Suffering part 4

A tragic figure in Jewish tradition, whom I mentioned in a previous post, was Elisha ben Avuyah. .He had been an illustrious Talmudic figure; the teacher of Rabbi Meir, a colleague of Rabbi Akiva. Yet, at some point, he gave up on Judaism altogether. Why did this happen? Several answers are given in the Talmud. I would like to discuss two of them.
One is that he was among the four who entered the "Orchard"; who had, in their meditations, ascended to the heavens. There he saw the highest of the angels, Metatron. He was overwhelmed by his vision, and concluded that there was a second god. This was an ancient heresy, current among some Jews as well as some non-Jews, that G-d is too high to be concerned with the world, and He put another god in charge of the world, called the "demiurge" (half power). This idea was known as Gnosticism. The implication is that G-d exists, but neither knows nor cares about the world. This would make religion meaningless, suffering arbitrary. So, according to this, Elisha's error lay in his having seen too much, and misinterpreting what he saw. leading him to disastrous conclusions.
Another view is that he witnessed a father instructing his son to climb a tree that contained a bird's nest. He wanted his son to bring him the chicks, while setting the mother bird free, in accordance with Biblical law. Elisha ben Avuyah admired the young man. He was fulfilling two commandments at once! He was honoring parents, and fulfilling  "shiluach Haken" setting the mother bird free! Not only that, but these are among the only Biblical commandments that state a reward "that your days may be lengthened on the land..." As Elisha watched, the young man fell from the tree and died. "How can this be?!?! Is this the length of days promised by the Torah?" He concluded "there is neither Judgment nor Judge" and abandoned his faith. The rabbis of the Talmud, discussing this event, ask "Did he have a point? What about the promise given in the Torah?" They concluded that "on the Land" was a metaphorical statement referring to Paradise. "There is no reward in this world" was the conclusion. (This too must be taken in context. We find many cases where G-d rewarded someone for an action in this world). But generally, the Torah speaks of Spiritual rewards.
We have here a paradigm of someone who left G-d not because of greed or lust. But rather because of faulty interpretation of what he saw and believed. He failed to understand the lesson of Job; not everything is easily understood, or fits OUR understanding of the rules of life. Suffering, whether spiritual of physical, was beyond understanding. More to come...