Resurrecting the Dead

Found 9 Search results

  1. The Drought (part 8)

    Eliyahu Revives the Widow of Tzarfat's Son

    Rabbi Elchanan Samet

    Eliyahu's conditions of survival in the widow's home are not a solution, in the context of the broader story, but rather an obstacle to the flow and progression of the narrative. A crisis will have to occur to interrupt Eliyahu's continued peaceful stay. The death of the widow’s son will lead to Eliyahu's banishment from her house.

  2. The Drought (part 10)

    Eliyahu Revives the Widow of Tzarfat's Son (part III)

    Rabbi Elchanan Samet

    The preferential conditions that Eliyau has enjoyed for the last year have now expired - and therefore the widow and her son are no longer different from anyone else suffering the effects of the drought. Eliyahu’s decree is the cause - directly or indirectly - of famine and death. Against his will, Eliyahu is becoming party to the suffering of the drought. Eliyahu's call to God testifies that he is not ready to recognize the claim represented by the death of the widow's son as a continuation of God's argument with him. He maintains his regular position, requesting for himself and those around him the right to a preferential existence. His request is therefore not accepted. His initial call to God is not heard, and the widow's son is not revived.

  3. The Drought (part 11)

    Eliyahu Revives the Widow of Tzarfat's Son (part IV)

    Rabbi Elchanan Samet

    When his first cry is not answered, Eliyahu turns towards the boy, to stretch out over him; this signifies his change in perception. Two changes are noted in comparing Eliyahu’s two prayers. In the first he questions God, while in the second he pleas to God. In the first, his focus remains on himself and in the second he focuses on the boy. His prayer that the boy's life be restored reveals that Eliyahu is ready to agree to the return of the rain. However, still needs an external command to push him in this direction.

  4. The Drought (part 12)

    Eliyahu Revives the Widow of Tzarfat's Son (part V)

    Rabbi Elchanan Samet

    Up until this point, Eliyahu only represented God’s trait of strict justice. After Eliyahu resurrects the woman's dead son for the child's own sake the true man of God is revealed – one who represents God's trait of compassion in the world, and performs miracles through this trait. The widow’s praise for Eliyahu as messenger of God's word is a type of Divine assent to what seems to be Eliyahu's new path: he now represents God both in strict justice and in mercy and compassion. The symmetrical structure of the story highlights Eliyahu’s second prayer as the climax of the story.

  5. The Drought (part 13)

    Eliyahu Revives the Widow of Tzarfat's Son (part VI)

    Rabbi Elchanan Samet

    An inverse relationship exists between the literary structure of the story of Eliyahu’s initial arrival in Tzarfat and the story of the revival of the child. This relationship represents a progression between the two diametrically opposed stories.

  6. The Drought (part 14)

    Eliyahu Revives the Widow of Tzarfat's Son (VII)

    Rabbi Elchanan Samet

    While both exist within a similar general framework, clear differences exist between the resurrection performed by Eliyahu and the resurrection performed by Elisha. Each description is constructed around a challenge which the prophet must address by mobilizing all his energies. Eliyahu is in conflict with God and therefore his challenge focuses on his prayers to God. Elisha bares a personal responsibility for the dead child himself and therefore his challenge focuses on his actions to revive him.

  7. Elisha and the Shunammite Woman

    Rabbi Alex Israel

    Many similarities exist between the infertility, ultimate birth and near death experience of Yitzhak and the son of the Shunamite woman. Is the death of the son a criticism of the mother who failed to raise this miracle child in a worthy fashion or is it a criticism of Elisha who overstepped his limitations as a prophet? Geihazi's repeated failures in the story might attest to his flawed personality. However, perhaps his failure is meant to teach Elisha that his success as a prophet depends on a direct, non-bureaucratic contact with the common people.

  8. The Fall and Rise of Yisrael

    Rabbi Alex Israel

    During Yehu's reign Aram, headed by Hazael occupy the Eastern bank of the Jordan. In Yehoahaz's time the situation becomes direr as Aram imposes a full demilitarization of Israel. The turnaround begins in the days of Yoash who receives a deathbed prophecy from Elisha of a victory over Aram and peaks in the time of Yerovam ben Yoash who receives a prophecy from Yona ben Amitai and restores the Northern border to a magnitude previously witnessed only during the days of David and Shlomo. While historians describe the decline of Aram due to the rise of Assyria, the book of Kings describes a divine process which is surprisingly almost entirely devoid of any repentance. 

    Does the outcome of the prophetic action that Elisha preforms with Yoash on his deathbed actually have an impact on the outcome in reality?

    Is the resurrection from death of the man who came in contact with Elisha's buried bones just another miracle of Elisha or does it symbolize a national resurrection?

  9. Yitzhak and the Shunamite: Loving Kindness and Giving Life

    Rabbi David Silverberg