Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation (Jewish Lives)

In the words of the twentieth-century mystic Abraham Isaac Kook, “Originally, before he was sweetened, he perceived acutely the depth of ugliness and contamination in which this lowly world is immersed. Therefore he blazed with zeal to eradicate the spirit of impurity and those clinging to it. After being sweetened, he perceives every spark of holi

In a sense, however, Elijah is transformed from a biblical zealot into a Jewish bodhisattva.

All three rituals are liminal (threshold) moments, fittingly enhanced by Elijah, the liminal personality—part human, part angel—the mysterious stranger who spans heaven and earth, virtuoso of the in-between.2

Elijah fills a need for hope—and for justice.

Elijah reveals that divine truth embraces multiple and conflicting possibilities of meaning. God does not merely tolerate the varieties of truth; He commends them by quoting both differing interpretations and calling each rabbi “My son.” By reporting God’s study habits, Elijah affirms the sages’ innovative exegesis.

Elijah represents the possibility of deliverance, either immediately or finally when he will escort the Messiah.

If an innovative teaching came from Elijah, it was automatically acceptable and beyond any suspicion of foreign influence or heresy.

If Elijah eventually enlightened the kabbalists, as the patron saint of the Carmelites he also inspired two of the greatest Christian mystics.

For the rabbi in distress—and for his oppressed and colonized people—Elijah breaks the rules of the game, in which the Romans governing Palestine (or the Persians governing Babylonia) always win and the Jews always lose. Elijah in disguise opens unpredictable possibilities.