Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, a third-century sage of the Land of Israel, was granted a companion on the road that no one else in his generation was offered. Elijah the prophet, the tireless interventionist of rabbinic folklore, agreed to travel with him, but only under one condition. You will see things you do not understand, said Elijah. You must not ask me about them. If you ask, I leave. Rabbi Joshua agreed.
The first night they came to the cottage of a poor couple who received them warmly. The couple had only one cow, and they shared everything with their guests, stretching their meager supper to feed four. In the morning, as the Rabbi and the prophet were leaving, Elijah prayed, and the cow dropped dead. Rabbi Joshua almost spoke, almost asked. He bit his tongue.
The second night they lodged at the home of a rich man who ignored them, busy with a construction project he was directing. He gave them nothing. In the night Elijah caused a magnificent palace to rise on the rich man's property, finer than anything the man could have built in his life. The Rabbi was stunned. He did not ask.
The third night they came to a town full of arrogant rich men who treated them rudely. Elijah blessed the town on leaving. May all of you become chiefs. The fourth night they came to a town of poor, humble people who treated them with great honor. Elijah blessed that town too. May you have only one chief.
By now Rabbi Joshua could not bear it. He pressed for answers. Elijah replied, If I answer you, I disappear. But since you insist: The cow had been killed as a kapparah, a substitute, for the wife of the poor couple, who had been decreed by heaven to die that night. The palace on the rich man's property had been built over a buried treasure that, had he dug, he would have found. Because he did not dig, the palace will collapse, and he will never touch the treasure. As for the rude town, where all are chiefs, they will quarrel endlessly and destroy themselves. But the humble town, with only one chief, will prosper under peaceful leadership. Having answered, Elijah vanished. This exemplum, preserved as number 393 in Moses Gaster's 1924 Exempla of the Rabbis, teaches that hashgachah pratit, divine providence, runs on logic that is almost always hidden from the walker on the road.