Haftaras Tazria: Charging Money for Miracles

How would you react if a Jewish holy man did a miracle for you? How might your opinion change if he charged you money? This week's haftarah shows Elisha's view. As a navi, he's certainly qualified.

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Artwork: Elisha Refusing Payment from Naaman, by DALL-E 3 (OpenAI), based on my prompt co-written with ChatGPT4: “A historical biblical scene where Naaman, a distinguished military commander in ancient Middle-Eastern armor, is offering a bag of coins to Elisha, but Elisha is clearly refusing. Elisha, an elderly man with a long white beard and wearing modest prophet's robes, is emphatically gesturing with both hands to decline the offer. They are outdoors, under olive trees, in a serene yet tense atmosphere. This vivid moment captures Elisha's firm refusal and underscores the ethical stance he maintains, rejecting the payment.”

Haftaras Tazria: Charging Money for Miracles

Parashas Tazria details the laws of tzaraas: a supernatural skin condition which carries complex halachic ramifications. The haftarah features the story of Naaman and Elisha ha’Navi: “Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was an eminent man before his master and well honored, for through him Hashem had granted victory to Aram. The man was a great warrior – a metzora (i.e. afflicted with tzaraas)” (II Melachiim 5:1)

Naaman is advised by his wife’s maidservant to seek a miracle from the Israelite prophet. Elisha sees this as an opportunity for kiddush ha’Shem (sanctification of God’s name), saying: “Let him come to me now and he will realize that there is a prophet in Israel!” (ibid. 5:9). After a few setbacks, Naaman eventually follows Elisha’s advice to immerse himself seven times in the Jordan River. When he does, he is miraculously healed from his tzaraas.

Reacting exactly as Elisha predicted, Naaman exclaims: “Behold, now I know that there is no God in the whole world except in Israel!” (ibid. 5:15). Immediately, he is moved to repay Elisha for healing him: “And now, please accept a tribute from your servant” (ibid.). Elisha rejects the tribute, saying: “As Hashem before Whom I stood lives, [I swear that] I will not accept” (ibid.). Naaman doesn’t take offense at Elisha’s refusal to accept his gift. To the contrary: he is impressed! He makes a promise “never again to offer a burnt-offering or any sacrifice to other gods, but only to Hashem” (ibid. 5:17). Naaman and Elisha then go their separate ways.

Unfortunately, Gehazi, Elisha's attendant, sees an opportunity to turn a profit (ha!) after realizing that his master rejected Naaman's tribute. Gehazi catches up to Naaman and instructs him, in Elisha’s name, to give him a talent of silver and two changes of clothing. Naaman happily obliges and gives him twice the amount he requested.

When Elisha learns of Gehazi’s deception, he curses him and his descendants, saying: “Naaman’s tzaraas shall therefore cleave to you and to your children forever!” (ibid. 5:27). Sure enough, “When [Gechazi] left his presence, he was [white] as snow with tzaraas” (ibid.).

Ralbag (Toeles #28) explains the basis for Elisha’s refusal to accept Naaman’s tribute. He writes:

It is not proper for a navi (prophet) to accept payment for any of the miracles he performs, for this will cause [others] to believe that he is the cause of the miracle. This will undermine the benefit of the miracle’s performance, which is to recognize Hashem’s loftiness and His might, which will lead one to believe in Him. For this reason, you find that Elisha refused to accept a tribute from Naaman after healing him from his tzaraas. This is also why he cursed Gehazi when he accepted money from him for this. Behold, you see that because Naaman saw Elisha refuse to accept anything from him for this [miracle] – thereby demonstrating that there was no cause of this [miracle] other than Hashem – Naaman took it upon himself not to worship anyone other than Hashem.

Yosef ha’Tzadik faced a similar risk of being misunderstood when he interpreted Paroh’s dreams. When Paroh asked him for an interpretation, Yosef said: “Not I. God will answer to the welfare of Paroh” (Bereishis 41:16).

Both Elisha and Yosef understood the human inclination to attribute supernatural abilities to others – a tendency that feeds into our own fantasies of possessing godlike power. They both took steps to eliminate any factors that might lead the recipients of God’s beneficence to mistakenly credit the human agents of these Divine miracles. By refusing payment, Elisha and Yosef emphasized that true power resides solely with Hashem. Accepting money for miracles not only shows disregard for kiddush ha’Shem but also indicates that one is not a fitting conduit for God’s miracles. In Elisha’s eyes, such behavior merits divine retribution.

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I made the decision to not spell out the obvious implications of this idea in terms which are too explicit, but I welcome your thoughts on those implications nonetheless.

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