Elijah 213
is characteristic. One who was sought by the officers of the law took refuge with Rabbi Joshua. His pursuers were informed of his place of concealment. Threatening to put all the inhabitants of the city to the sword if he was not delivered up, they demanded his surrender. The Rabbi urged the fugitive from justice to resign himself to his fate. Better for one individual to die, he said, than for a whole community to be exposed to peril. The fugitive yielded to the Rabbi's argument, and gave himself up to the bailiffs. Thereafter Elijah, who had been in the habit of visiting Rabbi Joshua frequently, stayed away from his house, and he was induced to come back only by the Rabbi's long fasts and earnest prayers. In reply to the Rabbi's question, why he had shunned him, he said : " Dost thou suppose I care to have intercourse with informers ? " The Rabbi quoted a passage from the Mishnah to justify his conduct, but Elijah remained unconvinced. " Dost thou consider this a law for a pious man ? " he said. " Other people might have been right in doing as thou didst; thou shouldst have done otherwise." "*
A number of instances are known which show how ex- alted a standard Elijah set up for those who would be con- sidered worthy of intercourse with him. Of two pious brothers, one provided for his servants as for his own table, while the other permitted his servants to eat abundantly only of the first course ; of the other courses they could have nothing but the remnants. Accordingly, with the second brother Elijah would have nothing to do, while he often honored the former with his visits.
A similar attitude Elijah maintained toward another pair
