This chapter is the great transition: Eliyahu the prophet ascends in a whirlwind to heaven, and his disciple Elisha becomes the one who carries on his path. The lesson before us enters the heart of the chapter from the moment when Elisha sees his master taken from him, and from there we accompany Elisha: the tearing of the garment over his master, the mantle that was left behind, the splitting of the Yarden through the power of "a double portion," the disciples of the prophets who search for Eliyahu's body, the healing of the waters of Yericho, and finally the difficult episode of the youths at Beit El. Throughout all these we follow the explanations of the Malbim, alongside the words of Chazal, Rashi and the Radak, as well as the words of the Ramma of Fano on the transmigration of souls.
וֶאֱלִישָׁע רֹאֶה וְהוּא מְצַעֵק אָבִי אָבִי רֶכֶב יִשְׂרָאֵל וּפָרָשָׁיו וְלֹא רָאָהוּ עוֹד וַיַּחֲזֵק בִּבְגָדָיו וַיִּקְרָעֵם לִשְׁנַיִם קְרָעִים׃ (יב) - And Elisha saw it, and he cried out, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen," and he saw him no more; and he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces. (12)
The condition that Eliyahu set with Elisha - "if you see me being taken from you, it shall be so for you" - was fulfilled, for the prophet testifies and says: "And Elisha saw it." With his own eyes he sees how Eliyahu departs from him, and then he cries out "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen." It is as if he says: behold, upon this fiery chariot and these fiery horsemen ride all of Israel, meaning that Eliyahu is equal to the entire people of Israel. And Elisha further understood that this is "the chariot of Israel" in the sense of the supernal chariot: Eliyahu was elevated and reached the level of the supernal chariot. This is the meaning of "and he saw him no more" - he vanished from his sight, for he was elevated and attained a level of perception that Elisha in his physical body could no longer see.
Another explanation of "the chariot of Israel and its horsemen": the chariots of Israel and their horsemen, when they go down to battle, in whose merit do they prevail? In the merit of the righteous one. Therefore Elisha says to him: you are the chariot of Israel, you are its horsemen. Who fights the battles of Israel? Who is the one in whose merit we prevail? The righteous one, Eliyahu. He is the aspect of the chariot of Israel and its horsemen.
And what is the meaning of "my father, my father"? The Radak says it is like "my teacher, my teacher." For the disciples of the prophets are called "the sons of the prophets," and as the Targum renders it: the disciples of the prophets. This shows that the teacher is regarded as a father, as we find several times in Chazal that one who taught Torah is called his father even though he was really his teacher. So too here Elisha held onto him as his father and cried out "my father, my father," and although seemingly he should have said "my teacher" - out of even greater closeness he called him his father.
From this verse Chazal learned that a person is obligated to tear his garment over his teacher who taught him wisdom, and this tearing is like the tearing over one's father and mother - a tear that is never mended, unlike the tearing over other relatives, whose tear may be sewn back. And from where do we know this? From the language of the verse "and he tore them into two pieces." Chazal say: why "into two pieces"? It should have said "pieces"! Rather, this teaches you: pieces that will forever remain two, that are never mended.
וַיָּרֶם אֶת־אַדֶּרֶת אֵלִיָּהוּ אֲשֶׁר נָפְלָה מֵעָלָיו וַיָּשָׁב וַיַּעֲמֹד עַל־שְׂפַת הַיַּרְדֵּן׃ (יג) - And he picked up the mantle of Eliyahu that had fallen from him, and he went back and stood on the bank of the Yarden. (13)
Eliyahu's mantle is the very mantle in which Eliyahu wrapped his face in the cave, when the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself to him and "he wrapped his face in his mantle." The mantle is a metaphor for the screen between the physical and the spiritual: Eliyahu the prophet does not wish, and as it were is unable, to gaze upon the face of Hashem, and therefore he wrapped his face in his mantle. And the miracle of the splitting of the Yarden too Eliyahu performed with the mantle - "and he rolled it up and struck the waters." But now, when Eliyahu is stripping away from physicality and connecting to spirituality, is there still any place for the mantle? There is no place for the mantle. Therefore it remains here below, for it is the aspect of a screen, and Eliyahu no longer needs a screen.
