Community Magazine October 2014

16 Community magazine RABBI ELI J. MANSOUR N obody else came anywhere near them. They were all stricken with a deadly, contagious disease, and were, understandably, under strict quarantine. But the rabbi wasn’t deterred. He was intent on ensuring that anybody interested in learning Torah had the opportunity to do so, and thus he went where nobody else was prepared to go – into the quarantined room where the patients lay, in order to teach them. This is how the Gemara (Ketubot 77b) describes the work of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi. During his time there were people stricken with a disease called ra’atan , which, as Rashi explains, was caused by a bug that attacked the patient’s brain. Confident that the merit of his holy work would protect him, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi assumed the responsibility to teach Torah to those forgotten patients, and came and went unscathed, without ever contracting the dangerous illness. The Gemara proceeds to tell the fascinating and mysterious story that occurred when the time came for Rabbi Yehoshua to leave this world. Gd ordered the Angel of Death to snatch Rabbi Yehoshua’s soul, but ordered the angel to first grant the rabbi any request he made. Rabbi Yehoshua asked to see his place in the eternal world, and the angel dutifully showed him his share. Rabbi Yehoshua then startled the angel by jumping over the “fence” straight into the next world, thus becoming one of a small, select group of tzadikim who entered the next world alive, without dying. The most famous among these – the prophet Eliyahu – announced Rabbi Yehoshua’s arrival in Gan Eden . At that point, the Gemara continues, Rabbi Yehoshua was confronted by the famous sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, who had died several generations earlier. “Are you ben Levi?” Rabbi Shimon asked. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi answered in the affirmative, whereupon Rabbi Shimon posed a startling question. “Did the rainbow ever appear in your lifetime?” Once again, the newly-departed sage answered in the affirmative. Rabbi Shimon then said, “Then you cannot be ben-Levi!” The Gemara clarifies that in truth, the rainbow did not appear at all during Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi’s lifetime, but in his humility, Rabbi Yehoshua did not want to boast about his pious stature on account of which the sign of the rainbow was not necessary at any point throughout his life. The stories told in the Gemara, no less than its halachic deliberations, require careful study and analysis. Undoubtedly, there is profound depth underlying this intriguing account, and a vital message which the Gemara seeks to convey by reporting for us these extraordinary events that occurred when Rabbi Yehoshua entered the next world. What, then, is that message? And why did Rabbi Shimon confront Rabbi Yehoshua and pose such an unusual question? The Significance of a An obscure Talmudic story about the afterlife helps reveal the vital contemporary message of the rainbow. RAINBOW