An Elegant Composition concerning Relief after Adversity and Ease after Anguish

Something happened to R. Joshua [ben Levi] which perplexed him until its meaning was revealed to him. Namely, he had fasted and prayed and entreated his Lord to let him see [the prophet] Elijah, and so one day he indeed met him on the road. Elijah asked him, “Is there anything that you desire?” He replied, “I would like to walk along with you and observe the wonders that you perform in this world.” Elijah said to him, “You will not be able to endure my actions as you see them, and I will have to take the trouble to explain to you what made me do the particular thing.” R. Joshua replied, “My lord, I will not trouble you excessively in this regard, nor will I burden you with questions. My desire is merely to observe what you do, nothing else.” At this, Elijah laid down the condition that once R. Joshua asked him to explain the reasons for his actions, he would have to leave him.

And so R. Joshua went with Elijah until they came, that same evening, to a poor man who owned nothing but one cow that was kept in the house where he himself was sitting with his wife. When the man saw the two of them, he received them graciously and served them whatever food he had on hand, and they ate and drank, the while he entertained them as generously as he could.

When morning came, Elijah arose and caused the cow to die, whereupon the two of them departed. R. Joshua, puzzled, said to himself, “Was there no other recompense for this poor man for entertaining us so generously than that his cow should die?” [He therefore asked Elijah, “My lord, why did you cause his cow to die?”] Elijah replied, “Did I not impose upon you the condition that whatever you see you are to remain silent? Do you want me to leave you?”

So Joshua desisted from further questioning, and they went on all day long. Towards evening they stopped at the house of a wealthy man, who paid no attention to them and offered them nothing to eat. Now he had a wall that had collapsed, and when morning came, Elijah arose and besought his Lord and the wall was forthwith rebuilt. Thereupon the two men departed. R. Joshua was even more puzzled by this but refrained from asking questions, and they went on all day long until that night, when they entered a synagogue and found there seats of gold and silver, each person sitting in his own seat. The people asked, “Who will show honor to these poor men tonight?” To which one of them replied, “These men, their food is but bread and salt,”¹ and so they paid no attention to the two wayfarers. They slept right there, and when they arose, Elijah said to the people, “May God make all of you chiefs.”

They went on from there and journeyed all day long until that night, when they stopped with some wretchedly poor people. When these saw the two of them, they received them graciously and entertained them as generously as they could, serving them an abundance of food. They ate and drank and spent the night in utmost comfort, yet when morning came, Elijah said to them, “May God grant you only one chief.”

At this R. Joshua could no longer hold himself back, so he said to Elijah, “My lord, deliver me from these perplexities, even though I shall then have to leave you. I can no longer bear patiently what I observe you doing.”

Elijah replied, “As for the poor man whose cow died, his wife was due to die that same day, and so I besought my Lord that the cow should die in her stead. As for the man whose wall I caused to be rebuilt, had I left him to expose the foundation thereof, he would have found a vast treasure therein, and he is unworthy of it. Therefore I caused the wall to be rebuilt for him, but in a short time it will collapse [again] and will never be restored.”

“As for the people for whom I expressed the wish that all of them should become chiefs, that is indeed an evil wish for them, because a place in which there are many chiefs is bound to be ruined. On the other hand, those for whom I expressed the wish that they should have only one chief, are bound to prosper thereby. Do you not call to mind the popular proverb, ‘A multitude of masters causes the ship to founder?’ And Ben Sira said, By one discerning man a city is peopled, etc. (Sirach 16:4).”

Then Elijah said to him, “Now that we are about to part, I will charge you with some advice that will be useful to you: If you see a wicked man advancing and prospering, do not wonder at it, for it is to his [ultimate] disadvantage. Likewise, if you see a righteous man distressed or sorely tried, he is being delivered thereby from something worse. Refrain therefore from entertaining doubts in your heart about such things.” Then Elijah left him and departed.