וַיִּקַּח אֶת־אַדֶּרֶת אֵלִיָּהוּ אֲשֶׁר־נָפְלָה מֵעָלָיו וַיַּכֶּה אֶת־הַמַּיִם וַיֹּאמַר אַיֵּה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי אֵלִיָּהוּ אַף־הוּא וַיַּכֶּה אֶת־הַמַּיִם וַיֵּחָצוּ הֵנָּה וָהֵנָּה וַיַּעֲבֹר אֱלִישָׁע׃ (יד) - He took the mantle of Eliyahu that had fallen from him and struck the water and said: Where is Hashem, the God of Eliyahu, He too? And he struck the water and it parted this way and that, and Elisha crossed over. (14)
Eliyahu had the power to subdue the element of water, as we saw in their crossing of the Jordan by means of the mantle. But there, as they say, there was no great novelty in it, since there were two of them there, Eliyahu and Elisha, and the merit of two joins together and is greater than the merit of one. Yet Eliyahu had promised Elisha, "Let a double portion of your spirit be upon me," so that now Elisha alone could strike the Jordan and it would split, needing no second person, for he holds within him a power of double measure, since Eliyahu is as one joined with him and the spirit of Eliyahu had attached itself to him.
This is what he said: "Where is Hashem, the God of Eliyahu, He too" - it is fitting that He too come to me; besides the Divine presence that rests upon me, that the spirit of Eliyahu also join me, and through this I can split the water. The Midrash says: "He too" - what does it come to include? It teaches that greater miracles were performed for Elisha in the splitting of the Jordan than for Eliyahu, and as we explained: the first time it was the merit of both of them that stood, and the second time the merit of one righteous man alone. From here you may expound eight wonders performed by Eliyahu and sixteen by Elisha, double the wonders that Eliyahu performed Elisha performed, as we will see in the coming chapters.
וַיִּרְאֻהוּ בְנֵי־הַנְּבִיאִים אֲשֶׁר־בִּירִיחוֹ מִנֶּגֶד וַיֹּאמְרוּ נָחָה רוּחַ אֵלִיָּהוּ עַל־אֱלִישָׁע וַיָּבֹאוּ לִקְרָאתוֹ וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲווּ־לוֹ אָרְצָה׃ (טו) - The sons of the prophets who were in Jericho saw him from a distance and said: The spirit of Eliyahu rests upon Elisha. And they came to meet him and bowed down to him to the ground. (15)
Since they saw him splitting the water and crossing the Jordan by himself, they understood that Eliyahu had already imparted of his spirit to Elisha, and therefore he was able to perform those same wonders as Eliyahu. "The spirit of Eliyahu rests upon Elisha" - and they came to meet him and bowed down to him to the ground, and in this they accepted him as the one who continues the path of Eliyahu.
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו הִנֵּה־נָא יֵשׁ־אֶת־עֲבָדֶיךָ חֲמִשִּׁים אֲנָשִׁים בְּנֵי־חַיִל יֵלְכוּ נָא וִיבַקְשׁוּ אֶת־אֲדֹנֶיךָ פֶּן־נְשָׂאוֹ רוּחַ יְהֹוָה וַיַּשְׁלִכֵהוּ בְּאַחַד הֶהָרִים אוֹ בְּאַחַת הַגֵּיאָיוֹת וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא תִשְׁלָחוּ׃ (טז) - They said to him: Behold now, there are with your servants fifty valiant men; let them go, please, and search for your master, lest the spirit of Hashem has carried him off and cast him upon one of the mountains or in one of the valleys. And he said: Do not send them. (16)
They come and say to him: Eliyahu has vanished, no one knows where he is, and it may be that a wind carried him off. And what led them to think this? The commentators say that this was Eliyahu's way, that from time to time a wind would carry him off and he would disappear. And where do we find this? With Ovadyahu, when Eliyahu told him to go tell Achav that he was revealing himself to him, and Ovadyahu said to him: Perhaps I will come and a wind will carry you off, and I will search for you and not find you, and Achav will take my head. Here too they thought that perhaps this was one of those occasions when a wind carried him far off and he was secluding himself, and perhaps his body vanished in one of the valleys and lies there.
