I believe this story tells us more about the lack of Ahav's manhood than it does about Eliyahu's abundant courage. The text makes it sound like Ahav is "tattle-tailing" on Eliyahu, blaming everything on him, while leaving himself, Ahav, blameless. Jezebel must have been one very persuasive and abusive woman for Ahav to have feared her so. In truth, Ahav himself could have had Eliyahu seized and executed after the killing of Jezebel's prophets, but he did no such thing. Maybe public opinion at that moment favored Eliyahu; still the King must have had enough loyal soldiers in his guard who would have carried out an execution order if so directed. Yet, we know, no such order was ever given. Essentially, Ahav acquiesced to Eliyahu's actions. In doing so, he must have known there would be "hell to pay" back at the palace when he had to tell his dear "wifey" that her idolatrous religious reforms had suffered a serious setback.

"Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Eliyahu, saying: 'So let the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life like one of them by tomorrow about this time." 1 Melakhim 19:2

As expected, Jezebel is furious at the loss of her priests and prophets. Not to be bested by anyone in a match, Jezebel swears to even the score. At least the Queen still has those loyal to her willing to carry out an assassination. She sends out her message forthwith that Eliyahu's victory will be as short lived as he himself.

Now, here is an interesting point. The text clearly states that Jezebel gives this order. Nowhere does it state that Ahav agreed to this, and nowhere does it state that he even knew about this. The text makes it evident that Jezebel is acting on her own accord. A queen, like a king is not one to be messed with. There are consequences for crossing the rich and powerful. Yet, Jezebel's response carries with it no surprise whatsoever. What should surprise us is something the text clearly states but whose significance most seem not to notice.

The text states that Jezebel sent to Eliyahu a messenger with her warning of doom. Now, being that we have ascertained that she acted alone, without advice or input from her "Jewish" husband, how did the idolatrous Jezebel know where to send her messenger. As we see from the most recent verses, Eliyahu is a man on the move. He is a man well adept in keeping his identity and whereabouts a secret. For three years Ahav could not find him and now all of a sudden Eliyahu's worst antagonist, the evil witch queen, manages to send a messenger directly to him.

What does this imply? Were the clandestine intelligence operations working under Jezebel so efficient that they could succeed in finding a man that the King and all the official forces in government could not, or did the fault here belong to Eliyahu, in that maybe he did not take enough appropriate precautions to protect the location of his whereabouts.

"And when he saw that, he arose, and fled for his life, and came to Beersheva, which is in Judah, and left his servant there." 1 Melakhim 19:3

Eliyahu got Jezebel's message loud and clear, yet why would G-d's mighty prophet, the master of miracles be afraid of the wicked witch queen of the northern kingdom? The text maybe in its peculiar choice of words reveals to us something of the reality of the situation. The text does not state that Eliyahu heard the message and was scared; rather the text states that Eliyahu "saw."

What did he see? Did he see that his cover was blown? Did he see that there was a security breach in his organization, and that the ones sworn to keep his location a secret have somehow failed him, or did he see a radical and violent queen who was pushed to the point of irrationality that somehow unknown to us she would be in a position to act on her threat? History did not record for us the details of this situation, but we can rest assured that there is more to this story than what we are told.

Eliyahu thus flees Israel and goes to the safe haven of the southern kingdom of Judah. He goes south, far south, almost to Judah's southern border, Beersheva. Here he decides that he still needs to proceed further, but the rest of this trip is one he will have to make alone. The text tells us that Eliyahu left his servant there in Beersheva. The identity of this man is unknown to us, but we can rest assured that his service to Eliyahu must have included also being his personal bodyguard.

We learn from this episode a profound lesson that even a prophet who can bring down both rain and fire from Heaven still needs to be practical with regards to his personal security. As mighty as Eliyahu was and is, he was still a practical man and took every necessary practical step to safeguard himself. He did not act carelessly or haphazardly expecting G-d and Heaven to protect him all the while that he acted the fool not protecting himself. This would be the heights of misguided faith. Eliyahu was a man of true faith, a real man of G-d; therefore he relied upon Heaven to do its share and knew that Heaven relied on him to do his share. Eliyahu did not let Heaven down; he did his share and took every rational and practical step necessary to protect himself. This is what Heaven demands, and this is what Heaven expects, be it from Eliyahu HaNavi or be it from us.

Let this serve as a lesson to all those who refuse to serve in the military proclaiming that their spiritual warfare also prepares them for the physical battle. This too is misguided faith and the heights of spiritual arrogance, the type which gets innocent and na�ve people killed all the time.

"But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a tree; and he requested for himself that he might die; and said: 'It is enough; now, HaShem, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers." 1 Melakhim 19:4

Eliyahu has had it. He has done his job. He sanctified G-d's Name in public and the reward of his efforts was that he now must run for his life. Unlike Moshe Rabbeynu who walked out of Egypt with his head held high, and then proceeded to walk and not run through the parted Red Sea, Eliyahu has to flee the country. We do not know exactly why he felt so exasperated. But he is brought to the point of despair. He set out into the wilderness to be alone so that he could pray for death. While, doing this, he says something peculiar. He says that he is no better than his fathers. Yet, as we know, Eliyahu's true identity and lineage is not revealed to us. We do not know who his forefathers were, nor do we know how good or bad they were. For Eliyahu to say that he is no better than his fathers is subject to open interpretation. Were his fathers righteous men and that Eliyahu was to be included in their number? Or could the opposite possibly be true, that Eliyahu's fathers were not righteous, if this were true, then how could Eliyahu ever count himself amongst such a number?

"And he looked, and, behold, there was at his head a cake baked on the hot stones, and a bottle of water. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again." 1 Melakhim 19:6

Cakes baked on hot stones in the desert? Does this imply that the angel brought with him a stove? I don't think so. Rather, the implication is that there is hot food ready right out of the oven, but such food could not have ben prepared there in the desert, so from did the angel produce it? We may never know, but apparently from wherever the angel popped in from is the same place from where he brought along the food. Eliyahu eats and drinks and does what? He goes back to sleep? How tired was he? Maybe his sleep was for another purpose other than physical rest?

"And the angel of HaShem came again the second time, and touched him, and said: 'Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for you." 1 Melakhim 19:7

After Eliyahu rests for a period, the angel appears for a second time. This implies that in the interim he went away. Where angels go when they go away and from where do they come from once they have appeared is a question we may not be able to fathom here. The text leads us to believe that the angel here is in physical form that his touching Eliyahu is actual and not just a mere prophetic vision. For if the angel was just a vision, then most likely so too would be the food he provided. Visionary food might be filling to the soul, but it leaves the tummy awfully empty.

The angel informs Eliyahu that he will need his strength for the journey ahead. The question is, who is deciding the destination? We know that Eliyahu intentionally went out into the desert, apparently the Negev, by himself with the implied intention to let himself pass away. If he was planning a return, he most likely would have prepared better with a greater cache of food and water. Now, the angel tells Eliyahu that he has a long journey ahead of him.

"And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meal forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of G-d." 1 Melakhim 19:8

Forty days travel on the strength of one meal? Wow! What was in that food? Wouldn't we love to know! Actually being that the angel brought the food, it is very possible that the chemical nature of the food was not something normal or indigenous to our Earth. We remember the manna in the wilderness in the days of Moshe Rabbeynu. It too had miraculous properties although it was eaten twice a day. It appears that the food served to Eliyahu was stacked, not only with vitamins and minerals of the physical plane, but also injected with a powerful dosage of life-force (nefesh) energy. In other words, this physical food had a very active "spiritual" component that not only strengthen Eliyahu's physical body, but also provided for his physical body sufficient energy and nutritional support to last for a period of close to six weeks (40 days). This special ingredient in the food was not some physical supplement, at least not anything of what we know. Rather, it was in infusion of direct life-force (nefesh/chi) energy. This energy was specifically designed to have physical effect, even though it itself was not physical. Passing on such energy through food items, is a well known and often practiced ritual observed by properly trained Kabbalistic Sages even to this day.

Now Eliyahu HaNavi takes a walk. He travels on foot through the Negev and into Sinai for a period of close to six weeks. Now, as we have seen above with regards to Ahav's chariot, Eliyahu must have been a robust man of much physical resolve and stamina. Fully charged now as he is with life-force (nefesh/chi) food, he is fit and primed to move at a decent pace. If Eliyahu traveled by today's power-walk standards, he might have traveled as fast as 4 miles per hour. Let us say for argument's sake that he traveled for 12 hours per day. This feat would be impossible for almost anyone today, but we are dealing here with Eliyahu HaNavi, no mere ordinary man. At such a miraculous pace, Eliyahu could have covered approximately 48 miles per day. In that forty day period there would have been seven Shabats on which we will assume that he did not travel. This would have left him 33 travels days to cover 48 miles each. If we do the math, this means that Eliyahu could have covered a total of 1584 miles, not including the distance he traveled on his first day after leaving Beersheva. At this miraculous pace, Eliyahu could have ended up anywhere in the modern Middle East.

If he was only going to somewhere in the Sinai, then the length of his travel must indicate that his pace was much slower than miraculous. Even if he only covered a total distance of 200 miles which could have easily put him anywhere into the Sinai, and even into Egypt, this means that his daily rate of travel would have been about 6 miles per day. This is a slow rate indeed, one that is often bested by modern day infantry soldiers, even in the rugged tough terrain of the desert.

One is now left with the question why did this journey take so long. Why didn't the angel speed up Eliyahu's path? Why didn't G-d just pick Eliyahu up "in the spirit" and transport him there directly, it is not as if G-d doesn't do this with Eliyahu on a regular basis, as we have seen from the text previously. Indeed, Eliyahu could have also used the kefitzat haderekh (shortening the way) method and folded space and appeared at Sinai instantly. Again, although the text does not mention it, there is much more to this story that is revealed here. He moved at a strangely slow pace and this makes us ask a question.

Although the text says that it took forty days to arrive at Sinai, was this time enumeration actual or metaphorical? We are all familiar with the phrase, forty days and forty nights. The Great Flood lasted for this period and this was also the period Moshe spent in Heaven on top of Sinai. Maybe the mention here of forty days and forty nights comes to imply a connection with the special covenant as had both Noah and Moshe. Indeed, we see this exact relation being formed later in the text with Eliyahu's experience at Sinai. Torah and Prophets often use metaphorical terms that are all too often mistakenly understood as literal. Maybe this is one of those times.

To be continued...