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Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation
The story of the prophet Elijah’s transformation from fierce zealot to compassionate hero and cherished figure in Jewish folklore
“In a series on Jewish Lives, this volume is about the Jewish life—the one that goes on forever. Becoming Elijah blends meticulous scholarship with bold literary and poetic imagination. Don’t miss it!”—Arthur Green, author of Judaism for the World
"The author’s erudite prose and masterful command of history and faith traditions bring his subject to vibrant life. This is an edifying and accessible chronicle of a towering religious figure."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
In the Bible Elijah is a zealous prophet, attacking idolatry and injustice, championing God. He performs miracles, restoring life and calling down fire. When his earthly life ends, he vanishes in a whirlwind, carried off to heaven in a fiery chariot. Was this a spectacular death, or did Elijah escape death entirely? The latter view prevailed. Though residing in heaven, Elijah revisits earth—to help, rescue, enlighten, and eventually herald the Messiah. Because of his messianic role, Jews open the door for Elijah during each seder—the meal commemorating liberation from slavery and anticipating final redemption.
How did this zealot turn into a compassionate hero—apparently the most popular figure in Jewish folklore? Becoming Elijah explores this question, tracing how Elijah develops from the Bible to Rabbinic Judaism, Kabbalah, and Jewish ritual (as well as Christianity and Islam). His transformation is pertinent and inspirational for our polarized, fanatical world.
“In a series on Jewish Lives, this volume is about the Jewish life—the one that goes on forever. Becoming Elijah blends meticulous scholarship with bold literary and poetic imagination. Don’t miss it!”—Arthur Green, author of Judaism for the World
"The author’s erudite prose and masterful command of history and faith traditions bring his subject to vibrant life. This is an edifying and accessible chronicle of a towering religious figure."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
In the Bible Elijah is a zealous prophet, attacking idolatry and injustice, championing God. He performs miracles, restoring life and calling down fire. When his earthly life ends, he vanishes in a whirlwind, carried off to heaven in a fiery chariot. Was this a spectacular death, or did Elijah escape death entirely? The latter view prevailed. Though residing in heaven, Elijah revisits earth—to help, rescue, enlighten, and eventually herald the Messiah. Because of his messianic role, Jews open the door for Elijah during each seder—the meal commemorating liberation from slavery and anticipating final redemption.
How did this zealot turn into a compassionate hero—apparently the most popular figure in Jewish folklore? Becoming Elijah explores this question, tracing how Elijah develops from the Bible to Rabbinic Judaism, Kabbalah, and Jewish ritual (as well as Christianity and Islam). His transformation is pertinent and inspirational for our polarized, fanatical world.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published March 15, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 7, 2022
This book is definitely the best one I have read so far in the Jewish Lives series. Most observant Jews recognize Elijah as the spirit that comes to join the Passover Seder. Elijah is many people and takes many forms according to this book that is written like a long Torah lesson in the Kabbalah, or Jewish Mysticism. Elijah lived on Earth, and left Earth in a firey chariot and a whirlwind into the Heavens. He comes back to Earth to discuss theology with rabbis, and to encourage Jewish observance during family events like Seders and circumcisions. There is much discussion about whether he was always an angel, but he ranks with the other archangels but stands out because he appears fairly often and sends correspondence to Earth. His main job is keeping checkup on us and communicating God's ability to have two conflicting opinions. Elijah may also appear in the New Testament as John the Baptist, that's never really been cleared up. Also his firey chariot may be a hallucination brought on by drug consumption or a space ship. But that's the story in a nutshell.
April 26, 2024
Becoming Elijah, Prophet of Transformation
By Daniel C. Matt
Yale University Press
March 15, 2022
248 pages
ISBN 978-0-300-24270-6
$20.70
Daniel C. Matt’s book “Becoming Elijah, Prophet of Transformation” is a testament to his profound expertise in Kabbalah and Jewish thought. It is excellent and intellectually stimulating, as well as a balanced blend of scholarly depth and accessibility. This unique combination makes the book engaging and even fascinating, challenging our thinking and propelling us towards self-improvement. Matt, a leading authority on Kabbalah, has been widely recognized for his monumental contribution to the history of Jewish thought with his nine-volume translation of the mystical book Zohar.
After a comprehensive seven-page introduction, the book delves into the prophet’s career as stated in the Bible, providing a solid foundation for the subsequent chapters. The second chapter is a treasure trove of dozens of fascinating rabbinical tales where Elijah aids various people after he is taken in a fiery chariot to heaven. These stories, with their timeless lessons, are as applicable today as they were centuries ago. For example, “Elijah reveals that divine truth embraces multiple and conflicting possibilities of meaning.”