But there is a difficulty here: they themselves were prophets, and they were the ones who said to him, "Do you know that today Hashem is taking your master from over your head?" How then was it hidden from them where he had gone, and they begin to ask questions and offer conjectures? Rashi says: This teaches that from the day Eliyahu was hidden away, the holy spirit gradually departed from the prophets, and the holy spirit was no longer abundant in Israel.
We already explained in previous lessons that the prophets receive through the main channel: when there is a great main channel, there is abundant flow for all the prophets. We saw that until the time of Shmuel "prophetic vision was not widespread," but Shmuel opened the foundations of Netzach and Hod, which are the two thighs, and from the sefirot of Netzach and Hod prophecy flows. He is the one who opened the two thighs, and consequently the flow of prophecy was fit for all who were in his surroundings. Even Shaul, who came to pursue David, suddenly begins to prophesy, "Is Shaul too among the prophets?" So it is when there is a mighty channel bestowing enormous flow. But when the channel departed, and Eliyahu went and vanished, the holy spirit departed with him in proportional measure from the prophets, and was no longer abundant as it had been.
"Fifty valiant men" - the Radak asks: are they going out to make war? Rather, the meaning is that in order to search a large area in a short time you need capable men, and so they requested: give us permission and we will go and search for him quickly.
The Malbim explains what exactly they were thinking: since ascending in a whirlwind to heaven applies only to the spiritual part, and the physical part is not fit to ascend - what business does the physical part have in spiritual places? - they estimated that the physical part had been left here for him from Heaven. And if it was left here, it must be buried. Therefore they said: let us go search, perhaps Eliyahu's body needs to be buried.
וַיִּפְצְרוּ־בוֹ עַד־בֹּשׁ וַיֹּאמֶר שְׁלָחוּ וַיִּשְׁלְחוּ חֲמִשִּׁים אִישׁ וַיְבַקְשׁוּ שְׁלֹשָׁה־יָמִים וְלֹא מְצָאֻהוּ׃ (יז) - And they urged him until he was ashamed, and he said: send them. So they sent fifty men, and they searched for three days but did not find him. (17)
At first he told them "do not send," for he knew that Eliyahu's body had been refined and ascended in the whirlwind to heaven. But they pressed him, and finally he said to them: send them. And what is "they urged him until he was ashamed"? Rashi says that he became ashamed before them: if we press you so much and you refuse, it looks as though your master's honor is not before your eyes - perhaps your master's body lies in one of the valleys and you do not care. This embarrassment, that they would say his master's honor was not precious in his eyes, is what caused him to say: fine, go. But without this there would certainly have been no point in their going.
וַיָּשֻׁבוּ אֵלָיו וְהוּא יֹשֵׁב בִּירִיחוֹ וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם הֲלֹא־אָמַרְתִּי אֲלֵיכֶם אַל־תֵּלֵכוּ׃ (יח) - And they returned to him, while he was staying in Jericho, and he said to them: did I not tell you, do not go? (18)
At the root of the error of the sons of the prophets lies a great question: what ascended in the whirlwind, the body or the soul? They assumed the body certainly remained here, cast off somewhere, for the body is only the external part, the shell. And indeed, people who have undergone a near death experience describe how they saw their bodies shattered on the road, and when they are asked what they felt toward the body, they all say: nothing, I had no sentiments toward it, like a coat that I took off. When an old coat tears, do you feel pain? No pain at all, as though I removed a coat and walked on. This is the true attitude toward the body when a person feels and experiences his soul.
But as long as we do not experience the soul, when we are asked "who are you?" we strike our chest - there is where we think the "I" is located. And when we say "I feel like it," who is speaking from within us? The body is speaking. Whereas our identification should have been with the soul, and we should have felt the body to be an excess appendage. Yet the reality of man, sadly, is not so.
And regarding this: Moshe Rabbenu deliberately did not ascend in a whirlwind to heaven, so that people would not say that Moshe was of the category of an angel. Moshe Rabbenu was born of a woman, Moshe Rabbenu was also buried, and he was even punished as a man - to teach you that even though he was a human being, see to what lofty and immense levels he reached, and do not think that Moshe was of the category of an angel.
