5 min read

What Elijah Taught about Women, Wasps, and Why God Keeps Pests

Elijah came back from heaven to explain why women are indispensable to men, and why God refuses to destroy even creatures no one wants.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Prophet Who Came Back to Talk About Small Things
  2. What Elijah Said About Women
  3. Why God Will Not Destroy the Wasp
  4. Two Teachings, One Argument

The Prophet Who Came Back to Talk About Small Things

He had ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire. He had spent centuries in the upper world, carrying the knowledge of both realms. And when Elijah returned to the sages, he sometimes came back to talk about wasps.

The two teachings he brought to Rabbi Jose look, at first, like subjects from two different categories. One is about the nature of women and what the Torah means when it describes woman as a helpmeet for man. The other is about insects that sting and serve no obvious purpose. Placed side by side, as the tradition preserves them, they form a single argument about creation: that everything God made has a reason, and that the reason is often not visible from the perspective of the creature asking the question.

What Elijah Said About Women

The Torah describes woman as ezer kenegdo, a phrase usually translated as helpmate or helper, but which contains a tension: the word kenegdo means both alongside and against. Elijah sat with Rabbi Jose and unpacked what the phrase actually meant in the architecture of creation.

The argument Elijah made was not about subordination or service. It was about mutual necessity and interdependence. He moved through examples that showed how the structure of a man's inner life, his moral development, his practical functioning, his spiritual orientation, was built around the relationship with a woman in a way that could not be replaced or bypassed. This was not a claim about women's capabilities or limitations. It was a claim about how God had arranged the human being: that a man without a woman was incomplete in a specific way that the man himself could rarely see, because the incompleteness was structural, not experiential.

The force of the teaching came from its source. This was not a sage reasoning from texts. This was the prophet who had watched the full sweep of human life across centuries, who had seen the arrangement in operation at every level of human society, telling a scholar what he had observed. The phrase kenegdo, the being who stands alongside and also against, was not an anomaly. It was the precise description of what made the relationship generative.

Why God Will Not Destroy the Wasp

The second teaching landed differently. Rabbi Jose had apparently complained about wasps, or raised the question of what purpose they served. They stung. They built nests in inconvenient places. They seemed to have no contribution to human welfare that could not be accomplished more efficiently by creatures that were less hostile.

Elijah's answer was not a natural history of wasp behavior. It was a theological statement: God does not destroy what God has made, even when the creature's purpose is not visible to the people who encounter it. The wasp exists in the same creation as the bee, the same creation as the ant, the same creation as the human being. The fact that its function is not immediately apparent to someone who has just been stung does not mean the function is absent.

The teaching pointed in a direction that the tradition found important enough to preserve alongside the teaching about women: that the human tendency to evaluate creation on the basis of whether it serves human convenience is a form of error. The world was not made for human convenience. It was made by a Creator whose purposes extend beyond what any individual creature can see from its position inside the creation.

Two Teachings, One Argument

The pairing matters. The teaching about women addresses a relationship that humans experience as essential but sometimes misunderstand as hierarchical. The teaching about wasps addresses a relationship that humans experience as threatening but fail to understand as necessary. In both cases, the problem is the same: the inability to see the full structure of what has been made from inside a single perspective. Elijah, who stood outside ordinary time and had seen the structure from a wider vantage, carried the correction back.

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From the tradition

Sources

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The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Legends of the Jews 7:54Legends of the Jews

In Legends of the Jews, it was Elijah himself who taught Rabbi Jose a profound lesson about the role of women. He revealed the "deep meaning" behind the Scriptural passage describing woman as man's "helpmeet." Through a series of examples, Elijah showed the rabbi just how essential women truly are to men. It's a beautiful reminder of the interdependence that lies at the heart of creation.

What about those pesky creatures that seem to serve no good purpose at all? Rabbi Nehorai grappled with this very question, and he, too, found an answer – also with a little help from above. He gained insight into why God created even the most seemingly "useless" or even "noxious insects."

The reason? Their existence prevents God from destroying the world! The sight of these superfluous and harmful creatures reminds God that He preserves things that, at best, are useless and, at worst, harmful. This, in turn, inspires a sense of mercy. If God can preserve these creatures, how much more should He preserve human beings – with all their incredible potential for good?

It's a powerful argument, isn't it? It suggests that even the seemingly negative aspects of the world play a vital role in maintaining balance and inspiring compassion. It's a reminder that even when we feel like God might regret creating the world because of the wickedness and iniquity within it, He sees the potential for good. The presence of the seemingly useless serves as a constant reminder of the value of preservation.

