The Art of Revelation and Concealment in a Talmudic Story

Abstract

This article deals with the art of revelation and concealment in the story of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, Elijah, and the Messiah, which appears in the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 98a). The question of the timing of the arrival of the Messiah is one of those hidden secrets which various individuals have tried to answer throughout the generations, by means of exegesis and divine revelation. The story at the heart of this article weaves together a series of exegeses by sages from the Land of Israel dealing with redemption and messianism, while transforming those sages who offer exegeses into characters in the story and poking fun at the figure of Rabbi Yehuda ben Levi, who is associated with a preoccupation with these issues. The comical reading of the story I suggest in this article occasions a conversation about the role of humor as a means of dealing with the weighty, fraught issue of anticipating redemption and living in an unredeemed world.