Rabbi Eliezer- the passion to learn- part 2

In Jerusalem

Eliezer decided to leave his house and his father, and went to Jerusalem, there he met Rabbi Yochanan. When Rabbi Yochanan saw him one more time with tears, and eliezer explained one more time that he want learn Torah, Yochanan asked him, “Who is your father?” But Eliezer refused to tell him.

Can it be that you have never learned the Shema or how to pray or to recite the prayers after eating bread? Asked rabbi yochanan and Eliezer sat down and cried because of his ignorance.

The studying

Rabbi Yochanan began teaching him two halachic teaching each day. Eliezer would review them until they became part of him. For eight days straight he did not eat until finally the odor from his mouth was so foul that Rabbi Yochanan noticed it. He had Eliezer come before him and blessed him, “Just as the odor from your mouth comes up to me, so too will your Torah go up from your mouth to the heavens.

After eliezer told rabbi yochanan that he ate, tough he didn’t for 8 days, and that he a son of a rich man, rabbi yochanan decided to invite his father to eat-

The father sees his son in his studying

Meanwhile back at the farm, the sons of Horkonus convinced their father to go to Jerusalem and cut Eliezer off from any inheritance.

When he arrived at Rabbi Yochanan house in Jerusalem, Rabbi Yochanan was informed that the father of the now Rabbi Eliezer had come to see him. He had a seat prepared for Horkonus next to him .Next he fixed his eyes on Rabbi Eliezer. “Please tell us something from your Torah,” he requested.

“Rebbi, I will explain to what this is like. I am similar to a water storage cistern that can not give out but what has been put in. I can not say any Torah of my own, only that which I have been taught by you.”

Rabbi Yochanan objected. “Let me tell you to what this is like. It is like a spring whose waters continually come out and gives out much more that the mere volume of its depth. So too with you, you can tell us more than that which was made known to us by Moses at Mount Sinai.

The lesson from this story is that everyone can find the water that they should drink, if they will fell thirsty…

main phrases of the post + transcription + translation

Hebrew	Transcription	Translation
חָרוּץ	hārûts	diligent
מִשְׁפָּחָה	mišpāhāh	family
יוֹחָנָן	yōhānān	yochanan
אֱלִיעֶזֶר	‘ĕlî’ezer	eliezer
נְבִיאִים	nəbî’îm	Prophets (section of books of the Bible)
תְּשׁוּקָה	təšûqāh	desire
צִמָּאוֹן	Tsimā‘ōn	thirst