So, the next time you swat a fly or pull a weed, remember this story. Remember that everything, even the things we don't understand, has a purpose. And remember that God's compassion extends to all of creation – even the buzzing, stinging, and crawling parts. It's a comforting thought, isn't it? A reminder that we're all part of a larger, more intricate tapestry than we can possibly imagine. And that even in the face of imperfection, there's always hope for redemption and preservation.

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Bereshit Rabbah 17:8Bereshit Rabbah

The ancient rabbis did! And they weren't shy about asking some pretty direct questions. The source turns to a fascinating passage from Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis. Here, Rabbi Yehoshua fields a series of pointed questions, offering explanations rooted in the creation story and the perceived roles of men and women.

Rabbi Yehoshua is sitting, maybe surrounded by students, and they're just firing away with questions. The first one is a real head-scratcher: "Why does a male emerge [from the womb] face down, while a female emerges face up?" Rabbi Yehoshua's response? "The male looks to the place of his creation," meaning the earth, while "the female looks to the place of her creation," referring to the body. It’s a poetic idea, linking the newborn's orientation to their origins.

Next up: perfume. "Why do women have a need to perfume themselves, but men do not?" Here, the answer explores the materials from which Adam and Eve were created. Man, created from the ground, never becomes malodorous, according to Rabbi Yehoshua. Eve, however, was created from a bone. The analogy? Leave meat unsalted for three days, and it spoils. Strong stuff!

Then comes the volume question: "Why does a woman have a voice that carries far away, whereas a man does not?" Rabbi Yehoshua uses a pot of meat as an illustration. Meat alone doesn't make much noise when it boils, but a bone in the pot? That’s a loud sound. Interesting. Persuasion is next on the list. "Why is a man easily persuaded, but the woman is not easily persuaded?" This time, the answer goes back to the earth and bone analogy. Earth quickly absorbs water, while bone remains resistant even after soaking. So, men are easily swayed like the earth, and women are more resistant, like bone.

Now, let's get to who makes the first move. "Why is it that the man propositions the woman but the woman does not proposition the man?" Rabbi Yehoshua compares it to someone losing an item. The person who lost something searches for it; the lost item doesn't search for them. In this context, Adam's rib, or side, is the "lost" item that he seeks to retrieve.

And what about planting seeds? "Why is it that the man deposits seed in the woman, and the woman does not deposit seed in the man?" The response compares it to entrusting something valuable to a reliable person. A person with something valuable to safeguard seeks someone trustworthy. The woman's body, specifically her belly, is seen as the reliable place for gestation.

The conversation takes a turn towards modesty. "Why do men go out [sometimes] with their heads uncovered, but a woman’s head is always covered?" The answer: shame. It's "analogous to one who committed a transgression and is ashamed in front of people." Since Eve was the first to sin by eating the forbidden fruit, she wears a head covering as a sign of that shame.

Then, a somber question about funerals. "Why do women walk in front of the dead [in a funeral procession]?" The response is stark: because women "caused death to exist in the world." The verse from Job (21:33) is cited: "Following him are all men, [and before him, those without number]." The men follow the bier, while the women go in front. Midrash Rabbah notes that women are called "those without number" because they aren't counted in the Torah's censuses.

The final set of questions focuses on specific mitzvot (commandments) connected to women. "Why were the laws involving menstruation given to her?" The answer is direct: "It is because she spilled the blood of Adam the first man; that is why she was given the laws involving menstruation.”

Next: "Why was the mitzva of ḥalla given to her?" Ḥalla refers to the separation of a portion of dough for the priest. The reason, according to Rabbi Yehoshua, is "because she brought ruin upon Adam the first man, who was the ḥalla at the completion of the world." The idea, as explored in Bereshit Rabbah 14:1, is that Adam himself was a sort of "first offering."

Finally, "Why was the mitzva of the Shabbat (the Sabbath) candle given to her?" The reason offered is because "she extinguished the [eternal] soul of Adam the first man; that is why the mitzva of the Shabbat candle was given to her."

Wow. That's a lot to take in. It’s important to remember the historical context here. These answers reflect the worldview of the rabbis at the time, trying to understand the world and the roles of men and women within it. While some of these explanations might feel outdated or even problematic today, they offer a powerful glimpse into the way our ancestors grappled with fundamental questions about human nature and the divine plan. As The Zohar and Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews constantly remind us, the Torah is a living text that we must always engage with and interpret for ourselves, ensuring that our interpretations align with the highest ideals of justice, compassion, and equality.

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