Post History

The wisdom of Elisha

It occurred to me recently that to the average bystander in the United Kingdom of Israel, days prior to the split during the time of Rechav'am and Yerov'am, it might seem as though a certain tribe had plotted out a coup to overthrow the House of David.

Consider the following: Achiyah Hashiloni was of Shiloh, a city in Efraim and formerly the holy worship center of Israel, prior to the exile of the Aron Habrit and the destruction of the Mishkan in Shiloh. The people of Efraim had a long past of attempting to seize power: They rebelled against Gidon and Yiftach and according to a [midrash](https://www.sefaria.org.il/Pirkei_DeRabbi_Eliezer.48.4?vhe=Pirkei_Derabi_Eliezer&lang=bi), they attempted to leave Egypt by themselves, before Yetziat Mitzrayim. Much later in history, [Ben Tav'el](https://www.sefaria.org.il/Isaiah.7.6?vhe=Tanach_with_Ta%27amei_Hamikra&lang=bi) attempted to seize power in Judea. Now Achiyah, a prophet from the tribe, meets in secret with the famous Efraimite rebel Yerov'am and hands him, seemingly in the name of Hashem, half of the kingdom? Awfully suspicious.

We as much later readers of the fully edited and organized Tanach usually think nothing of this detail, but hindsight is 20/20, of course.

Which brings us to a later coup:

Yehu ben Nimshi was most likely from Menashe: He came from Ramot Gilad, an area generally associated with the descendants of Gilad ben Menashe; he destroyed the remnants of the House of Achav, which, according to multiple midrashim, were of Efraim (continuing the ages-long tensions between Efraim and Menashe, at least from the time of Gidon); and his grandfather Nimshi's name is an anagram for a person of Menashe - a Menashi (נמשי - מנשי).

Elisha, likewise, was likely from Menashe. He came from Avel Mecholah, which some [identify ](http://www.daat.ac.il/encyclopedia/value.asp?id1=3540)as a Menashite city; his father was called Shafat which might be a partial parallel to Yehu's father Yehoshafat, much like Amotz father of Yesha'ayahu was the brother of Amatzyah, according to the [gemara](https://www.sefaria.org.il/Sotah.10b.3?vhe=Wikisource_Talmud_Bavli&lang=bi).

Elisha was tasked by Eliyahu who was tasked by Hashem to pull off an "Achiyah-Yerov'am V2" operation: overthrowing the ruling family by anointing a new king to kill them. However, Elisha - perhaps from knowing what the Tanachic tabloids had told about the semi-mysterious rise to power of Yerov'am - decided to go about it in a different manner than what Achiyah did. Rather than confronting Yehu himself, he sent one of his students (who some say was Yonah) to anoint him in his stead.

I believe this shows Elisha's great wisdom in handling what was clearly, in many aspects, a very delicate issue.