Haftarah for Vayera

This Haftarah comes from Melachim Bet, the second book of Kings, which records the history of the kingdoms of Bnei Yisrael. Its central figure is Elisha, disciple and successor of Eliyahu. He prophesied in Malchut Yisrael, the northern kingdom, in the ninth century BCE, during the years of the house of Achav. Only a short time before, God's prophets had been hunted by Izevel, Achav's idolatrous queen.

The passage tells two stories of Elisha's wonders. Both center on women whose households stand at the edge of ruin, and both turn on a closed door behind which God acts. It is read with Parashat Vayera, where Sarah too is promised a son, and the sages draw out that echo themselves.

The widow's husband, the sages teach, was Ovadiah, the God-fearing steward of Achav's palace. When Izevel sought to kill the prophets, he hid two hundred of them in a cave. To feed them he borrowed from Yehoram, Achav's son, who charged him heavy interest. For this Yehoram was later struck in his hands, the very hands that took it. So grave is that sin that when Yechezkel revived the dead, one man alone would not rise, because he had lent to Jews at interest. Now Ovadiah has died, and Yehoram comes to seize his two sons as slaves.

Elisha asks what she has in the house, and the answer is only a small jug with a little oil. He tells her to borrow empty vessels and shut the door, out of reverence for the miracle, which cannot happen before watching eyes. Each filled vessel is moved aside, but the original jug must stay where it is, like a wellspring that cannot be moved. When the vessels ran out, she told her son to gather the broken shards. The God who filled empty vessels could make broken ones whole, and so He did. The oil stopped only when the boy said, "There are no more vessels." When she asked whether to wait for prices to rise, Elisha told her to sell now: there would be enough to pay her debt and to live.

In Shunem lives a wealthy woman, a sister of Avishag, the maiden who served King David. She tells her husband she knows Elisha is holy: no fly lands on his table, and his bed is never defiled. They build him an upper chamber with a bed, a table, a chair and a lamp. Through Gechazi, his servant, Elisha offers to speak on her behalf to the king. She answers that she dwells among her own family, who would speak for her. Gechazi then observes that she has no son, and her husband is so old he could die any day. When Elisha promises a child, she pleads, "do not delude your maidservant." She means: do not give me a gift that will not last, a son who will soon die.

Her fear comes true. The boy cries "my head, my head!" in the field and dies on her lap at noon. She lays him on the prophet's bed and asks her husband for a donkey without revealing why. He wonders at the trip, since it is neither Shabbat nor Rosh Chodesh, the new moon, when people would visit the prophet. She answers only, "It's all right." At Har HaCarmel she clasps Elisha's feet. Gechazi thinks this disrespectful, but Elisha replies that God had hidden her grief from him until that moment. He sends Gechazi with his staff. Gechazi mocks it, asking everyone he meets whether a staff can revive the dead, and nothing happens. Elisha himself comes, shuts the door and prays. He stretches over the child, mouth to mouth and eyes to eyes, until the boy grows warm, sneezes seven times and opens his eyes.

The sages teach that the child lived again through the merit of his mother's tzedakah, the generous honor she showed the prophet. In the same way, the dead will rise in the days of Mashiach through the merit of charity. They learn from her words that a woman perceives the worth of her guests better than her husband. Whoever hosts a Torah scholar and gives him food and drink is like one who brings the tamid, the daily offering in the Beit HaMikdash, for the verse says he came "regularly," tamid. Even the furnishings carry meaning. Mitah, shulchan, kisei and ner, the bed, table, chair and lamp, spell Mishkan, because a home that welcomes guests becomes a dwelling place for the Shechinah, God's indwelling presence. Unlike the angel who promised Sarah a son, Elisha was mortal and spoke with care. Yet his promise, too, came to pass.