Rabbi Meir Quenches The Fire On Elisha Ben Avuyah's Grave

There we learned: Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] says: make for yourself a lamp by whose light you may walk. And which is it? This is the light of Torah, as it is said (Proverbs 6:23): "For the commandment is a lamp and the Torah is light," etc. From here Rabbi Meir used to say: Happy is the person who has acquired Torah for himself. Why? Because it guards him from the evil way, as it is said (Proverbs 6:24): "To keep you from the evil way" — everyone who has understanding in him will be guarded by it. "From the smoothness of the alien tongue" — be careful of it, that it not lead you astray with its beauty, as it is said (Proverbs 6:25): "Do not covet her beauty in your heart, nor let her take you with her eyelids"; (Proverbs 6:26): "For on account of a harlot a man is brought to a loaf of bread, and a married woman hunts the precious soul." Rabbi Meir asked Elisha ben Avuyah, his teacher; he said to him: What is the meaning of "and a married woman hunts the precious soul"? He said to him: A common person, if he is caught in a transgression, there is no disgrace to him. Why? Because he says, "I am a commoner, and I did not know the Torah's penalty." But a scholar (chaver), if he is caught in a transgression, it is a disgrace to him, because he mixes words of purity with words of impurity. That Torah which was precious to him — he degrades it, for the unlearned say, "See a scholar who was caught in a transgression and degraded his Torah." Therefore it is said, "hunts the precious soul." Rabbi Abbahu said: What is "hunts"? That he is caught in this net. Rabbi Alexandrai said: What is "precious"? This is the Torah, as it is said (Proverbs 3:15): "She is more precious than rubies, and all your desires cannot equal her." Therefore it is said, "hunts the precious soul." He said to him: "Rabbi, what is the penalty of the married woman in the time to come?" He said to him: "My son, before you ask me about this, come and see what is written below in the matter: (Proverbs 6:27): 'Can a man take fire into his bosom and his garments not be burned?' etc.; (Proverbs 6:29): 'So is the one who goes in to his fellow's wife — none who touches her shall go unpunished.' It says here 'shall not go unpunished,' and it says there, concerning the profanation of the Name (Exodus 20:7): 'For the LORD will not hold guiltless the one who takes His name in vain.' Just as there it is all their wealth [that is forfeit], so too here 'shall not go unpunished' brings down all his merits." He said to him: "Rabbi, is there no remedy for him?" He said to him: "My son, once I was sitting before Ben Azzai, my colleague, and we were studying this passage; when we came to this verse, he said to me: 'Let him go and raise an orphan in his house, and let them learn Torah and occupy themselves with all the commandments, and his iniquities are atoned for in the world to come — on the condition that he not return to the transgression but do repentance.' I said to him: 'From where is the proof for this thing?' He said to me: 'It is written (Jeremiah 4:1): "If you return, O Israel, says the LORD, return to Me." Why? (Jeremiah 3:12): "For I am faithful, says the LORD; I will not bear a grudge forever."' I said to him: 'I already have another answer that is greater than this, as it is said (Hosea 14:3): "Return, O Israel, unto the LORD your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity" — even if you have denied the fundamental principle [of faith]. For if one who denies the fundamental principle the Holy One, blessed be He, receives in repentance, this one too the Holy One, blessed be He, receives in repentance.'" Rabbi Meir, his disciple, responded; he said to him: "Rabbi, do your own ears not hear what you are saying? If these the Holy One, blessed be He, receives in repentance, how much more so you, in whom is all the whole Torah! And why do you not do repentance?" He said to him: "Once I entered a synagogue and saw a child sitting before his teacher, and his teacher was having him read aloud (Psalms 50:16): 'But to the wicked God says: What right have you to recount My statutes and take My covenant upon your mouth?' And the pupil was answering and saying, 'But to Elisha God says: What right have you to recount My statutes and take My covenant upon your mouth?' When I heard this, I said, 'Upon Elisha the decree has been sealed from above.'" Rabbi Meir answered and said: "Rabbi, do repentance in this world, and I will stand in your decree, in your watch-post, on the Day of Judgment in the time to come!" Even so, he did not accept it upon himself. When he died, they came and said to Rabbi Meir: "Come and see the fire that is consuming on the grave of your teacher." At that hour Rabbi Meir spread his cloak (tallit) over the grave of his teacher, and he was adjuring the fire and saying (Ruth 3:13): "Stay this night, and it shall be in the morning, if he will redeem you, good, let him redeem; and if he does not wish to redeem you, then I will redeem you, as the LORD lives; lie down until the morning." "Stay this night" — in this world, which is all night; "and it shall be in the morning" — in the world to come, which is all light; "if he will redeem you, good, let him redeem" — this is the Holy One, blessed be He, of whom it is written (Psalms 145:9): "The LORD is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works"; "and if he does not wish to redeem you, then I will redeem you, as the LORD lives!" When he mentioned over it the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He, the fire was extinguished. From here the Sages said: Happy is the man who raises up disciples who seek mercy upon him.