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אַנְשֵׁי הָעִיר אֶל־אֱלִישָׁע הִנֵּה־נָא מוֹשַׁב הָעִיר טוֹב כַּאֲשֶׁר אֲדֹנִי רֹאֶה וְהַמַּיִם רָעִים וְהָאָרֶץ מְשַׁכָּלֶת׃ (יט) - And the men of the city said to Elisha: behold now, the location of the city is good, as my lord sees, but the water is bad and the land causes bereavement. (19)
"But the water is bad" - that it was bitter; this is Jericho. "And the land causes bereavement" - that as a result of the badness of the water, people would drink from it and die, for the water was flawed and spoiled. And Chazal say: Jericho was bereaving and cursed on account of Yehoshua's curse upon it, and Eliyahu came and added to the curse through the deed of Chiel of Beit HaEli, for when his sons died and the two of them, he and Achav, went to visit him, a further curse was added there. Therefore they now said to him: the place needs to be repaired.
The Gemara asks: if the water was bad and the land caused bereavement, what does "the situation of the city is good" mean? What is so good here? Chazal say: from here we learn that a place casts a charm upon its inhabitants. Do you see a person living in Sderot and say to yourself: is there really nowhere else for you to live? There are people who had the money to leave, and nonetheless stayed there for years. Why? The charm of a place upon its inhabitants. Take someone who does not live in Bnei Brak and tell him to live in Bnei Brak, and he will say to you: what, do I want to kill myself? And on the other hand, tell a native of Bnei Brak to move to Elad, Beit Shemesh or Jerusalem, and he will say: what has gotten into you, should I leave Bnei Brak?
And by the way, not only in this. The Gemara says: the charm of a wife upon her husband. A person says: look at that couple, I do not understand what she found in him and what he found in her, I would never in my life have married her, and the other says exactly the same thing about your wife. Rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, grants a special charm so that one finds favor in this match, in this city and in this occupation. In occupation too: sometimes a person works at a job and you cannot understand how anyone could do such work, but the Holy One, blessed be He, sees to it that it holds charm in his eyes so that he enjoys it.
And likewise "the charm of a purchase upon its buyer." A person sees his friend buy something and says to him: why did you buy that? And know that it is forbidden to do so, it is a prohibition. It is written in halacha that one should praise the purchase, and if he found something good in it he should tell him something good about it, but under no circumstances say to a person after he has bought "what did you find in this," for that is outright wronging, verbal wronging. And what is really the reason he bought it? The charm of a purchase upon its buyer, it found favor in his eyes. You would not have bought such an apartment, but that place held a special charm in his eyes, because it is his place, it is his rectification, it is what was destined for him from Heaven. Therefore do not question why he bought specifically that thing.
וַיֹּאמֶר קְחוּ־לִי צְלֹחִית חֲדָשָׁה וְשִׂימוּ שָׁם מֶלַח וַיִּקְחוּ אֵלָיו׃ (כ) - And he said: Bring me a new flask and put salt in it. And they brought it to him. (20)
וַיֵּצֵא אֶל־מוֹצָא הַמַּיִם וַיַּשְׁלֶךְ־שָׁם מֶלַח וַיֹּאמֶר כֹּה־אָמַר יְהֹוָה רִפִּאתִי לַמַּיִם הָאֵלֶּה לֹא־יִהְיֶה מִשָּׁם עוֹד מָוֶת וּמְשַׁכָּלֶת׃ (כא) - And he went out to the spring of the water and threw salt there, and he said: So says Hashem, I have healed this water, there shall no longer be from it death or bereavement. (21)
The Malbim says: the water was bad because it contained particles of salt, which made the water unfit to drink, like the sea water that is not fit to drink. And how does Elisha heal the water? He takes a flask with salt and throws it into it. This teaches us that the salt, which is the cause of the water's badness, is precisely what ultimately brings about its rectification. And as Chazal say, the way of our rabbis, the great ones of Israel, is to rectify a spoiled thing through something spoiled: to rectify the spoiled through the sound is no great wisdom, but to rectify the spoiled through the spoiled, that is wisdom.