The third chapter is a fascinating exploration of how the Elijah tales influenced Kabbalah, the Zohar, and the messianic pretender Shabbetai Tsevi, some of whose followers claim Elijah anointed him and taught him mystic ideas. In chapter four, we embark on an exciting journey through the history of the figure Elijah in Christianity, including in the New Testament and the Crusades, as well as his influence on Islam.
The fifth chapter brings us back to the present, relating Elijah’s role in Jewish rituals today. Many were first instituted in the Middle Ages, including the Passover Seder, circumcision, and Shabbat. In it, we read many interpretations of why these practices were instituted, including some that contradict others. Matt ends this section by inspiring us to experience Elijah today and telling us how this is done.
The book is structured in a reader-friendly manner. The five chapters, each offering a unique perspective on Elijah, conclude on page 156. This is followed by a comprehensive note section, providing additional insights and references until page 194. Pages 195 through 209 contain a detailed bibliography, allowing readers to explore the subject. The book concludes with a general index until page 221, followed by an index of sources until page 230, making it effortless for readers to locate specific topics or references of interest.
Reading and reviewing his book reminds me of a lesson I learned decades ago. Ancient sages stressed we can and should learn from everybody. Teachers can and should also learn from students. The same day I began this review, I sent my fifty-sixth book to my publisher. In it, I stressed that we can learn from secular literature, television dramas, and even jokes.
Daniel Matt takes an entirely different approach in his commentary on the Bible than I do. As a scholar involved with the Torah, you can call my approach textualism. I seek to understand what biblical words, sentences, and paragraphs mean, not what message, moral teaching, or mystical idea we can squeeze out of the words. (As a lawyer, I am not a textualist regarding the US Constitution.) Matt stresses the mystical while I focus on what the Bible is actually saying, not what we read into it. While he spent forty-two pages telling us what the Bible states about Elijah and used the rest of his excellent book discussing related subjects, I published a book “Who Really Was the Biblical Elijah?” with over 150 pages, mostly analyzing the biblical text to see what the author wanted us to know. I came to a different conclusion about Elijah than Daniel Matt. But this does not matter.
I enjoyed Matt’s book. It made me think. It did not change my mind, or how I write, yet it enlarged what I knew, and I found the many tales about post-biblical Elijah in Judaism, Christianity, and other cultures fascinating. We must respect and listen to opinions that differ from ours. We learn from these ideas and improve, move faster to becoming all we can be, improve our ability to treat other humans, animals, and the inanimate as we want to be treated, and move the world to a better age.
May 6, 2022
All religions change and develop over time. That can mean new interpretations or reimaginings of a specific aspect of the tradition, or a major break occurring over theological or legal differences. These variations can be seen in two new works: “Becoming Elijah: Prophets of Transformation” by Daniel C. Matt (Yale University Press) and “Karaism: An Introduction to the Oldest Surviving Alterative Judaism” by Daniel J. Lasker (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization/Liverpool University Press). In the former work, Matt discusses how the prophet Elijah changed in the Jewish imagination from the zealous prophet portrayed in the biblical text to the compassionate helper and teacher found in Jewish folklore. In the latter, Lasker offers a history of Karaite Judaism, a branch that began in medieval times due to its refusal to accept the Oral Torah (Talmud and Mishnah), and which developed its own rituals and practices.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...
January 29, 2023
For me the most engaging part of this book was the first 30 percent or so, which focuses on the book of Kings. Matt skillfully shows how the lore of Judaism's pagan rivals makes the book more comprehensible. For example, Elijah claims that the Jewish northern kingdom will be punished for its sins by the absence of rain; Matt adds that this is a "fitting retribution for the king's defection to the cult of Baal, the Canaanite god of rain." Later in the book, Elijah hears God in a sound of stillness- and this too might be a polemic against Baal, the god of lightning, storms and rain. On the other hand, his enemy Queen Jezebel is intimately connected with Baal; her father's name is Ethbaal (or "with Baal") and her name sounds a lot like the Phoenician word Izevul (which means "where is the Prince"?, possibly referring to Baal). The rest of the book focuses on Jewish and non-Jewish legends about Elijah, and didn't grab my attention as much.
January 27, 2024
I actually learned a lot from the historical and traditional point of views of Elijah. It helped me to establish an even stronger ground to the Old Testament and opened my eyes to the Jewish characteristics of Elijah.
Never would I have thought that because his death didn't seem to happen, that it would cause so much speculation to who and what he is. Daniel Matt does an excellent job highlighting certain perspectives and uses a decent amount of references.
Never would I have thought that because his death didn't seem to happen, that it would cause so much speculation to who and what he is. Daniel Matt does an excellent job highlighting certain perspectives and uses a decent amount of references.
October 22, 2024
Beaucoup d'informations et une belle finale
J'ai bien aimé qu'il parle de Eli dans les différentes traditions. La tradition que je préfère est celle du judaïsme sans aucun doute. Je ne sais pas s'il a investigué ce qu'il en était de la tradition sur Éli à Qumran ... Il ne mentionne rien à ce propos. Il y a énormément de lectures que nous pouvons entreprendre sur Éli en consultant sa bibliographie!
J'ai bien aimé qu'il parle de Eli dans les différentes traditions. La tradition que je préfère est celle du judaïsme sans aucun doute. Je ne sais pas s'il a investigué ce qu'il en était de la tradition sur Éli à Qumran ... Il ne mentionne rien à ce propos. Il y a énormément de lectures que nous pouvons entreprendre sur Éli en consultant sa bibliographie!
June 20, 2022
This was a deeply interesting book. I cannot say "thrilling," because the author seems incapable of ratcheting up from interesting to thrilling. He is relentless about grinding out references to Elijah in the various religious texts, and though this is not a long book, the author seems to be thorough. Perhaps this was more than I wanted to know about Elijah?
April 23, 2023
taught me many things, including that a classic Eliyahu Hanavi story is also in the Koran
August 13, 2023
I fun romp through the many personalities of Elijah, and how they changed over time, by a renouned scholar
January 9, 2025
An informative and moving - if occasionally redundant - exploration of the Biblical and folkloric Elijah, human embodiment of the Holy Spirit.
September 15, 2025
A Visit To Elijah
I read this book, "Becoming Elijah:Prophet of Transformation" (2022) in preparation for Passover. As the book points out, most Jews know Elijah primarily through experiences of the seder, in which the door is opened and a cup of wine offered to Elijah, usually near the conclusion of the service. The book discusses in detail that ritual and other rituals in Jewish life in which Elijah partakes. The book includes a telling story about Elijah and the seder told by a Hasidic Rebbe. At a seder, the Rebbe's disciples were disappointed when Elijah failed to appear when the door was opened. When they told the Rebbe, the Rebbe said "Fools! Do you think Elijah the prophet enters through the door? He enters through the heart." (p. 134)
Daniel Matt, the author of "Becoming Elijah" is a renowned scholar of Jewish mysticism, who has translated and annotated a celebrated nine-volume work, "The Zohar: Pritzker Edition". His book, is part of a series called "Jewish Lives" described as a "prizewinning series of interpretive biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity". "Becoming Elijah" received the Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Book Prize for 2022.
Matt explores this legendary Jewish prophet through a variety of voices and sources. The book is both a history of Elijah and a reflection about him, which invites the reader to think further about Elijah's continued significance. The book is short but needs slow reading because of the many references and quotations from Jewish and other sources. It includes detailed footnotes together with a lengthy bibliography.
Matt begins with a study of Elijah in the biblical Book of Kings which shows the prophet as a miracle worker, a zealot, a rebuker of kings and as an uncompromising voice for the existence of the Jewish God and of no other gods. He calls the Israelites from idolatry to repentance and worship of God. Elijah is carried to heaven in a chariot and perhaps never died. In the Jewish commentaries and in the Talmud, Elijah gradually changes character as compassion takes precedence over zealotry. Elijah becomes a teacher and appears to sages and other sincere seekers explaining the texts and the religious life.
Matt then explores Elijah in the Jewish mystical texts which have formed the heart of his scholarly work. He discusses how Elijah appears in Jewish Kabbalism and, in particular, in the Zohar. He develops the concept of "Gillui Eliyahu" or Elijah as a mystical figure, more an angel than a human being, who both was faithful to the tradition and also took it in new directions with a focus on internalized spirituality. The Kabbalistic Elijah is the key to this volume. Subsequent chapters explore Elijah's influence in Christianity and Islam, especially in the mystical traditions of these daughters of Judaism. Matt then explores the role Elijah plays in Jewish ritual, including the Passover, circumcision, and the Havdalah prayer recited at the conclusion of Sabbath.
The book's final chapter "Becoming Elijah" takes the book out of the realm of historical summary and invites the reader to consider Elijah for oneself and to participate in the continuing growth and understanding of Elijah's mission. Matt notes that in the Bible, Elijah tended to see everything "in terms of black and white" where in later developments Elijah "realizes that conflicting views can sometimes be equally true." Elijah works to "reveal the unity within the contradictions of tradition." (p. 150) Matt sees the significance of Elijah in individual seeking and in helping the downtrodden and neglected. He writes:
"Elijah provides a human face for the transcendent, inviting seekers to learn the unknown. Over the ages, what sages and mystics discovered, he authenticated for them and their circles by his very presence, by his stature as vigilant defender of the faith and guarantor of tradition. If what they absorbed through Elijah seemed startlingly new, he validated it as simultaneoulsy ancient, thereby revitalizing Judaism. Especially in Kabbalah, gillui Eliyyahu (an epiphany of Elijah) signals a shift in religious understanding." (p. 154)
It was valuable for me to be reminded of Jewish mysticism and the spritual search through Elijah as developed in Matt's book. I may not have received Elijah, but perhaps I was able to visit him through this book. The book helped me understand the upcoming Passover holiday. It may help readers explore the nature of spiritual search.
Robin Friedman
I read this book, "Becoming Elijah:Prophet of Transformation" (2022) in preparation for Passover. As the book points out, most Jews know Elijah primarily through experiences of the seder, in which the door is opened and a cup of wine offered to Elijah, usually near the conclusion of the service. The book discusses in detail that ritual and other rituals in Jewish life in which Elijah partakes. The book includes a telling story about Elijah and the seder told by a Hasidic Rebbe. At a seder, the Rebbe's disciples were disappointed when Elijah failed to appear when the door was opened. When they told the Rebbe, the Rebbe said "Fools! Do you think Elijah the prophet enters through the door? He enters through the heart." (p. 134)
Daniel Matt, the author of "Becoming Elijah" is a renowned scholar of Jewish mysticism, who has translated and annotated a celebrated nine-volume work, "The Zohar: Pritzker Edition". His book, is part of a series called "Jewish Lives" described as a "prizewinning series of interpretive biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity". "Becoming Elijah" received the Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Book Prize for 2022.
Matt explores this legendary Jewish prophet through a variety of voices and sources. The book is both a history of Elijah and a reflection about him, which invites the reader to think further about Elijah's continued significance. The book is short but needs slow reading because of the many references and quotations from Jewish and other sources. It includes detailed footnotes together with a lengthy bibliography.
Matt begins with a study of Elijah in the biblical Book of Kings which shows the prophet as a miracle worker, a zealot, a rebuker of kings and as an uncompromising voice for the existence of the Jewish God and of no other gods. He calls the Israelites from idolatry to repentance and worship of God. Elijah is carried to heaven in a chariot and perhaps never died. In the Jewish commentaries and in the Talmud, Elijah gradually changes character as compassion takes precedence over zealotry. Elijah becomes a teacher and appears to sages and other sincere seekers explaining the texts and the religious life.
Matt then explores Elijah in the Jewish mystical texts which have formed the heart of his scholarly work. He discusses how Elijah appears in Jewish Kabbalism and, in particular, in the Zohar. He develops the concept of "Gillui Eliyahu" or Elijah as a mystical figure, more an angel than a human being, who both was faithful to the tradition and also took it in new directions with a focus on internalized spirituality. The Kabbalistic Elijah is the key to this volume. Subsequent chapters explore Elijah's influence in Christianity and Islam, especially in the mystical traditions of these daughters of Judaism. Matt then explores the role Elijah plays in Jewish ritual, including the Passover, circumcision, and the Havdalah prayer recited at the conclusion of Sabbath.
The book's final chapter "Becoming Elijah" takes the book out of the realm of historical summary and invites the reader to consider Elijah for oneself and to participate in the continuing growth and understanding of Elijah's mission. Matt notes that in the Bible, Elijah tended to see everything "in terms of black and white" where in later developments Elijah "realizes that conflicting views can sometimes be equally true." Elijah works to "reveal the unity within the contradictions of tradition." (p. 150) Matt sees the significance of Elijah in individual seeking and in helping the downtrodden and neglected. He writes:
"Elijah provides a human face for the transcendent, inviting seekers to learn the unknown. Over the ages, what sages and mystics discovered, he authenticated for them and their circles by his very presence, by his stature as vigilant defender of the faith and guarantor of tradition. If what they absorbed through Elijah seemed startlingly new, he validated it as simultaneoulsy ancient, thereby revitalizing Judaism. Especially in Kabbalah, gillui Eliyyahu (an epiphany of Elijah) signals a shift in religious understanding." (p. 154)
It was valuable for me to be reminded of Jewish mysticism and the spritual search through Elijah as developed in Matt's book. I may not have received Elijah, but perhaps I was able to visit him through this book. The book helped me understand the upcoming Passover holiday. It may help readers explore the nature of spiritual search.
Robin Friedman
March 6, 2022
Engaging and informative
I thoroughly enjoyed this book even though I am not the main target audience. It is informative and well researched and for the most part easy to see the book unfold. I did struggle with the chapter on Elijah and the mystics because though on interested in the spiritual, I am a Christian and I don't have any experience with Kabbalah. That chapter I had to read slowly.
Overall, I would recommend it toy fellow pastors and those that want to learn more about Elijah.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book even though I am not the main target audience. It is informative and well researched and for the most part easy to see the book unfold. I did struggle with the chapter on Elijah and the mystics because though on interested in the spiritual, I am a Christian and I don't have any experience with Kabbalah. That chapter I had to read slowly.
Overall, I would recommend it toy fellow pastors and those that want to learn more about Elijah.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews