אליהו הנביא

In the days of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, when Baal worship spread through Israel, one prophet arose zealous for God and afraid of no one. Elijah stood before the king and decreed a drought in his fury: 'there shall be no dew or rain these years except by my word' (I Kings 17), and the famine came to teach the people who gives the rain.

During the famine a raven fed him, and later a widow of Zarephath whose flour and oil did not run out, and whose dead son he restored to life. The zealous prophet was also a channel of kindness and mercy to the poor.

The great moment came on Mount Carmel. Against four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, Elijah stood alone and called to the people: 'how long will you waver between two opinions?' (I Kings 18). When fire came down from heaven and consumed his offering, the whole people fell on their faces and cried: 'the Lord is God, the Lord is God,' the words with which we seal Yom Kippur.

Yet after the victory he fled from the terror of Jezebel to Mount Horeb, despairing, and asked to die. There God taught him a lesson: not in the wind nor in the fire is God found, but 'in a still, small voice' (I Kings 19). Sometimes the truth is spoken in a whisper, not a storm.

Elijah did not die as all men do, but ascended to heaven in a whirlwind on a chariot of fire (II Kings 2), and his disciple Elisha saw and cried 'my father, my father.' Ever since, Elijah has remained alive and present in the tradition of Israel.

The prophet Malachi sealed prophecy with a promise: 'behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the day of the Lord' (Malachi 3:23). So Elijah is the herald of the redemption, and we set a chair for him at every circumcision and a cup at every Seder night, awaiting his tidings.