And so too we find with Moshe Rabbeinu, who threw into the water the oleander tree, and Chazal say that the oleander is a bitter tree, and with it he rectified the waters of Marah. And likewise Yeshayahu smeared a cake of figs upon the boil and thereby healed it, even though the fig cake only stimulates and irritates the boil, and nonetheless the miracle is contrary to nature. Therefore Elisha took specifically salt, which is the cause of the water's saltiness.
And why "a new flask"? So that people would not say: surely something was absorbed in the flask, and now when he threw it in, the absorbed substance came out and took effect. He said to them: bring a new vessel in which nothing was absorbed, so that those who love to raise doubts would have no doubts, and would know that there was nothing to it.
And the allusion in this, says the Malbim: the water alludes to foreign studies and false views. And where do we find this? "Lest you be exiled to the place of the bad water and the students drink and die", where the intent is bad water in the spiritual sense, foreign studies, and from this comes also the death of the body. And what does Elisha do? He takes and throws salt. Salt symbolizes something enduring, "a covenant of salt," and it represents the engagement in Torah. He casts in the holy Torah, and through the holy Torah a healing is created for that corruption of the water.
וַיֵּרָפוּ הַמַּיִם עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה כִּדְבַר אֱלִישָׁע אֲשֶׁר דִּבֵּר׃ (כב) - And the water was healed until this day, according to the word of Elisha that he spoke. (22)
This is the first miracle we see Elisha perform, and we will see the rest of his miracles as we continue.
וַיַּעַל מִשָּׁם בֵּית־אֵל וְהוּא עֹלֶה בַדֶּרֶךְ וּנְעָרִים קְטַנִּים יָצְאוּ מִן־הָעִיר וַיִּתְקַלְּסוּ־בוֹ וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ עֲלֵה קֵרֵחַ עֲלֵה קֵרֵחַ׃ (23) - And he went up from there to Beit El, and as he was going up the road, small youths came out of the city and mocked him, saying to him, "Go up, baldy, go up, baldy!"
What does "small youths" mean? Are there large youths? Rather, the verse comes to tell you that they were both youths and small: "youths" (ne'arim), meaning shaken free (meno'arim) of the mitzvot, and "small" (ketanim), meaning they were of little faith (miketanei amanah). And why did they mock him? Because these youths made their living from bringing water: as long as the water was bad, one had to draw water from distant places, and this was their livelihood. Elisha came and cut off their staff of bread, and now they were unemployed, for there was no need to bring water since there were wells within the city, since Elisha had sweetened the water.
And what did they mean by "go up, baldy"? They knew that he was anointed in place of Eliyahu the prophet, and they came and said to him: how can you take the place of your master? After all, Eliyahu was a man clothed in a hairy garment, and how will you fill his place when you are bald and your master had abundant hair? As if to say: how will you reach his level when your nature is the opposite of his? It is impossible that you should reach his level. And in this our Sages revealed that they were shaken free of the mitzvot and of little faith.
The Malbim adds another interpretation of "go up, baldy": they are saying to him, Elisha, with respect, go up to heaven as your master went up to heaven; your master ascended, and in short, leave us and ascend to heaven yourself too. And they were from Beit El, the place of the calves, and there the false prophets would ridicule the true prophets. Therefore youths shaken free of the mitzvot came out from there, who had learned at home how to ridicule the prophets of Hashem. And through this you will also understand the response.
וַיִּפֶן אַחֲרָיו וַיִּרְאֵם וַיְקַלְלֵם בְּשֵׁם יְהֹוָה וַתֵּצֶאנָה שְׁתַּיִם דֻּבִּים מִן־הַיַּעַר וַתְּבַקַּעְנָה מֵהֶם אַרְבָּעִים וּשְׁנֵי יְלָדִים׃ (24) - And he turned around and saw them, and he cursed them in the name of Hashem, and two bears came out of the forest and tore apart forty two children of them.
