This episode reveals to us many things. When the child becomes sick, she immediately turns to Elijah; not to request his help for healing, but rather to blame him for the sickness in the first place. Is this an act of total disrespect and lack of appreciation or is there something else going on here? Needless to say, we should never consider this woman who merited having Eliyahu as her guest would ever have stooped so low so as to disrespect him and not appreciate his holy presence. Why then does she blame Eliyahu for her son's illness?

The answer may very well be exactly what it was that she said. Maybe HaShem was punishing her over and above the measure of judgment faced by most other normal people. Here we have a subtle validation of a mystical teaching taught in many Kabbalistic sources. G-d does indeed hold the righteous to a higher caliber of behavior and holds them accountable to a greater sense of accounting. To put it bluntly, those with greater power and ability also bare because of it greater responsibility.

This relationship between power and accountability is no magic relationship. Rather, it is an almost mechanical relationship governed under the parameters of natural universal law. We should understand this with the following example. A young child is known to only have a limited sense of intelligence and cognitive ability. One does not expect from a child the same level of maturity and comprehension that one expects from an adult. Indeed, to place an adult burden upon a child and expect him/her to be able to carry it is unreasonable, if not abusive. Yet, the opposite is also true. We expect an adult to be able to carry an adult's burden. We can consider it irresponsible of the adult not to carry the burden that is proper.

In spiritual matters, things are pretty much the same. Spiritual adolescents are not given adult responsibilities. This is why certain Torah teachings are restricted to older audiences. This has nothing to do with chronological age, but rather with spiritual maturity. For we have many senior citizens, who maybe have studied Torah for decades, who are still spiritual adolescents in that they have never developed their psychic/spiritual powers. Then we have other individuals who at even an early age have developed quite strong psychic/spiritual powers and have shown themselves to be wise far beyond their chronological years. This very truth was recorded in Pirkei Avot (4:20) in the name of Rabi who is reported to have said, "Look not upon the container, but rather at what is in it."

The woman host of Eliyahu, by merely having him in her home and in her presence was raised to a significant level of spiritual responsibility. The mere presence of the prophet enabled her mind and consciousness to ascend in an almost contagious manner, similar as did the soul of Saul when he came into the presence of the children of the prophets. Their spirit jumped from them on to him (1 Shmuel 10:6). It is similar here too. Not that the woman started to prophesy as did Saul, but rather the level of holiness in her home increased exponentially. She was therefore required to be more on guard against anything that could jeopardize that higher level. As we learned with the example of Uzza (ref. 2 Shmuel 7:6-7), holiness requires absolute respect. Even Uzzah's innocent attempt to steady the cart carrying the Ark of the Covenant was not good enough for him to escape from punishment. He had to be more careful and he was not. For his momentary mistake, he paid the ultimate price.

The woman here may very well have been punished for her sins, even though in the eyes of most, her sins would have been insignificant. Still, in the eyes of Heaven, the one who maintains Eliyahu is held to a higher standard than others. We have no idea what she may have done that was judged unacceptable; nonetheless, Heaven did find some fault in her. For this fault she paid a heavy price. And she knew it. Her accusation to Eliyahu was right and correct. What's more Eliyahu himself apparently also recognized this to be true. He did not object to her accusation nor did he seek to defend himself against it. Rather, he did the right thing; he went to fix it.

Now, raising the dead is no easy task. The text clearly states that Eliyahu prayed to G-d for the boy's resurrection, but his prayers alone were not good enough. Eliyahu then does something rather peculiar. He lays down on top of the boy's body three times and prays again. Only then is the boy revived. We all understand the power of prayer; we know that G-d can choose to answer prayers at any moment; what then is the relationship of the boy's revival to Eliyahu laying down on top of his body three times? Why did he have to do this thing? How did it contribute to the boy's revival?

The text clearly states that G-d revived the boy, not Eliyahu. Yet, although full credit is given to G-d, what exactly did Eliyahu do? This lying down on his body three times certainly had significance. Indeed, it was this act of Eliyahu's that was the vehicle through which Heaven acted.

