Elisha ben Abuya and R. Meir
About This Entry
The following story occurs after Elisha ben Abuya wittingly departs the rabbinic fold, an action that likely grants him his later moniker of Aḥer, “the other.” Despite his excommunication, the Talmud transmits a number of teachings and opinions in his name and thus acknowledges his vast rabbinic learning. This narrative attests to the particular position of Elisha ben Abuya as a figure who is marginal to the rabbinic community and yet inextricably tied to his former rabbinic life by both his vast knowledge and his association with the rabbis. His former student R. Meir follows him in the hope of learning more Torah from him, but Aḥer tells him to turn back so as not to cross the Sabbath boundary. Though Aḥer continues to have contact with the rabbinic world, he also knows that he has passed the point of turning back.
The sages taught: There was once an incident involving Aḥer, who was riding on a horse on Shabbat, and R. Meir was walking behind him to learn Torah from him. [After a while, Aḥer] said to him, “Meir, turn back, for I have already estimated [and measured] according to the steps of my horse [that] the Shabbat boundary ends here, [and you may therefore venture no further.” R. Meir] said to him, “You, too, return [to the correct path].” He said to him, “But have I not already told you [that] I have already heard behind the [dividing] curtain, ‘Return, rebellious children,’ apart from Aḥer?”
Notes
Words in brackets appear in the original translation.
Credits
From Koren Talmud Bavli, Noé Edition, trans. Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2019). Accessed via the William Davidson digital edition, sefaria.org. Adapted with permission of Koren Publishers Ltd.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
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The following story occurs after Elisha ben Abuya wittingly departs the rabbinic fold, an action that likely grants him his later moniker of Aḥer, “the other.” Despite his excommunication, the Talmud transmits a number of teachings and opinions in his name and thus acknowledges his vast rabbinic learning. This narrative attests to the particular position of Elisha ben Abuya as a figure who is marginal to the rabbinic community and yet inextricably tied to his former rabbinic life by both his vast knowledge and his association with the rabbis. His former student R. Meir follows him in the hope of learning more Torah from him, but Aḥer tells him to turn back so as not to cross the Sabbath boundary. Though Aḥer continues to have contact with the rabbinic world, he also knows that he has passed the point of turning back.
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