Elijah the prophet and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi traveled together for a time, and Elijah agreed to be his companion on one condition: the rabbi must ask no questions. Rabbi Yehoshua agreed, and the strangest journey of his life began.
They came first to the house of a rich miser who treated them with contempt. The man offered them almost nothing. Before leaving, Elijah quietly rebuilt a collapsed section of the miser's wall. A wonderful gift to a terrible host. Rabbi Yehoshua said nothing.
Next they came to the house of a poor widow who welcomed them in, fed them from her meager stores, and insisted they stay the night. In the morning, Elijah prayed, and the widow's only cow dropped dead. Then her only son also died. A catastrophe for a kind host. Rabbi Yehoshua bit his tongue.
They came to a third house, a wealthy synagogue, whose congregation was rude and aloof. Elijah blessed the congregation. "May all of you become leaders," he prayed. Rabbi Yehoshua bit his tongue harder.
Finally they came to a fourth community, modest and courteous, and Elijah blessed them by saying, "May you have one wise leader among you." The rabbi could not hold the questions anymore. Elijah explained.
Under the miser's collapsing wall was buried a treasure. If the miser had rebuilt the wall himself, he would have discovered it. By rebuilding it, Elijah had hidden the treasure for good. The widow's son, had he lived, would have grown into a murderer who would have broken his mother's heart. The animal died as a ransom for the boy's soul. The blessing on the rude congregation was a curse disguised. If every member becomes a leader, they will live in endless strife. The blessing on the kind community was a gift, because a community with one wise leader knows peace.
The Exempla preserves these teachings from the medieval Codex Gaster 185. Elijah's lesson for the rabbi is the same lesson he had to learn himself at Horeb. God is not in the obvious wind. God is in the still small voice of an outcome we will never live long enough to see.