Eliyahu obviously had knowledge of the nature of life and death. He knew that in order for life to be restored certain procedures had to be performed. Similar today, we know that if, G-d forbid, one were to have a heart attack, one's heart can often be restarted with the use of a defibrillator, a machine that sends an electric shock into the heart. The electric shock can often restart the human heart in the same way a battery charge can restart an automobile. Who would have thought that the human life system is somehow electro-magnetic and would respond to something as simple as mere electricity.

Now Eliyahu certainly did not have a defibrillator. Yet, he had something more valuable. He had knowledge of the electro-magnetic energy system that supports human life. Torah states that the life-force is in the blood (Lev 17:11). The life-force energy that maintains human life resides in every part of the human body. In Hebrew it is called Nefesh; most today are familiar with the Chinese term used to describe it, Chi. Eliyahu knew the secrets of Nefesh/Chi. He knew how life-force energy moved throughout the body and how it entered and exited the body.

Eliyahu lied on top of the boy three times to stimulate his Nefesh/Chi flow. He was acting as a human defibrillator. He was essentially jump starting the boy's own life force with a charge from his own. Human Chi transference is not a medical practice presently widely known or practiced; yet it was known to Eliyahu. In the modern orient, where Chi based medicine is practiced; they can do some tremendous things by manipulating the flow of Chi energy.

Some in the religious circles have a superstitious fear with regards to anything considered to be non-religious, such as Chi. In their foolishness and lack of education they believe that Chi work is somehow evil, unclean and the work of the devil. Needless to say such claims are more than childish and wrong, they are ridiculous and delusional and such condemnations contradict Torah. Chi work, whether in acupuncture or Tai Chi or Chi Kung, all work through the human body's natural energy system originally designed and ordained by G-d. Chi work is simply a natural medical practice; it is not spiritual or religious at all. As a defibrillator has shown the human body works on energy. We should therefore not be surprised to see this medical secret known to the ancients, in Israel and elsewhere and here in our story put into practice by Eliyahu.

The specific details of exactly what Eliyahu did when he lay on top of the boy the story does not relate. Yet, through this act, the boy's natural energies began to flow again. Only G-d can grant life, yet, we still have a means to jumpstart the body if and when life has not departed completely. This is the only explanation that allows us to understand both the usage of a defibrillator and the work performed by Eliyahu.

Eliyahu did what he could do to revive the boy, but ultimately it is G-d who does the reviving. The question however remains, would the boy have been revived simply by prayer alone, without Eliyahu's medical intervention. The text seems to imply that he would not. It is thus interesting that the text combines the usage of spiritual supplications with medical intervention, the likes of which Eliyahu knew. This is a lesson for us today, especially to those who insist that G-d alone heals illness without the intervention of medical support. G-d indeed expects humanity to make use of the good and the healing that He has instituted as part of creation. Eliyahu knew this and acted accordingly.

The woman knew Eliyahu's reputation. She must have been a member of the secret society for the protection of prophets. She would also have known that prophets were peculiar people with peculiar powers. What she saw with Eliyahu first miracle might not have been the first miracle that she had witnessed. She might have seen numerous other prophets perform other similar deeds. And she knew that just because a prophet could manipulate physical matter did not necessarily make him a special "man of G-d" which is a title given to only those of the highest prophetic caliber.

Witnessing a resurrection apparently was not an everyday prophetic occurrence. While indeed Eliyahu may have used standard Nefesh/Chi flow exercises to revive the boy's soul, still the ability to perform such a tremendous task was not something every prophet was trained to do. For Eliyahu to have accomplished this task proves that he was no mere prophet, like one of the many other "children of the prophets (benei n'viim).

Eliyahu had proven himself to be a prophet of equal stature to those who were also called a "man of G-d." And the woman said, "The word of HaShem in your mouth is true." Again, do we really question whether or not she knew this previously? Of course, she knew and believed in Eliyahu; however believing is one thing; seeing something that others can do is something different; and seeing something that apparently no else could do, well, that is extraordinary.

To be continued...