218 . The Legends of the Jews
injurious, how much more should He preserve human beings with all their potentialities for good.
The same Rabbi Nehorai was told by Elijah, that God sends earthquakes and other destructive phenomena when He sees places of amusement prosperous and flourishing, while the Temple lies a heap of dust and ashes."
To Rabbi Judah he communicated the following three maxims: Let not anger master thee, and thou wilt not fall into sin ; let not drink master thee, and thou wilt be spared pain ; before thou settest out on a journey, take counsel with thy Creator.'8
In case of a difference of opinion among scholars, Elijah was usually questioned as to how the moot point was inter- preted in the heavenly academy." Once, when the scholars were not unanimous in their views as to Esther's intentions when she invited Haman to her banquets with the king, Elijah, asked by Rabba bar Abbahu to tell him her real pur- pose, said that each and every one of the motives attributed to her by various scholars were true, for her invitations to Haman had many a purpose.80
A similar answer he gave the Amora Abiathar, who dis- puted with his colleagues as to why the Ephraimite who caused the war against the tribe of Benjamin first cast off his concubine, and then became reconciled to her. Elijah in- formed Rabbi Abiathar that in heaven the cruel conduct of the Ephraimite was explained in two ways, according to Abiathar's conception and according to his opponent Jona- than's as well.81
Regarding the great contest between Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and the whole body of scholars, in which the ma-
