On “The Good Place” Eleanor considers who she wouldn’t connect with on Earth and where she’s ready to attach now. On the podcast, Jon welcomes first-time co-hosts Ben Gurin and Myra Meskin — two rabbis who are parents of a new baby they named Eleanor! We get Talmudic insight on how hard it is to be ready for the connections that are good for you, the ones that help you overcome the barriers to your own goodness.
Texts (Go to Jewish Lexicon on this site for more on Jewish terminology, names of texts and other background. The links here in the citations take you to the specific quotes in their full contexts.)
Genesis 2:15-18 Adonai-God took the human and set the human in the Garden of Eden, to work it and to protect it.Adonai-God charged the human, saying: From every tree of the garden you may certainly eat. And from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad/Evil, do not eat from it, because on the day you eat from it you will die, yes die. Adonai-God said; No good, the human being alone — I will make for him a corresponding helper.
Babylonian Talmud, Chagigah 15a-b The Sages taught: There was once an incident involving Acher [former-Rabbi Elisha ben Abuyah], who was riding on a horse on Shabbat, and Rabbi Meir was walking behind him to learn Torah from his mouth. Acher said to him: Meir, turn back, for I have already estimated by the steps of my horse that the Shabbat boundary ends here. Rabbi Meir said to him: You, too, return [i.e. do teshuvah!]. He said to him: But have I not already told you that I have already heard behind the curtain: “Return, rebellious children” (Jeremiah 3:22) — except for Acher?
Rabbi Meir took hold of him and brought him to the house of study. Acher said to a child: Recite your verse to me. He recited to him: “There is no peace, said Adonai, for the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22). He brought him to another synagogue. Acher said to a child: Recite your verse to me. He recited to him: “For though you wash with niter, and take for you much soap, yet your wrongdoing is marked before Me” (Jeremiah 2:22). He brought him to another synagogue. Acher said to a child: Recite your verse to me. He recited to him: “And you, spoiled one, what are you doing, that you clothe yourself with scarlet, that you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, that you enlarge your eyes with paint? In vain you make yourself fair, etc.” (Jeremiah 4:30).
He brought him to another synagogue, until he had brought him into thirteen synagogues, and all the children recited to him similar verses. At the last one, Acher said to him: Recite your verse to me. He recited to him: “And to the wicked [Hebrew: v’la-rasha] God says, what is it for you to declare My statutes etc” (Psalms 50:16). That child had a stutter, so it sounded as though he were saying to him: “Vele’elisha [and to Elisha], God says.” Some say Acher had a knife and tore the child apart and sent him to the thirteen synagogues. And others say that Acher [merely] said: Had I a knife, I would have torn him apart.
When Acher passed away, the Heavenly Court declared that he should not be judged, nor brought into the World-to-Come. He should not be because he occupied himself with Torah [whose merit protects him]. And he should not be brought into the World-to-Come because he sinned. Rabbi Meir said: It is better that he be judged and be brought into the World-to-Come. When I die I will cause smoke to rise up from his grave.. When Rabbi Meir died, smoke rose up from the grave of Acher..
Rabbi Yochanan said: A mighty deed to burn his teacher? Can it be that there was one Sage among us who left the path and we cannot save him? If we hold him by the hand, who will remove him from our protection; who? [Rabbi Yochanan continued and] said: When I die I will have the smoke extinguished from his grave. When Rabbi Yochanan died, the smoke ceased from the grave of Acher. A certain eulogizer began his eulogy of Rabbi Yocḥanan: Even the guard at the entrance could not stand before you, our rabbi.
Deeper Dives
Rabbi Dr. Don Seeman writes in depth about the significance of friendship in the ethical philosophy of Aristotle and Maimonides in this article. Elisha ben Abuya is a fascinating boundary figure in the Talmud. A few directions to explore further:
Rabbi Milton Steinberg wrote a whole book called As a Driven Leaf, imagining his life out of Talmudic sources, particularly his intellectual life wrestling with Torah and Greco-Roman philosophy, as well as his relations with the Jews and the Roman authorities.
Rabbi and NYU Professor Jeffrey Rubenstein collects and discusses the Talmudic corpus on him in this article.
From a very different and non-Eleanor-comparing direction, Dena Weiss of Hadar discusses Elisha ben Abuya in the middle of her talk “When Good Torah Happens to Bad People”.