"And he turned around and saw them" - what did he see? Our Sages say: some say that he saw that all their mothers had conceived them on Yom Kippur, meaning that they all came from a transgression. Some say that he saw that they had a forelock like idol worshippers. And some say that he saw that there was no moisture of a mitzvah in them, neither in them nor in their offspring until the end of all generations, and therefore he removed them from the world.
Even so, our Sages say that he was punished for this: Elisha fell ill with three illnesses, one because he set bears upon children, the second because he pushed Geichazi away with both hands, as we will see later, and the third the illness from which he died. We see from here that even a punishment brought by a tzaddik is not good: even though they truly were not fitting, it was not right to punish them.
"Two bears" - our Sages say that they were females, and therefore it says "two" (in the feminine form). And our Sages say that this was a miracle, for in that forest wild animals and bears were not normally found at all, and the bears were not there at all. This is one opinion. And there is another opinion that says: neither bears nor forest, and this is the source of the famous expression. That is, there were no bears there and there was also no forest there, but rather Hashem performed a miracle within a miracle. And why was it necessary to create a forest as well? Because the bears would not have harmed had they not been in their natural environment, and therefore a miracle was needed for there to also be a forest, and through the forest they were in their natural environment and able to harm.
And our Sages say: in the merit of the forty two offerings that Balak king of Moav offered, forty two children were torn from Israel. That is, through the act that Balak did, he created and left an imprint of harm in the world, which in the end harmed us.
וַיֵּלֶךְ מִשָּׁם אֶל־הַר הַכַּרְמֶל וּמִשָּׁם שָׁב שֹׁמְרוֹן׃ (כה) - And he went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria. (25)
Let us conclude with what the Rama MiPano says about the transmigration of souls. The Rama MiPano asks: who were those two bears? He explains that they were the reincarnation of Balak and Bilaam, and they represent the two forces (two bears), and in the merit of the forty two sacrifices, forty two children were torn apart. And why does it say "two" in the feminine form? Because the mothers of the demons were clothed within them, those whom the Kabbalists refer to by names that may not be mentioned in their plain form, and therefore call them by the expression "such and such a one," so as not to mention the names of demons, and for this reason the matter is expressed in the feminine.
One more small point, and with this we shall conclude. The Gemara relates about Rabbi Yosi of Yukrat that he had a son and a daughter. Once the son fed the laborers by decreeing that the fig tree bring forth its fruit out of season, and his father told him to return to his dust, and cursed him. There was another incident with his daughter: he saw that someone was looking at her because she was exceedingly beautiful, and he too told her to return to her dust. The Rama MiPano says: who is Rabbi Yosi of Yukrat? He is Elisha. Elisha, who incited the bears against the children, now incited death against his own children.
And who really were his son and daughter? The Rama MiPano says: this was the rectification of Amnon and Tamar. Amnon and Tamar needed to be reincarnated and to depart from the world once more, Amnon for the deed he did, and Tamar because a stumbling block came about through her. And this was the opposite of what had been with them in the first incarnation: how did Amnon come to that sin? Because "his father had never grieved him by saying, why have you done so," for David did not rebuke his sons. And now came Rabbi Yosi of Yukrat, who was strict and rebuked them excessively, the opposite of what they had experienced in the previous incarnation.
The chapter is the chapter of transmission: Elisha sees his master taken away, calls out to him "my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen," and teaches us the obligation to rend one's garments over a teacher with a tear that is never mended. The mantle remains below, for Eliyahu no longer needs the screen between the physical and the spiritual, and Elisha crosses the Jordan with it by the power of "a double portion" (eight wonders performed by Eliyahu and sixteen by him). The disciples of the prophets accept him as the one who continues the path, yet they wish to search for Eliyahu's body, and from here we learn that from the day Eliyahu was hidden away the holy spirit departed from the prophets; and from here too there is a great lesson about the true attitude toward the body and about Moshe Rabbeinu, who was buried so that people would not say he was an angel. In Jericho he heals the water with salt, to mend the ruined with the ruined, and from here comes the idea of "the charm of a place upon its inhabitants." And in Beit El, among youths stripped of the mitzvot and of little faith, comes the difficult episode of the bears, and even though they deserved it, Elisha was punished for it, for punishment is not a good thing even for a righteous man.