Shabbat HaGadol ~ sources and values

(23) Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the great, awesome day of the LORD.

(1) When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha had set out from Gilgal. (2) Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to Bethel.” “As the LORD lives and as you live,” said Elisha, “I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. (3) Disciples of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that the LORD will take your master away from you today?” He replied, “I know it, too; be silent.” (4) Then Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to Jericho.” “As the LORD lives and as you live,” said Elisha, “I will not leave you.” So they went on to Jericho. (5) The disciples of the prophets who were at Jericho came over to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that the LORD will take your master away from you today?” He replied, “I know it, too; be silent.” (6) Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to the Jordan.” “As the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you,” he said, and the two of them went on. (7) Fifty men of the disciples of the prophets followed and stood by at a distance from them as the two of them stopped at the Jordan. (8) Thereupon Elijah took his mantle and, rolling it up, he struck the water; it divided to the right and left, so that the two of them crossed over on dry land. (9) As they were crossing, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” Elisha answered, “Let a double portion of your spirit pass on to me.” (10) “You have asked a difficult thing,” he said. “If you see me as I am being taken from you, this will be granted to you; if not, it will not.” (11) As they kept on walking and talking, a fiery chariot with fiery horses suddenly appeared and separated one from the other; and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. (12) Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “Oh, father, father! Israel’s chariots and horsemen!” When he could no longer see him, he grasped his garments and rent them in two. (13) He picked up Elijah’s mantle, which had dropped from him; and he went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. (14) Taking the mantle which had dropped from Elijah, he struck the water and said, “Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” As he too struck the water, it parted to the right and to the left, and Elisha crossed over. (15) When the disciples of the prophets at Jericho saw him from a distance, they exclaimed, “The spirit of Elijah has settled on Elisha!” And they went to meet him and bowed low before him to the ground. (16) They said to him, “Your servants have fifty able men with them. Let them go and look for your master; perhaps the spirit of the LORD has carried him off and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” “Do not send them,” he replied. (17) But they kept pressing him for a long time, until he said, “Send them.” So they sent out fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him. (18) They came back to him while he was still in Jericho; and he said to them, “I told you not to go.” (19) The men of the town said to Elisha, “Look, the town is a pleasant place to live in, as my lord can see; but the water is bad and the land causes bereavement.” (20) He responded, “Bring me a new dish and put salt in it.” They brought it to him; (21) he went to the spring and threw salt into it. And he said, “Thus said the LORD: I heal this water; no longer shall death and bereavement come from it!” (22) The water has remained wholesome to this day, in accordance with the word spoken by Elisha. (23) From there he went up to Bethel. As he was going up the road, some little boys came out of the town and jeered at him, saying, “Go away, baldhead! Go away, baldhead!” (24) He turned around and looked at them and cursed them in the name of the LORD. Thereupon, two she-bears came out of the woods and mangled forty-two of the children. (25) He went on from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.

You asked something difficult ~ It would have been enough for you if you had asked a just part of my spirit, or even half, but asking for it twice is something difficult, and even though [it is difficult] if you have the spiritual strength to see me as I am taken from you then I will know that from God this will happen, and so you will have what you asked.

And it is written: 'And Eliyahu went up to heaven in a whirlwind.' (II Kings 2:11). Rabbi Nechemiah and Rabbi Yehudah say: 'when the Holy Blessed One brought Eliyahu to heaven the Angel of Death stood to oppose Him. The Holy Blessed One said to him [the angel]: This is why I created the heaven, so Eliyahu could go there!' The Angel of Death said to the Master of the World: 'Now You have given other creatures an opening [to avoid death]." The Holy Blessed One replied: 'Eliyahu is not like other creatures. He could remove you [Death] from the world and you do not know his strength.' The Angel of Death said, 'Master of the World, grant me permission and I will descend upon him.' He said 'Go down.' And he immediately descended. But Eliyahu saw him, forced him under his leg, and [Eliyahu] asked to be able to remove him from the world, but God did not grant him permission. Immediately, Eliyahu flipped him and ascended [alive] to heaven.

(23) Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the great, awwesome day of Ad-nai. (24) He shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents, so that, when I come, I do not strike the whole land with utter destruction.