Until the age of twenty-two. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus learned nothing. His father was a rich villager and, engaged in extensive arable farming, forced his sons to do all the field work. One day, when the brothers were busy in the black earth strip, Eliezer had to cultivate a plot of rocky soil, and his father found him at work in tears.
-What are you crying about? - asked the father. - If this work is difficult for you, I will transfer you to the black earth field.
But even at work in a new place, his father found him crying and asked:
-What are you crying about now? Perhaps this work is not up to you?
“No,” answered Eliezer, “but I cry because I am drawn to the study of St. Torah.
- But you are already twenty-two years old, and at that age you decided to start studying! No, it's time for you to get married. When you have children, you send them to study.
One day he comes to his father and declares:
“I’m leaving to study with Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai.”
“And I’m telling you,” the father answers, “that you won’t take crumbs into your mouth until you plow the entire plot!”
The next day, getting up at first light, Eliezer went to the field and began to work, but suddenly the animal on which he was plowing stumbled and broke its leg. “It happened for my good,” thought Eliezer, and, abandoning everything, he fled from the field and went to Jerusalem, to Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai.
As the legend says, this happened on the eve of the Sabbath, and Eliezer remained without food for the whole day. Tormented by hunger, he took into his mouth pieces of feldspar that he picked up on the road.
Arriving in Jerusalem, he went to the academy and, appearing before Rabbi Jochanan, burst into tears.
-What are you crying about? - asked Rabban Johanan.
- I want to study.
—Have you learned anything yet?
- No.
Rabban Jochanan began teaching him prayers, then halakha, two paragraphs a day. Eliezer began to study zealously. A whole week passed, during which he did not stop starving. At that time he was huddled in a poor closet in the inn and tried to satisfy his hunger by sucking black soil that he had brought in a bag from his native field. Having learned about this, Rabbi Jochanan took care of his food for the future.
R. continued for three years. Eliezer his teaching at the academy. And his brothers began to say to their father:
“Just think what your son Eliezer did to you: he left his old father and went to Jerusalem for himself!” You must go and disinherit him.
The father agreed and went to Jerusalem for this purpose.
The old man arrived in Jerusalem just at a time when the patriarch was having a large reception of honored guests. By the way, there were three of the noblest citizens of Jerusalem: Ben Tzitzit-Gaxat, Nake-dimon ben Gurion and Ben Kalba-Shabua. Having learned about the arrival of Eliezer's father, Rabbi Jochanan invited him into the house and seated him among the most honored guests.
Hyrcanus sits in deep embarrassment from such honor. And at this time, Rabbi Johanan turns to R. Eliezer and says:
- Say the word in front of us.
“Teacher,” answers R. Eliezer, what can I say? A reservoir cannot produce more water than is poured into it. And can I say more than what I learned from you?
“No, my son,” says Rabban Johanan, “you are not like a reservoir, but a spring that independently flows with a continuous, living stream.”
Rabban Johanan and his disciples joined. And, yielding to the general desire, R. stood up. Eliezer began to speak. A speech sounded so inspired that no one had heard before that time. His face shone like the sun, and rays emanated from him, like from the face of Moses. All those present were so blinded by this radiance that it would have been difficult for them to say whether they were seeing daylight or whether it was night - and suddenly it was illuminated with a wondrous brilliance...
Rabban Johanan stood up and hugged R. Eliezer, pressed his lips to his head and exclaimed:
- Glory, glory to you, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that this man has appeared in your descendants!
“Who is this about,” asked Hyrcanus, “is the patriarch speaking?”
“About your son, Eliezer,” they explained to him.
“In that case,” said Hyrcanus, “he didn’t put it that way.” It should have been said like this: “Glory to Hyrcanus, from whom such a son was born!”
With these words, the old man stood up on a chair and said in a loud voice:
- Residents of Jerusalem! Listen: I came here to deprive my son Eliezer of his share of the inheritance. Now I declare that all my goods will pass into his exclusive possession; his brothers should not receive anything.
To these words R. Eliezer replied:
- No, father! If I asked the Lord for land, He could give me enough of it even without you: “To the Lord belongs the earth and everything that fills it.” And if I desired gold and silver, the Lord would be able to give me this too: “All the silver is Mine and all the gold is Mine,” says the Lord of hosts.” But I ask nothing from the Lord except knowledge.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru