[Avodah] Eliyahu beHar haCarmel

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Apr 02, 2012 at 03:40:24PM -0400, Saul Guberman wrote:
:>>> Ein [habamah] niteres ela benavi." I'm I wrong, or is RYBC saying that
:>>> the permissability of a navi making a bamah is mutar in principle,
:>>> even if only one navi invoked it?
...
:> The pasuq isn't about pesaqim in general nor about hora'ah. The pasuq in
:> Devarim is a statement speicifically about bamos. And its heter appears
:> to be based on the fact that Eliyahu was told to build a bamah on Har
:> HaKarmel, it wasn't a place he picked himself, and thus not within the
:> terms of the issur.

: IIRC the medrash claims that Eliyahu was not commanded to build the bamah &
: it was one of the many acts that he did of his own accord that seems to
: "force" God's hand.  In the end that is why Eliyahu had to be "taken away"
: and Elisha put in his place.

I couldn't find a primary source for this medrash. But it is possible for
it to be a machloqes chazal. I was just reporting R Yosi ben Chaninah's
shitah -- that Eliyahu wasn't violating the issur bamah because he built
his bamah in a location HQBH showed him. No less "el hamaqom asher yivchar
H'" than the beis habechirah was.

But....

Could it be that the decision to confront Achav and force a demonstration
of Yad H' was Eliyahu's. But after he did so and HQBH acquiesced,
Hashem chose the location for the confrontation. So that the challenge
was presumptuous (although not technically assur), and thus Hashem's
acquiescing is notable. But, the bamah aspect itself was -- according to
RYBC -- not a hora'as sha'ah.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 9th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        1 week and 2 days in/toward the omer.
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