1. Chassidic thought explains that Elijah was the exact opposite of Moses:

When Moses Rabbeinu was born the Torah tells us that the house became full of light. This is because his soul was so powerful that his body couldn't conceal the light of the soul. In fact, Moses's body was quite irrelevant; it was merely a vehicle through which his unbelievable soul was able to communicate with this world. There was no reason for Moses to have to "work" with his body; his body and animal soul were never in the position to put up a struggle against the immense powers of his soul. That's why Moses's mother was only pregnant with him for six months, because his body, and its desires, were never fully developed - the soul was of prime importance. In Chassidic thought this is referred to as an "oved hashem binishmaso."

On the other hand, our sages tell us that Elijah's gestation period was a full twelve months! This is because his body and evil inclination were fully developed. In fact, the name "Eliyahu" (Hebrew for Elijah) has the same numerical value as "behayma", an animal!

Elijah was someone who struggled with his body for his entire life - that was his focus. Elijah succeeded to such a great extent, that his body actually became pure, holy and spiritual and was able to physically ascend to the spiritual worlds. This is something which even Moses was unable to accomplish, because he never really had to deal to much with his physical body. In Chassidic thought this is referred to as an "oved hashem bigufo."

This is also why Elijah is the one who will announce the Geulah, for the whole point of the geulah is the culmination of the transformation of this physical world into G-dliness - something which Elijah epitomized.

2. According to tradition Elijah participates at every Jewish boy's circumcision. Since Elijah's purpose is to come and tell everyone their lineage, which tribe they are from etc. Who better to do this job than someone who was at the circumcision of every jewish child and therefore knows everyone’s exact lineage?

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed