Tana Devei Eliyahu and Rabbi Elazar

Elijah's classroom

"Tana devei Eliyahu" means "it was taught in the school of Elijah." The Gemara (the Talmud's discussion of the Mishnah) tells a story about that name. The prophet Elijah used to teach a sage named Rav Anan a collection called Seder Eliyahu. After one incident Elijah stopped coming. When he returned he frightened Rav Anan, so Rav Anan sat inside a box to listen. Rashi (the classic commentator on the Gemara, died 1105) says that is why there are two parts, Rabba and Zuta: one learned outside the box, one inside.

The sentence in the book called Seder Eliyahu

The same sentence appears in a book that goes by the name Seder Eliyahu Zuta, in a section that opens with an argument. A man says the written Torah came from Sinai but the Mishnah (the first written collection of the oral law) did not. The speaker answers that both came from God, and tells of a king who gives two servants wheat and flax. One makes bread and cloth. The other hands back raw wheat. The Torah was given as raw material. Later in that section our line appears, introduced by "from here they said."

A sentence that closes a tractate

In the Gemara this is the last teaching of tractate (volume) Niddah. The Tosafot (medieval commentators on the Gemara, in France and Germany) say some copies of Niddah leave it out, but Rashi's commentary has it. They explain why it fits: the Gemara had just been dealing with a ruling of law, and it likes to end on something good. They point to Berakhot 31a, which says to part from a friend over a matter of halacha, as the early prophets ended with praise and comfort.

The last page of Berakhot, copied

From "Rabbi Elazar said" to the end, these lines match the last page of tractate Berakhot, in the same order: Rabbi Elazar's sentence, the verse from Yeshayahu, the "do not read" twist, then verses from Tehillim that end with "Hashem will bless His people with peace." The lines just before them in the Gemara say that someone who leaves the synagogue and goes to learn Torah meets God's presence.

Four tractates end on peace

Rabbi Elazar's sentence about peace is the final teaching of four tractates in the Gemara: Berakhot, Yevamot, Nazir and Keritot. The Jerusalem Talmud, the Gemara of the Land of Israel, also ends its tractate Berakhot with the same sentence. So a student who finishes any of those tractates ends on a sentence about peace.

The verse is about something else

In Chavakuk 3:6 the prophet pictures God standing and measuring the earth. Nations tremble and the ancient mountains break apart. The verse ends halichot olam lo, which can mean "the ways of the world are His" or "His are the ancient ways." The Gemara keeps that and hears a second sentence in almost the same letters: take out the yud from halichot, "ways," and you have halachot, "laws." Halacha, the word for Jewish law, comes from the root for walking.

A morning custom at least 800 years old

The Rambam (Maimonides, who died in 1204) wrote that the people had a custom: each morning, after the priestly blessing, they read the Mishnah of Eilu Devarim, then Tana Devei Eliyahu and Rabbi Elazar's sentence. His version has one more saying in between. In Seder HaYom (a guide to the daily prayers, printed in 1599), Tana Devei Eliyahu is followed by Kaddish DeRabbanan, as in the siddur today. The Kaddish DeRabbanan prayer explains why a Kaddish for learning comes next.

Peace needs many voices

Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) comments on the line where Rabbi Elazar says Torah scholars increase peace. Some people think peace means everyone thinking the same way, so scholars who open up new angles look like troublemakers. He says the opposite. Peace comes when every side and method is seen, and each finds its place. The Gemara reads "your children" as "your builders," he writes, because a building is made of different parts. Now read the verses of peace again.

Prayer goes up. Torah comes down.

Rav Kook says prayer and Torah move in opposite directions. In prayer, you take the holiness that is already in your heart and lift it up toward God. In Torah, you take life from its high source and bring it down, planting it deep in your own nature. Now read the two teachings from the Gemara at the end of this prayer with that in mind.

התפלה היא מלמטה למעלה

Learning today builds a new world

The Rebbe of Radomsk (Rabbi Shlomo Rabinowicz, a Chassidic master in Poland who wrote Tiferet Shlomo) reads "the ways of the world" as the way the world runs each day and the good that flows into it each day. All of that, he says, comes through the Torah being renewed each day. So he reads the promise that a person who learns halachot (Jewish laws) daily is "ben olam haba," part of the World to Come, this way: he builds a new world through that renewal, and it is coming even now.

שהוא בונה עולם חדש ע"י התחדשות התורה

Hide close, not far

The verse says "You are my hiding place." Rabbi Yaakov Leiner of Izhbitza (a Chassidic master in Poland) says this is the opposite of how it works with a human king. If a king is angry at you, you stay far away. With God, he writes, the closer a person comes, the more protected they are. The real protection is standing face to face with God, which is why the verse says "You."

אבל אצל הש"י הוא להיפוך, כל מה שהאדם מקרב את עצמו ביותר אל הש"י יש לו הגנה ביותר

Why trust belongs to people

The line says "fortunate is the person who trusts in You." The Yismach Moshe (Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, a Chassidic rebbe in Hungary) explains that trust means relying on a promise, and God promised reward to people who choose to do His will. Higher beings have no free choice and earn no reward, so they can take shelter in God but cannot trust Him the way a person does. He reads the verse as saying that out of all God's hosts (tzevaot), the fortunate one is the human, because a human trusts.

לא שייך בחינת בטחון רק לבני אדם, שהם בעלי בחירה

Why does a Kaddish come right after this?

Kaddish DeRabbanan, the Kaddish said after study, was set up for aggadah (the Rabbis' stories and teachings). The Mishnah Berurah (a commentary on daily Jewish law, about 1900) follows the Magen Avraham (a 1600s commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law): after learning you may say it only if you also said some aggadah. So the custom is to add a saying of Rabbi Elazar, as here. The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of law, about 1900) describes the Sefard order: this passage, then that Kaddish.

Do I say each verse once, or three times?

This siddur says to say them three times. Yesod VeShoresh HaAvodah (a guide to prayer by Rabbi Alexander Ziskind of Grodno, late 1700s) is more exact: after the incense, say these verses, each verse three times, with great enthusiasm and focus. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) says three verses follow the incense, and gives no count of repetitions. The Pitum HaKetoret prayer covers why they follow the recipe.

Do I say these three verses at night too?

In the Arizal's order, yes. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) writes that the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Kabbalist of Tzfat, 1500s) said no psalm at all before Maariv, the evening prayer. He said only these three verses, then Kaddish, Barchu and Maariv. The Kaf HaChaim cites the Arizal's Sha'ar HaKavanot, the teachings on prayer that his student Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote down.

Do I say anything extra when Elijah's name comes up?

One authority says to. The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, late 1800s), in his book Od Yosef Chai, writes that when you say Tana Devei Eliyahu each day, at the name Eliyahu you should add "Eliyahu zachur latov," "Elijah, remembered for good." He adds that this is his own practice, and quotes Mishlei 10:7: "the memory of the righteous is for a blessing." Elsewhere in the same book he writes the line that way too. Those words are not printed in this siddur.

Is learning Gemara every day enough for this promise?

Some working people learn only Gemara each day and point to this line, writes the Drisha (a commentary on the Tur, a 1300s law code, by Rabbi Yehoshua Falk, around 1600). He disagrees. Rashi explains "halachot" here as settled rulings, so people who learn three or four hours a day should also learn law codes like Alfasi and the Rosh. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles) quotes Rabbeinu Tam (a French Talmud scholar, 1100s): learning the Babylonian Talmud covers it all. The Drisha says that is for someone who learns about nine hours a day.