Elisha Ben Avouyi
Elisha Ben Abouya (various spellings, including was a Jewish heretic of the most famous era of the Talmud, except Yeshua (which some equate with Jesus of Nazareth A Master ... Elisha was born about the year 70 CE in a wealthy family and assimilated (the traditional interpretation, but it is unclear which means that Elisha 'Bin Abouyah ", meaning" the son of his father YHWH "!). The Jerusalem Talmud ( Haguiga Yerushalmi 2.1) relates the story by Elisha himself to his birth during the festival for his circumcision, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua talk in private of Torah. A "fire" around the house then. Abouya, impressed, then decided to devote his son to Torah. And the Talmud to conclude that this was not done without interest selflessly {}, Elisha does not maintained as part of the Torah. It should be noted that the fire that descended upon the circumcision of Elisha is compared to the fire of Sinai, in the Talmud Western heretics ranged as if his birth as a new stage of Mosaic Law (!), And that this fire in the year of the Fire Temple by Titus, as if he was born "with" Temple Ruins ... The Haggadah says that, contrary to the false hopes, heaven "does not the Torah devoted to this man." However, after a mystical experience ( Haguiga 14b) and injuries that are causing the triumphs and atrocities of the Romans ( Kiddushin 39b), it seems to be adopting the Gnostic ideas (even agnostics) or Hellenistic Greek scholars of his time, broke with the Jewish tradition, mocking teachers, diverting youth studies, and turns away even the Jewish people, not hesitating to collaborate with the occupying Roman ( Haguiga Yerushalmi 2.2). Apparently raised by his father in both the Jewish culture that Greek culture (Haguiga 15b), he seems to believe that there is not a God, but two forces, Good and Evil, the second ruling on the de facto world dominating the first who fails to divert only through great efforts for a period ephemeral. Then letting himself be tempted by all the pleasures, including sex, one day he approaches a prostitute who is surprised and asks, "Are not you Abouya Elisha ben?", Then, as it would exclaims and renounce his honorable past conduct, she continues, "is another (Acher) (Haguiga 15a). It is now under the name Acher it is known. Another lesson, recorded in the Pirke Avot (4:20), may explain the better the procrastination of the Other: What one learns in his youth, what it looks like there? In a writing course on white paper. Everything depends on education. Also, how to repent, it is impossible to rewrite on paper erased? After her death, lonely and isolated, his daughters were reinstated in Jewish life by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (Yerushalmi Haguiga 2.2). One of his grand-son, Rabbi Yaakov, was the opposite of his grandfather, and the reason on hearing the verses 'about the remoteness of the nest' (Deuteronomy 22:6 and 7) Rabbi Yosef exclaimed: "If only Aher had interpreted these verses as Rabbi Yaakov, son of his daughter, he would not have sinned!" (Kiddushin 39b). The Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906) wrote that "it is almost impossible to draw any rabbinical sources a clear picture of this personality, and modern historians have differed sharply in their valuation on his person. Grtz For it is a Gnostic Carpocratians; for Siegfried, a disciple of Philo ; Dubsch for a Christian (like elkasate). For Smolenskin and Weiss, a victim of the inquisitor Akiva. " In his book, The Sinner And The Amnesiac: The Rabbinic Invention of Elisha Ben Abuya and Eleazar Ben Arach, Alon Goshen-Gottstein argues that rabbinic stories should be read as stories rather than history: They develop stories that are then integrated into larger units literary ideological motivation in order to get messages across ideological individuals. The sources do not necessarily relate to historical facts about the hero but illustrate that cultural considerations are bodies in the stories told about them An argument against the current According to Albert Assaraf (The Heretic, Paris, Balland, 1991), the figure of Elisha ben Abouya embody not a reformer but paradoxically conservative faithful to the old order. Its uniqueness lies not in his exceptional knowledge of Greek but in its refusal to forget, to turn back. His heresy that it would take at least "put the Sinai to Olympus," as claimed by A. Jellinek, to have refused to "go down" to save Olympus to Sinai. It is this misunderstanding, this misdiagnosis, which according to Albert Assaraf, reported the story about Elisha so enigmatic and incomprehensible. As paradoxical as it may sound, the character of Elisha ben Abouya embodied in the spirit of the Talmud, a conservative faithful to the old models and not a revolutionary. This figure symbolizes more than just a single individual victim of the nightmare consecutive disasters of 70 and 135. Albert said Assaraf qu'Elicha suspect was the leader, or at least partisan, a political-religious movement opposed to the radically new and current antihellniste nationalist majority. It appears from the careful study of texts that this movement was: 1) Aristocratic. This is stigmatized by the words: "My father was one of Abouya richest Jerusalem." 2) That the followers of this movement were fascinated by the ancient Sadducees Pharisees success. Hence the importance that the Talmud in the manner with which Abouya was interested to learn Torah with his son. 3) The Talmud speaks of Zknim (old) who sat with Elisha. However, twice in the Talmud, says Albert Assaraf, Zaken merges with or Sadducee boethusien: "Our Torah is not perfect as your idle chatter," says Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, a virulent tone at the address a Zaken. Is this a struggle between the reformist and old ben Zakkai (Zknim) Conservatives who want nothing to change? 4) This movement would have remained attached to the study of Greek and despite measures antihellnistes nationalist consecutive to the disaster and the rise of Min (Gnostic or other ...) 5) Elisha continue to practice the ancient literature now Apocrypha (Book of Enoch ...) in spite of the prohibition of Rabbis. 6) Because of their origins and aristocratic Sadducees, members of this movement remained faithful to the ancient Greco-Roman beliefs about death. Hence the indignation of Elisha meet its vision of wise unburied. 7) The conservative movement had remained faithful to the old theory bibile of retribution. Hence the evocation of Gimquat case that promises a reward (an extension of days) in this world. 8) The party was proromain, opposed the war. Hence the story about acts of betrayal of Elisha. Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkanos this "enclosed tank that loses no drop" (Avot II, 8), pushed up his conservatism persist in the old literal reading of the law of retaliation, definitively abolished - just as the sacrifices, prostration face against the ground and even the death penalty - under the leadership of Ben Zakkai (TB Baba Kama 84a). - Albert Assaraf, The heretic, Elisha ben Abouya either absolute, Paris, Balland, 1991, pp. 147-148.
Elisha was in any case a brilliant student. His wisdom, his wisdom, his scholarship was so great that the sages of Israel flattered such an element in their ranks, even if a Greek air never left his lips and he hid Greek heretical books (perhaps be books Sadducees ?) in his breast (Haguiga 15b, Yerushalmi Megillah 1:9). He acquired a reputation for authoritative halachic since the Treaty Moed Katan 20a relates one of his decisions, and that others may have been reported on behalf of other masters. ... lost
Subsequently, tortured between his two cultures, it will return to the Sages, debating with them about Judaism, but only in the light of the intellect. The legendary Rabbi Meir did not hesitate to defy the stigma to take his lessons, which sometimes does not lack spice: for example, by a Sabbath which follows Rabbi Meir Acher straddling walk (note: it is forbidden to make Shabbat), it says, 'Meir, returns home with you, because my horse has reached the limit of the area allowed on the Sabbath'! (Haguiga 15a). Epilogue
What you learn in his old age, what does it look like it? In a writing course on a palimpsest (parchment old and stained).
His teachings were also included because, as his daughter had said to Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, "Remember His teachings, not his actions." Rabbi Nathan, in his commentary on Pirke Avot, Avot DeRabbie Nathan spends even a whole chapter.
In the afterlife, was Acher, says the Talmud (Haguiga 15b), also shared between two worlds, the Gan Eden and Gehenna. Finally, Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yohanan came out of the death of these just buying his faults. Critical Views
The case of Elisha, Assaraf says Albert, is not unique. Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkanos was also excommunicated for his extreme conservatism and for his refusal to comply with new standards of Yavneh Sanhedrin. Source
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