[Avodah] The Rambam and Eliyahu haNavi

[Zev Sero]

On 23/06/2011 12:22 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
> The return of Eliyahu haNavi isn't mentioned in the iqarim nor in the
> Moreh. And in fact, in the discussion of mashiach in Hil' Melakhim
> (12:2), the Rambam explicitly lists it as among the details that "yeish
> min hachamim she'omerim" but we won't know what will really happen until
> after it does.

Not true.  The coming of "Eliyahu" is one of the details he says we *do*
know.  What "yesh min hachachamim [she]omrim" is that this will happen
before Moshiach comes rather than after.  That is not clear from the
nevi'im, who only say that he will come before the War of Gog and Magog,
which will be in the early Days of Moshiach; from that alone it seems
entirely possible that Eliyahu will come in the period between Moshiach's
coming and the war breaking out, but some chachamim say that he will come
before Moshiach, and that is a detail that we will have to wait to see
how it works out.


> The other mentions of Eliyahu's *return* in the Yad are in dinei manunus,
> to say that the person must let the money/item remain unused "ad sheyavo
> Eliyahu". (Hitting the Bar Ilan Responsa web site...)

He doesn't say "return", he says "come".  Note that in Hilchos Melachim
he carefully does *not* say that Malachi's "Eliyahu" is the same person
as the Eliyahu in Sefer Melachim.  He doesn't say they're *not* the same
person; and surely, like all of Klal Yisrael, he *expected* them to be
the same person, but his shita is that this is not one of the things we
can derive from the nevi'im and therefore know for certain, and we'll
have to wait and see how it turns out.  It might be another navi, whom
Malachi calls "Eliyahu" bederech mashal, and if this turns out to be the
case we should not conclude that this isn't really Moshiach.

Bottom line: the Rambam certainly holds that a navi, whom Malachi calls
"Eliyahu", will come, and will resolve questions of metzius such as who
is the true owner of disputed property.  (For that purpose nevu'ah is
valid evidence that a beis din must accept and follow.)  But he is not
sure whether this will be *the* Eliyahu, and exactly when he will come.


-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                      - Margaret Thatcher