torah became a heretic and the Rabbis gave him the name Aher. The other one, the different one, or the changed one – Aher. The stories in rabbinic literature Elisha is remembered as the teacher of some of the most important Rabbis of his time. Among his students was Rabbi Meir, one of the most respected Rabbis in that period. There are also many Rabbinical laws that are attributed to Rabbi Elisha Ben Abuyah, among them some emendations to the laws of mourning, and other important laws. Elisha according to later rabbinical literature became a heretic and from that point on terrible accusations were leveled at Elisha Ben Abuyah. The Jerusalem Talmud states that Elisha killed another Rabbi, was teaching the young to stop the study of the Torah, was an informant against Jews during the time of Hadrianus Caesar (Hagigah II: 1; 15a) The biggest accusation is that Elisha who was in the innermost Rabbinical circles of his time “cut off the shoots.” There is a whole collection of statements in the Talmud that propagandize how bad Elisha Ben Abuyah was. Among them that he was in love with Hellenistic culture and music. This was like the cherry on top of the cream for the Rabbis – listening and enjoying Greek music! (Jerusalem Talmud Hagigah 15b). Another one of these stories about Elisha who is now called Aher in Rabbinical literature is about Rabbi Meir following the heretic Aher, who was riding a horse on the Sabbath. Although Aher was rejected by the community and living outside of the community. Rabbi Meir wanted to argue Aher’s case because Aher – Elisha Ben Abuyah was his teacher. After Meir died according to the Talmud he argued with God for Aher, and at that time from the grave of Aher smoke came out. According to the story this smoke indicated that Elisha had been forgiven. Rabbi Meir's concern for Elisha can only be interpreted as a messianic event. Rabbi Meir wanted to retain the legitimate teachings of Elisha in the rabbinic literature. How did Rabbi Elisha Ben Abuyah become a heretic in the eyes of his contemporaries? We have several stories from the Talmud. The most important one of these stories comes from Babylonian Talmud Hagigah 14b. that gives us the answer.   Four men entered the Garden = Pardes = Paradise (usually interpreted as the Kabbalistic realm – similar to Paul’s experience in 2 Corinthians 12.) Ben Azzai died; Ben Zoma went mad; Acher (Elisha) destroyed the plants (an idiom for "committed heresy"); R. Akiva departed unhurt. (Babylonian Talmud Hagigah 14b) Acher (Elisha Ben Abuyah) cut down his own shoots. Of him scripture says: "Do not let your mouth make your flesh sin" (Ecclesiastes 5:5). What is this about? He saw that Metatron happened to be sitting beside The Almighty and being granted authority to sit to record the merits of Israel, and he said: "It is a tradition that on high there is no sitting and no strife, no division and no toil. (So) perhaps there are two supreme Powers." Heaven forbid! Then they brought him to Metatron and they smote him with sixty bands of fire. They said to Metatron: "When you saw him, why did you not stand up before him?" Then authority was granted (Metatron) to erase the merits of the apostate Elisha Ben Abuyah. A heavenly voice went forth and said: "'Return you rebelious sons!' (Jer 3:22), except for this apostate." (Babylonian Talmud Hagigah 15a) He (Elisha ben Abuyah) found a whore, and wanted her. But she said, "Aren't you Elisha?" So he violated Shabbat by picking a radish from the ground and gave it to her, and she said, "He is Acher ('another one')." (Jerusalem Talmud, Hagigah 2:1) He saw the tongue of R. Judah the Baker in the mouth of a dog. He thereupon said: If this is the reward of the tongue which toiled all its days in the Torah, how much more so the tongue which has not the knowledge and has not toiled! And he said: Since that is so, there is no reward for the righteous, and no resurrection of the dead. (Midrash Rabbah on Ruth: VI, 4) When his mother was pregnant with him she passed by idolatrous temples, and she smelled the dish, and they gave her some of it to eat, and she ate it, and it spread through her like the venom of insects. (Midrash Rabbah on Ruth: VI, 4) (some of this is from the summation at Everything2) R' Chaim HaQuoton has an excellent piece on the different views regarding Rabbi Elisha's apostasy: The Talmud tells[ 35] that one time Elisha Ben Avuyah entered the Garden of Eden (Paradise). There he saw G-d sitting with Metatron, who as the “Scribe of HaShem” was writing down the merits of the Jewish nation. Elisha Ben Avuyah reasoned that just as one is supposed to stand in the presence of a King, one should also stand in the presence of the Lord, and the fact that Metatron sat with G-d must show that Metatron was His equal. Although G-d struck Metatron with sticks of fire (pulsa denura) to show His sovereignty over the angel, Elisha Ben Avuyah already made up his mind that they are equal. Because of this false premise, Elisha Ben Avuyah turned into an apostate and began preaching heresy. What can we learn from the stories about Elisha Ben Abuyah about Yeshua!